Tom

living out life
2008-07-04 13:37:40 (UTC)

My Spider Story

After reading my daughter's spider story that I mentioned
in my last post, I thought I would tell my own:

When I was about 10, in a decision that defies logic now
that I am a parent myself, my parents bought me and my
older brothers motorcycles. We used to ride them on our
dirt road and through the nearby woods (that we
called “The Flats”).

One day, I was following my brothers through the flats on
my little Honda 50, when they got a little ahead of me and
I lost sight of them. I turned off on a trail that I
thought was the right one, but, of course, it wasn’t. In
fact, it was on a trail that we hardly ever rode on.

Not too long after I turned, I ran through a giant spider
web that was stretched across the trail. Then there was
another, and another until I finally passed through a web
and a big garden spider landed squarely on my face shield
(thank God I had a helmet on). Panic stricken, I fell
over and when I tried to stand up I found myself tangled
in what seemed like hundreds of spider webs. It seemed
like a bad horror movie.

I remember screaming like a girl as I frantically tried to
get the spider off my face shield and the webs off my arms
and body. Somehow, one of my brothers heard what was going
on and managed to get me out and calm me down. To me, it
was a pretty traumatic event and I have never liked
spiders since.

So, there you have it. The secret is out. I am afraid of
spiders. Still, when duty calls and I must be the man of
the house, the ever present spider-killer, I will put on
the face of courage and squash one if I have to. Although,
I have to admit that even while I am doing it I am
dreading what might happen if I miss and it jumps on me.




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