Saturday 3 January 2009

Spider Invasion II

Those of you who read Ann's blog know that a couple of months ago my office was invaded by dozens of tiny spiders. We were watching TV (on the computer) one night, when one of us looked up and saw there were a few around the ceiling light...and then on one of the walls...and then another wall....

We assumed they were recently hatched, which led to the scary idea that if they were left to their own, they would become dozens of LARGER spiders.

Ann, who is no friend of Class Arachnida (especially Order Araneae), quickly got the vacuum cleaner and used the long steel tube to start sucking them to their individual dooms. As she kept quickly rotating from wall to wall (and ceiling) in the small room, lunging to pinpoint her prey in range of the tube's opening, I could easily imagine her as a video game heroine, armed with a shotgun, taking down the Boss and its minions.

Well, that was apparently just Level One because tonight, while again watching TV, we noticed they were back. And this time there were a LOT MORE of them!

Out came the shotgun - I mean, the vacuum cleaner - and the process started again. This time, it was more of a tag team effort, with frequent calls of "There!" and "Behind you!" We'd sweep the room and take a breath, only to notice they were all over the place again! Wave after wave.

We never figured exactly where they were coming from, but there was a near-solid skittering mass of them by the window, and every time we'd clean it up and I'd look back, there would be more.

Eventually, we couldn't see any more and we sat back down to finish our show (we're working our way through the last season of The Shield).

Now, hours later, as I type this, I look around and can see five more of them on the ceiling. Good thing we left the vacuum in the room with me.

(By the way, you might think I'm exaggerating for dramatic effect, but I'm not. I'm sure we sucked up at least 50 spiders this evening.)

Thursday 1 January 2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Well, the future is NOW!

One of the cool things about living in Australia (especially the East Coast), is you get to experience Time before the vast majority of human beings on Earth...

So far, the new year is a lot like the old one. (grin)

Like John Lennon sang: "Let's hope it's a good one, without any fear."