So there we were, enjoying a Facetime session with our grandsons, when Ollie’s face fiffled away so he could point the camera at a spider that was scrambling to safety on top of a bucket. “No!! NO!! Leave him alone!!” Ollie shouted at his brother Gabe. Not sure how one can tell the gender of a spider, but anyway that led me to go to the YouTube and find a video of The Who singing their famous arachnid song, “Boris The Spider;” and I found a cute video so I shared the link to our daughter’s phone so she could maybe show it to the grandsons later which of course gave me the ability to make a long overdue run-on sentence that I often like to stick into a story somewhere for really no good reason.
Yes.
Since we are all on lock down due to this terrible virus, we have not seen our grandsons in person for at least 2, maybe 3 moons now. That’s a long time for gentle people like us!! Fridays were often the day they’d come to visit, and they’d stay till Sunday evening. They know that I write “Happy Friday!!!” every week; and when they’re here I ask them what they’d like me to write for them. Since Gabe was off and about doing Gabe things, after coming inside from showing us the spider I asked Ollie what tonight’s story should be about.
“Let’s see,” he pondered, “we’ve already covered the cows that migrated to the moon.”
“Yes,” I said, “we did that one a while ago.”
“I dunno…” Ollie’s well seemed a bit dry. The Facetime call was the 2nd for today, and it was getting time to say bye-bye; so I just threw out a suggestion.
“How about Boris The Spider?” I asked.
“Yeah, that sounds good. Boris The Spider,” Ollie replied with a smile.
Of course, I don’t think I can really improve on The Who’s rendition of the song. I mean hey, spiders are very important creatures, this I know. But still, when I find Boris or any other spider on me (and it’s always by surprise), my first reaction is to do a very animated running dance. And the bigger the spider is, the more I freak out. I’m what you might call a spider wimp I think. I’m sure the spider is way more frightened of me than I am of her (or him), but I’m sorry, when a creepy crawly spider is walking around on me, it’s just time for the shake shake holy moly dance!
Over the years, my respect for spiders has grown considerably. I normally try to catch them if they are in the house. Any that are larger than a pencil eraser are caught with the old drinking glass and piece of paper trick. I shoo them into the glass and put a piece of paper over the top to trap them until they can be released outside. Smaller ones… believe it or not… I can actually pick up the smaller ones. Sometimes. If I have the nerve. Which is sometimes. OK they still freak me out even if they’re tiny; but yes, I can actually cradle one in my hand if they’re small enough. However, I still have a bit of killer instinct at times, and yes, if a spider comes out of nowhere there must might be some smooshing (please, don’t tell Mother Nature).
Boris The Spider has always been one of my favorite songs by The Who. I went looking around for a creative video that fit the song, and I found this one. Same one I sent to our daughter’s phone. Hope you like it. But remember, spiders are people too. Be nice to them.
OK so they’re not people. They’re spiders!! Just be nice. We need them!!