April 23, 2005 — Last night I got up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. Since seeing a scorpion in the bathroom one night last week, I’ve been carrying a little flashlight with me if I get up in the night. Our neighbor assures us that the scorpions here are not such nasty characters as the ones in the US, and he should know as he’s lived both places a lot. Comforting.

Anyway, before going back to bed, I wandered over to the window and stood by the new screeened window panel gazing at fluffy clouds illuminated by the moon. Lovely! The town was quiet. What tranquillity.

Then I noticed that about three inches away from me, on the same side of the screen as me, was the largest spider I have ever seen. I jumped back, uttering an involuntary cry. I turned the flashlight on and watched it move rapidly down the screen.

It was all too easy to imagine how long it would be, at that fast pace, before the spider would have crossed the living room and joined us in the bedroom which has no door.

I briefly considered grabbing a yogurt container and scooping it up, but I am a klutz and Kelly is not. Laziness won out. I woke him up and he did the yogurt container bit, with a twist I hadn’t thought of. He climbed the steps to our upstairs patio and dropped the spider into the yard next door, where nobody lives. We both felt fine about that.

We curled up and went back to sleep. We may be in the mountains, but this is still the tropics! I was reminded of that fact again this morning when I got an email from a friend. Our town in Colorado is due to have snow, possibly heavy, in the next few days. Here in Bernal, it’s been shirtsleeve weather most evenings lately. I do prefer this, spiders and all.