What do you do to keep cool on a hot summer day? Every year about this time when there is a hot, humid day like today, I head to the front porch armed with a hose and scrub brushes to erase the unsolicitited contributions the flies and spiders generously deposit to my account over summer. The porch does not get as dirty as it once did when it was the parking garage for an assortment of bikes, scooters, and the like. Now it is home to inanimate objects such as antique jugs, flower pots, and yes, even a rocking chair.
The fly and spider dirt wasn't even as bad this year, perhaps due to the dry weather. But the porch was needing a good scrub, and I decided this is the day. By the time I finished I was so wet I had to wring the water from my skirt before coming into the house, but I'm cool as a cucumber, and the porch is now wearing a happy smile after it's "dental" cleaning.
In the scrubbing process I brushed down a huge white spider from above the bow window. I realized she must have been the culprit that spun a web across the porch a couple weeks ago when we had guests for supper. There was no spider web on the porch when they arrived, but the first person to walk across the porch when they were leaving got hung up in a huge spider web. Since it was dark, I couldn't see the spider. And since it was white, it blended into the woodwork so that I never saw it in the daylight.
Some women scream at spiders, but I don't mind them at all. I marveled at the size of this one and swatted her flat. And then I began to have second thoughts. . . Was this huge spider's name by any chance Charlotte? Had Wilbur sent her to work her magic on my porch? When my friend walked into her web, what message was destroyed? Did it say, "Some Housekeeper" or "Safe Haven for Spiders?" I guess we'll never know, will we?
No comments:
Post a Comment