Strange tale of the spider

It was a glorious day here today, sunny & warm, and as I was coming home this afternoon—riding on the passenger side—I noticed an itty-bitty spider on the window. It was running around on the window frame and up and down the window like crazy. And when it would stay put, it waived its legs about like crazy.

I couldn't figure out exactly what it was trying to do, as it didn't seem to be having trouble moving around, nor sticking to the window. I touched the window glass and, no, it wasn't very hot. I watched it for quite a while, wondering if I should've let it out while we were still in the parking lot (didn't seem like a suitable place to let out an itty-bitty spider). I finally decided I would just have to wait until after we get home to let it out in the garden, seeing how we were going 60 mph down the freeway at the moment.

I took my eyes off it for just a few seconds, and when I looked back, it had balled itself up—hanging by a strand of silk attached to the widow—and was lifeless. Dead.

It dangled there, waving back and forth along with the movement of the car. Thoughts went through my head: "oh my god, that was like, a life & death struggle that I was watching," "I definitely should've let it out in the parking lot," "I just witnessed a living thing pass into a non-living thing..."

It was a bit of a downer. I like spiders, and the baby ones are so cute. Finally, we got home. I thought, well, I guess I might as well clean it off the window.

I took an used kleenex and tried to wipe it off the window. It had hung itself really close to the window frame and I couldn't get it very easily. So I tried it again. This time, I barely was able to scrape it off the window, and as I held the kleenex in my hand, the spider suddenly unballed itself and started running around like crazy on the kleenex!

It was just like in the movies, I could almost hear the crowds roar, "yay, yay! Itty-bitty spider! Go! Go!"

So the story had a happy ending. I let it out on one of the plants. Of course, it might be bird food by now, but at least it had a chance and didn't die inside a car while some idiot watched.

OK, onto work. Made a big push to update the Portland Open Studios website for 2009, and we're almost there. But yesterday and today were both pretty low key work wise. I gessoed some boards, and worked on a proposal for a show in Salem. Got some much needed yard work done, saw La Cenerentola (the Met simulcast) and the new Star Trek on the same day. And now it's time for bed.