It's a brown recluse spider, or a fiddleback. And one just like it was in my classroom this morning. I became very familiar with this little brand of arachnid when I lived in Texas before, because we had an infestation of them in our house and had to have the exterminator come give us a hand dealing with them.
Anyhoo, I took the paint-roller pole that I had been using to paint the back wall of the classroom, and I smooshed him. This was a Very Brave Thing for me to do, and not something I do unless I have no other options. There was no way I was stepping on him because I had on sandals, but I probably wouldn't have been able to even if I were wearing knee-high combat boots because I just don't like getting that close to a spider. It was a him, thankfully; the female ones always seem to be more aggressive and fast-moving (in my experience). Nonetheless, spiders and I cannot coexist. Particularly the kind whose bite will rot my flesh.
One thing I can say about my classroom back in Des Moines -- there were no bugs. I don't think I saw one single insect in the entire two years I was there. Doesn't mean there weren't any, but I sure didn't run across them. Here, my room is full of crickets (alive and dead), and the one ginormous dead cockroach I showed you the other day, and now a fiddleback. Whee! Welcome to Texas, y'all.
Added to the Wal-Mart shopping list: Raid. The kind that you get for wasps that shoots a stream, 'cuz I don't like to get close enough to spiders to risk having them scurry toward me and, like, run up my leg or something. No way, man. GAH! [shudder] The very thought of that puts me in danger of losing bladder control.
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