Random Thoughts: October 2008

So yeah I don't care, I'm afraid of spiders, I hate them, hate them all. I don't know when it started or how I became so afraid of these things, but I am. Maybe its the fear brought on by movies or the damage they do.

I am pretty sure I have recieved a bite or two in my life, but I alway say they are from a small spider and they can do no harm. I remember in school when I was you talking about Black Widows spiders with my friends, and hearing how they can kill a person in 13 hours if the person is not treated, then going home and opening the door in the hallway where all of our medicine was and seeing a box labeled "poisen kit". I dreaded the day that I would ever have to use that or see if being used. I look back now and see that the poisen kit was probably if I was stupid and decided to drink Bleach or use Raid as Binaca or something, not from a Black Widow spider. Black widow shown below.

So years and years have gone and I have gone on with my terrified ways, making sure that I get the biggest obeject to kill the smallest spider on the wall, and oh man god forbid they fall on our dark brown carpet, then its to the vaccuum to hunt this eight legged little bastard. A coupe of years ago I was informed of a bigger threat to me that made the Black Widow spider look tame, the Brown Recluse spider, shown below

Here is an excerpt taken from http://www.wikipedia.org/ about the bite of the Brown Recluse

"Most bites are minor with no necrosis. However, a small number of bites produce severe dermonecrotic lesions[2], and, sometimes, severe systemic symptoms. These symptoms can include organ damage, and occasionally even death; most fatalities are in children under 7 [7] or those with a weaker than normal immune system. (For a comparison of the toxicity of several kinds of spider bites, see the list of spiders having medically significant venom.)
A minority of brown recluse spider bites form a necrotizing ulcer that destroys soft tissue and may take months to heal, leaving deep scars. The damaged tissue will become gangrenous and eventually slough away. The initial bite frequently cannot be felt and there may be no pain, but over time the wound may grow to as large as 10 inches (25 cm) in extreme cases. Bites usually become painful and itchy within 2 to 8 hours; pain and other local effects worsen 12 to 36 hours after the bite with the necrosis developing over the next few days.[8]
Serious systemic effects may occur before this time, as the venom spreads throughout the body in minutes. Mild symptoms include nausea, vomiting, fever, rashes, and muscle and joint pain. Rarely more severe symptoms occur including hemolysis, thrombocytopenia, and disseminated intravascular coagulation.[9] Debilitated patients, the elderly, and children may be more susceptible to systemic loxoscelism. Deaths have been reported for both the brown recluse and the related South American species L. laeta[10] and L. intermedia.[citation needed] Other recluse species such as the desert recluse (found in the desert southwestern United States) are reported to have caused necrotic bite wounds, though only rarely[11]."

So there is it, another reason I am freaked out about spiders, click on the big words to see what the hell they mean. I know there are tons of worse spiders out there, like the ones who eat whole birds, but for right now I'm "talking" so let's stop at the Brown Recluse.

I am sure your wondering why I decided to go on this rant about spiders, but I promise there is a point. Since the season is changing and its getting colder, animals of all sorts look to seek warmth. This time of year you will find alot of crickets, grasshoppers and even yes even spiders seeking warmth in your house, most spider stay next to light bulb because they give off heat or in the corners where the heat rises and stays. I have a light outside my door and I turn it on everynight, well one morning I came outside on my way to work to find a huge spider hanging out on a web around my outside light, I imdiatly freaked out and carefully turned off my light outside locked the door and ran down the stairs towards my car so the big bad spider wouldn't bite me. The day was Friday, and I had to stop at my moms to help her with the cat before making my way to my girlfriends house like I do on Fridays after work. While at my moms I aquired some spray that she had that was better than Raid, I was going to kill that huge spider. After stopping at moms house I had a big thought session, should I go home and turn the light on before I go to my girlfriends house so I can see the spider when get home tonight or do I just continue on, I opted to just continue on and use the flashlight in my glove compartment to see when I got home that night. That night I got home, spray in one hand and my flashlight in the other. I approach my door and flash the light up and see the spider in the same place, I go in turn on my light and look outside to see it one last time as well as take two pictures before I start my spider fight. I walk outside and start the spray attack, spray after spray after spray I shot at it, the spider barely moved. After about 15 sprays I got afraid because all it did was scratch itself with its back leg, I was afraid that it would attack me in my sleep so I sprayed and sprayed faster and closer to the unholy creature. I went back in to get my camera to video this thing, I wanted people to see what the hell I was fighting, by the time I got back outside the spider started crawling towards my roof, so I started the spray attack again, and sprayed and sprayed and sprayed until the spider turned and went under my roof.....I sit there with the spray in my hand and eyes wide as golf balls with one thought on my mind....holy shit. I quickly ran in my house and sprayed every single crack and opening I could find, I have not seen the spider around my door since. While talking to my neighbors about the incident they told me that there was one just like I had near the bushes on their side of the fence, I told them I was afraid of a mass infestation, but they said they had only seen one. A coupe of days after that I was walking home from my truck when I looked up on a telephone pole and saw a spider that was just like mine, I glared at it and kept on walking. I looked up to see if it was a Brown Recluse, but gladly read it was not. This past Sunday I was with my best friend Rene, we were driving to Best Buy and Target, looking for electronics to buy. At one of our stops he says "hey Taylor, there is something under your door handle", Rene asked for a pen. I gave him a pen and he pulled out a huge spider nest, he told me that it was a Black Widows nest because he had seen tons of them when he was doing construction, I found this picture online of the same type of nest...creepy

Below are the two pictures I took of the spider by my house

Click on all pictures to see bigger versions of them

So on 9/27 I celebrated my birthday with my girlfriend by going to the L.A. County Fair, it was my gift from her. While walking out we came across this "fun machine", since it was 21 and over I decided to get in a give it a try. I walked up and got in line not knowing what the hell it was but as I was watching it turned out to be one of those cyclone machine where money swirls and the more money you catch the more you get to keep....yeah completely wrong on this "fun machine". The host was an indian casino opening in California, there was tons of fake money in the booth, but the object was not only to catch the money but to stuff as much as you can into a slot that is the width and length of 2 credit cards, literally. To top off trying to master this feat, there was a timer of 20 whole seconds. The prizes were not much of anything, but it was free to play and you always win something, the more bills you put in the bigger the prize. The prizes range from a deck of cards to a small cooler, not the hard plastic one but the ones that are used for lunch boxes. So I was watching the people in front of me and trying to see what they were doing wrong and I noticed that there was a big pile of "money" at the bottom right hand corner that took a while to get seperated and up in the air when the air started, so I got in there and quickly put my foot over the big pile of "money" and waited for it to start, when it started I reached down and picked up the "money" only to realize that due to this being done all day the bills have become ripped and crumpled and took for ever to shove in the credit card size slot, in the end I was able put in 17 "bills" and I won a hat that I have already lost, the worst part of the hat is the advertised casino in the back, FAIL!!!!!!!! Enjoy these pictures of this god awful machine