Thursday at work,  I noticed in my peripheral vision ‘something’ on the wall in front of my desk.  I glanced up from being very busy and important to see a little spider.  Okay. Little is good.  Wall is good.  Carry on.

He was industrious because not long after that my peripheral radar alerted me of an intruder on my desk.  I laid eyes on him and decided it was time he went outside.

You may be thinking now that I am ‘bug brave’.  I am not.  I don’t do bugs.  But I can’t just kill one either.  So I do bugs when I have to.  Even scorpions in the Summer get caught or vacuumed up in the bagless machine and placed outside.

Yes, my blood pressure rises to an unhealthy level, yes I have nightmares, yes I’m unreasonably itchy for hours afterward in some psychosomatic state – whilst my eyes dart around the room incase it was just one of one hundred,  but I really do try not to kill them

Back to spider.

So I’ve decided he’s going out.  (For all intents and purposes, it’s a ‘he’ apparently).

I get a slice of paper and put it in his path.  Surely he’ll waltz right onto it and I’ll simply carry him out to the leafy bush outside.

He didn’t know how to waltz.  But he had leaping down!

This is the part where I’m squealing like a little girl.  Audibly. 

A lot louder in my head – trust me, but my vocalizations finally get the attention of the loan officer at the desk across the room.

I explain that no conventional method of capture is going to work for this guy.  “Help me!  It jumps!” might have been the actual verbiage I used.

He meandered over.  “Where is it?” 

Good question – I’d taken my eyes off of it.  Peripheral Powers Activate! 

I focused in and there – on my desk – was the spider taking the last few steps to hide under the shadow of my shut-up Buddha.  You remember him?

So he’s at the base of Buddha’s rock.  Probably meditating on how much higher he could leap at me should I go through with my attempts of relocation. (The shut-up Buddha isn’t working by the way, I bite my tongue and look at him, but unedited words still fall out of my mouth all day long).

“Get an envelope” the loan officer says.  Oooo!  Good idea.  Yeah – we can encase him safely for the trip!

Goes off without a hitch.

I scoop up the envelope.

“Don’t squish it”, he says – as I close the flap gently, just in case.  No! I didn’t Close it close it – just put it down so there was no escape route.

Outside I go with him.

There.  He’s happy.  He’s free.  I’m happy (a little itchy and looking around the room, but happy).

Back to work we go.

Fast forward to Friday.

Alone in the office – peripheral alarm starts to bleat out a warning.

What the heck?!?!

On my wall – a jumping spider. 

I’m fairly certain the other guy didn’t find his way back in – so as I was telling my friend Betty, we’re left with the only reasonable, non-alarmist, sane answer – Jumping Spider Infestation!!!

(Okay, probably there might be a little family.  But I’m sticking with infestation). 

I emailed the loan officer something that could have passed for a telegram SOS. 

“Help!  Spider!  Infestation!  Should close office!” 

He responded sometime later that yes, sounded like immediate closure was called for. 

Followed by a damn winky emoticon.  Pfft.  Those ‘winky’ things mean someone is kidding right?  I was left with the real danger.

I made it unscathed through the day.  And this morning – my Betty puts this horror on my Facebook page.

Spider Showers

It’s over four minutes long, you won’t need to watch for that long to be itchy and darty eyed the rest of the day.

Happy Spider! Saturday!