Do Spiders Go Insane? (and other random musings)

[crowschmo]

Didn't know where else to put this. Has anyone seen those newborn or reborn dolls (whatever they're called)?

To me it just looks like you have an infant corpse in your house. They're very creepy.

[crowschmo]

Just saw a coyote eating a deer on the side of the road on my way home from work. Pretty big coyote. Saw him crossing over to something, then saw the deer, so I don't know if it killed the deer or if the deer got hit by a car.

A little Wild Kingdom in the 'burbs.

[crowschmo]

Bracing for hurricane Henri.

Edit: It pretty much side stepped where I am, thank goodness.

I do like a good storm, though. Just as long as no one gets hurt and it doesn't cause lots of damage. Just got some rain, the wind wasn't that bad.

[crowschmo]

A 12 year old girl graduated from Broward College in Florida. Holy crap, that's impressive.

[crowschmo]

I wonder if prehistoric peoples got the idea to do cave paintings by seeing some fossils.

[crowschmo]

When one looks at the amazing accomplishments of past civilizations, one wonders: How could we have lost all that knowledge?

Then I look at some comments online and think: Yeah, I can see civilization collapsing and the human race having to start from scratch. Yep. Very plausible.

[crowschmo]

I really don't get Bitcoin and NFT's. How can they be worth anything? HooowWWW?!! I can't wrap my brain around all that new tech stuff.

[crowschmo]

I always wish that I had kept a journal. Not the, "Dear Diary, today I had angst..." kind of thing, just jotting down places I've been and things I've seen. I don't always remember what memory goes with what place. It would be nice to remember what restaurants I went to, concerts or plays, places I've visited. When one thinks, "where was that place that I saw {that thing}", it would be nice to know, you know, the actual place. (Always mad at myself that I didn't put dates on my old pictures, either).

I keep thinking this, and yet I don't start one. I'm thinking it's too late, but then, a few years from now I'll be thinking, hmm, wish I remembered such and such.

Ah, well.

[euphoriafish]

I love this thread! Great stream of consciousness.

Re: The Shining, I wish I had your patience for two hours of conspiracy theories, so I'm grateful to you for summarizing it. I think my takeaway is the importance of foreshadowing the violence with a connection of each prop to show the relationship in different facets as stable and broken.

Re: spider in the shower, We have one of those too!

I think I am the only one who knows it is there. For a couple of weeks it just sat there, so I meditated on mortality and dehydration and whether I was misgendering it. I'd hate to be wrong, but I'm going with he/him pronouns for this shower spider. There have been no eggs, and one day he started showing off, weaving a web wider and lower and going up and down around the shower head. Then a second shower spider appeared. Should I do something? Will they cohabit peacefully? Surely if the aerialist act goes too low my taller family members will see and get rid of him. Do I not want them too? Am I part spider or is there some sort of spider telepathy at work and our current guy is a master manipulator? Then the second shower spider disappeared.

Today I see the first one got bigger.

[crowschmo]

Did you see both of them moving? One could have been the shed exo-whatever of the one, and he just - got bigger (and outgrew his exo skin/skeleton whatever it is that they shed).

I always have the same species of spider in my little corner of the bathroom. One or two, sometimes more, just reside and sit in corners. It never seems like they get out of hand or are like an infestation or anything, so I just let them be. If there are too many, I just catch a few in a cup and chuck them outside. If I see any other kind, like big, black creepy kinds walking around I definitely try to catch them and throw them out. My dad got bit by a spider once when he was sleeping and he had to go the hospital and get treated (he had had a reaction to it), so any big guys or gals are outta here. I try to catch them; sometimes I end up killing them accidentally and I always feel guilty afterwards, heh. They're just walking around minding their own business one moment, and the next they are no more, so I feel bad. But big, creepy things are something I don't want - 'cause they're big and creepy. Spiders are amazing little critters, they can be beautiful and elegant, but then totally creepy and icky at the same time.

I know they are in the walls of probably every house, but as long as I don't have to see them (or get bit) I'm willing to share an abode with them. Just a "you stay away and I'll stay away" kind of thing.



On The Shining thing: there was another thing that the guy mentioned that I never noticed about the movie: The props change! In a scene, there are paintings on the wall one moment, then when the camera goes back, the paintings are in a different place. Sometimes the paintings move to different hallways or parts of the hotel. The scene where Jack is getting all weird when Wendy "disturbs" him while he's working: there's a chair behind him when the camera is on him, then it goes to Wendy, then when it goes back to Jack the chair is gone. The light switches are different outside the walk-in cooler when the scenes change.

I was wondering if Kubrick was going for, like, the hotel "phases" in and out between it's present self and its past selves or something to that effect. Or, if he was just weird and wanted to do weird sh*t while directing, heh.

[euphoriafish]

Definitely we have the same opinion about spiders. This one was not inky and black, it was harmless, lovely, and leggy like a daddy long legs but actually a spider and not aggressive at all. It ate a stinkbug yesterday. Almost a shame we finally put it out in a plastic cup rain shelter. Maybe it will climb the house if it still wants its web up higher.

[crowschmo]

The little foxies are back in my yard (and the small wooded area behind it). Don't know where their den is, but I've seen them every year for the past three at least.

So cute. I hear them yipping in the wee hours of the morning.

[crowschmo]

I saved about 30 horseshoe crabs yesterday while taking an early morning walk. They were exhausted after mating and were high up on the beach, stranded and on their backs. I'm surprised the gulls hadn't gotten to them. (Well, one was dead and eaten, actually). Two were right side up and on their way to the water but were still a bit far away. At least I hope I saved them. I carried them all to the water and put them in the surf and they went on their way. Hopefully they weren't so tired that they died soon after. They seemed okay once I got them in the water.





Here's a path one of them made on the way back to the water. Or it was made when they were mating. Heart-shaped. I like to think it was made by two.

[crowschmo]

Ever notice when we see a really good painting we say, "Wow, that looks so real", but then when we see a really beautiful vista like mountains, or clouds or trees, etc., we say, "Wow, that looks like a painting."

[crowschmo]

We have an above-ground pool (with deck) and this year was the first year we'd notice a frog had been in our pool. We hadn't known if a bird had dropped it, or if it had just hopped right on up the deck steps and leaped in. We'd had a drought this summer so maybe the frog had smelled the water or heard the pump and thought - what the hell?

But, there was chlorine in the pool, so I skimmed him out and put him in the back corner of our yard. There's a small woodsy area back there with a stream.

Well, the pool is covered now. We'd had some rain and the cover had quite a bit of water in it. And even though the nights are cooler and it's the end of Sept., there was still actually mosquito larvae in the cover (along with two other kinds of larvae). So, yeah, we should drain it now.

I was thinking, somewhat jokingly, that I should catch some frogs and put them in. They'd have quite a feast.

I looked in the cover and put the skimmer in to see if all those pesky things were still in there, and this little guy started swimming around.



(That frog is under water BTW)

So, maybe he'll take care of the problem for us.

That's twice now we've seen a frog in the pool (there was one in the yard one rainy day, too), and it's the first time we've noticed it happening in all the years we've lived here. Wonder if it's the same frog? S/he knows a good opportunity when s/he sees one.