Snack time

Afraid of spiders? I am. Utterly horrified by them, on a molecular level that trumps all reason and sanity. Which is why, although I would enlist if I could, I'd beg not to be sent to the Middle East.

Camel Spider Eating A Lizard

This is a short video taken by some GIs in Iraq late at night outside their tent or barracks or whatever. Please remember that GIs use rough language from time to time; ignore that and watch this camel spider methodically consuming its late-night snack by flashlight.

Oh, and if you're arachnophobic, make sure you've been to the bathroom before you click on it. Thankfully I can tell you there are no jump-out-and-scream moments; it's just a camel spider (which actually isn't a real spider but looks enough like one to qualify as scary for me) calmly munching down.

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I wish that spiders didn't scare me so much. I have tried to learn as much about them as possible to help me alleviate some of the illogical fear. But try as I might, I still find my guts turning to water when faced with one, especially those fast-moving funnel-web kind that make their home on our mailbox every year despite my best attempts at discouraging them from this practice.

I'm not afraid of snakes. I respect them, yes, and I know the difference between a poisonous one and a non-poisonous one. I know that when I see a water moccasin, I'm going to run like &$@# because I've seen those freaky things actually CHASE somebody. But I'm not afraid of snakes as a general rule. I actually like handling them.

I'm not only not afraid of bats, I love them. If I could get away with having a bat house in the backyard, I would. They're terrific little creatures who eat bugs on a grand scale. If I find one in the house (which happens frequently because our house is old and drafty), I carefully catch it in a pole net and release it outdoors. I'm not dumb enough to handle one without gloves, of course. But I'm not afraid of them.

I hate squirrels... despise them... loathe them... they don't like me, either, because they're doing their darnedest to destroy our house. I hate mice, too. But I'm not afraid of them.

The only thing that scares me BAD is spiders. Confronted with one, I will injure myself trying to get away from it. The last serious close-encounter I had with one was once when I was stepping into the shower. Of course I was, um, unclothed... an awkward situation... and there was a rather enormous one on the shower curtain that I didn't see until I had drawn the curtain closed around me. We have one of those clawfoot tubs that's been converted to a shower, so it's got a surround-curtain. I shrieked for Rick and nearly broke my neck falling out of the tub. He came running and then calmly dealth with the intruder.

If I could possibly have employed my rational senses, I wouldn't have reacted that way. But I was powerless to do so.

Thankfully I'm not phobic about anything like chocolate or shopping malls, thank goodness, so I'm not spending too much energy or time trying to overcome it.