I owe someone some cookies!!
Oct. 10th, 2011 10:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
botiasThe lumber yard manager was very grave. I must understand his position, he said. The bundles of shingles had been under my care for two long weeks. Things get stolen from project sites, and perhaps that had happened to me. Further the materials are checked twice before leaving the lumber yard: once by the loading folks, and again by the cashier, and I also had a responsibility to count them. He offered to split the cost with me, which I thought was very fair. I feel my share of responsibility in the matter. Then, abruptly, he considered the fact that we were discussing a mere four bundles of roofing shingles. Gruffly, he said he would refund me the entire amount. Yay!! While this amount of materials is relatively little, to not take a $90 loss is better than a kick in the pants.
I want to see Real Steel. I had plans to see it today, but the boys bickered all morning and that's all very human of them, but it didn't inspire me to take them out to a movie. Perhaps tomorrow.
Yesterday evening, I took Grandma out to dinner, and of all things we ended up talking about feminine hygiene products. She told me about how her mother, an Italian immigrant, had made her a belt and shown her how to make pads from cloth, and how she and her older sister had discovered the modern American products she called Kotex. I told her about Diva Cups. She thought that was pretty wild, but had assumed the current generation must use something different yet from what she was familiar with. Later I conquered my arachnophobia long enough to resupply her with firewood. I like to observe spiders, but I'm not interested having them crawl on me or bite me. Especially the shiny mahogany ones that live in dark, undisturbed places. Fortunately her woodpile doesn't seem to harbor those, except in my imagination.
In other spider news, the autumn-colored European 'cross' spiders are everywhere in the garden and huge suddenly (they look like so), and the males came out of the woodwork last week. Every day I would see one in the process of courtship. Usually I see them get run off by a swift and aggressive response from the females, but the other day for the first time I actually saw one succeed. This female, perhaps due to the cool weather, wasn't trying particularly hard to eat her suitor. I guess this is a sign of great encouragement because the male suddenly seized her and flipped her around so that her fangs were facing as far away from him as possible. This would understandably be a favorite sexual position with male spiders. In the days that followed, I began to notice in some webs, males that had served as the dinner as well as the date. Eeee! And then I noticed a fat female, entombed in silk in what was probably her own web and what looked like a male was feeding on her. Dear Spiders, y'all are already kinda creepy, but eating one another is just gross.
I want to see Real Steel. I had plans to see it today, but the boys bickered all morning and that's all very human of them, but it didn't inspire me to take them out to a movie. Perhaps tomorrow.
Yesterday evening, I took Grandma out to dinner, and of all things we ended up talking about feminine hygiene products. She told me about how her mother, an Italian immigrant, had made her a belt and shown her how to make pads from cloth, and how she and her older sister had discovered the modern American products she called Kotex. I told her about Diva Cups. She thought that was pretty wild, but had assumed the current generation must use something different yet from what she was familiar with. Later I conquered my arachnophobia long enough to resupply her with firewood. I like to observe spiders, but I'm not interested having them crawl on me or bite me. Especially the shiny mahogany ones that live in dark, undisturbed places. Fortunately her woodpile doesn't seem to harbor those, except in my imagination.
In other spider news, the autumn-colored European 'cross' spiders are everywhere in the garden and huge suddenly (they look like so), and the males came out of the woodwork last week. Every day I would see one in the process of courtship. Usually I see them get run off by a swift and aggressive response from the females, but the other day for the first time I actually saw one succeed. This female, perhaps due to the cool weather, wasn't trying particularly hard to eat her suitor. I guess this is a sign of great encouragement because the male suddenly seized her and flipped her around so that her fangs were facing as far away from him as possible. This would understandably be a favorite sexual position with male spiders. In the days that followed, I began to notice in some webs, males that had served as the dinner as well as the date. Eeee! And then I noticed a fat female, entombed in silk in what was probably her own web and what looked like a male was feeding on her. Dear Spiders, y'all are already kinda creepy, but eating one another is just gross.
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no subject
Date: 2011-10-11 07:57 am (UTC)And yeah, this seems to be the Autumn of the Spider.
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Date: 2011-10-11 10:07 pm (UTC)Around here this happens every Autumn. The cross spiders are totally harmless to people, though apparently not to one another.
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Date: 2011-10-11 09:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-10-11 10:27 pm (UTC)