Spiders, Webs, and Striking Back

One of the main topics of conversation on the street out front lately has been spiders. You might think that a group of neighbors hanging around, drinking beer, mourning the brutal death of a man we all knew to varying degrees and liked, would talk only about that, about him, but that's not how this works.

In the end, there is nothing much to say about him. He is gone; most of us don't have much of a clue why, and those that do aren't talking. Who knows how many other secrets may reside in the hearts of those who visit this shrine. And who knows how many more may die before this latest wave of gang violence subsides.

But one thing we can all agree on is that we don't like spiders. Oh, there is the occasional one among us who will defend them, either a romantic (a fan of Charlotte's Web), or a pragmatist ("they kill flies.")

The problem for us humans is that they bite us. One of my neighbor's 3-year-old sons is allergic to spider bites. He had a huge red welt on his arm the other night as he ran around out front.

His dad said the doctor said not to worry unless he develops a fever.

Quite a few of us have noticed the invasion of a breed of strange yellow spiders that have proliferated around here in recent years.

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Yesterday, as I was standing in my bathroom, peeing, at the back of my building, I noticed something weird. First, it was just one, then another, than a countless number of tiny yellow spiders spiraling down from the top of the back window to the bottom below.

It was a mesmerizing scene, as if I were witnessing an invasion, a military action.

That got me to wondering where military leaders first got the idea of parachuting soldiers behind enemy lines, because this sure looked like something like that.

My job, I decided on the spot, was to protect my kids from these invaders. But to learn about that counter-action, you'll have to tune in another time, because that's another story altogether.

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