The Not So Itsy Bitsy Spider

A few weeks ago I was walking by my living room when I noticed a large black object on my floor. As I steeped closer I realized that it was pretty much the biggest spider I have ever seen... and it just so happened to be in my house. You can imagine my anger at this, not to mention the fact that my husband was gone camping, which in turn meant that I was either going to have to let the spider roam freely in my house or I was going to have to kill the thing all by myself!

After a brief moment I decided that the spider had seen its last day because he was certainly not allowed to roam my home any longer. I also knew I had to capture the thing on my camera to show my true bravery to my husband when he returned home. I quickly ran to grab the camera and I took the first image and reviewed it. I then realized that I was going to need my close up lens with the high power zoom because I wasn't getting any closer to the thing than I already was.

Once I had put the new lens on my camera I also noticed my goulashes by the backdoor and quickly slipped into those just in case I needed to act quickly! I figured they were added protection in case it decided to try and crawl up my leg. I took a few more photos, but the scale of the spider wasn't obvious. I knew I was going to have to put something near it that would demonstrate the monstrosity and size of the thing. I found a nickle and walked back into the room (each time a little more amazed that the spider hadn't moved). I didn't want to reach my hand down by it to place the nickle, but I certainly didn't want to kill it first because then it would curl up thus decreasing the appearance of it's size. With a shoe in hand I tossed the nickle as close to the spider as I could get it and took a few more pictures. I grabbed the shoe and with one big swing I smashed it.

As a side note, the spider was so large that as my flash on my camera went off his eyes would glisten. It is a wolf spider which is apparently harmless, but I didn't like the looks of him.

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The Dog Days of Summer

Often times, we like to sit outside on our camping chairs in our driveway and enjoy the views. The dogs aren't allowed on our furniture and that goes for the camping chairs as well, but Dave and I thought this was too cute of a picture to pass up. Sadie (the German Sherpherd) is pretty convinced and has been that she is human. Her pose in this picture certainly expresses that!

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Rain, Rain, Go Away...

So we have survived a snow storm (or at least what the south considers a snow storm) on day two of living here. Within our second month in Arkansas we experienced what a sever tornado season was like, including one that was only about a mile from our home. We have survived the humidity and have quickly learned what the heat index means. I have seen the snakes and spiders. And I now can officially say that I have experienced a hurricane, or at least what was left of it when it arrived in Arkansas after hitting Louisiana the day before.

Tuesday was a typical day at work. The weather forecasters had been warning Arkansas about the impact Gustav would have on the state. The rain began around 6 that morning but didn't seem to bad. It became progressively heavier as the day went on. Dave and I had planned on going to a high school football game that evening, rain or shine. We got as far as the parking lot before we decided that we would be absolutely miserable and soaking wet. We traveled home in rain that was difficult to see through at times, but arrived safely. We hit the garage door opener... and nothing! I hit it again thinking maybe I didn't get it pushed right, but still the door did not open. It then dawned on me that we probably were with out power. Sure enough that was the case. Fortunately I was a little more prepared after experiencing the power go out during tornado season and had bought a lantern. I also learned that it was much easier to find candles and light them before you lost light outside and couldn't see at all.

We attempted to fill our lantern up with oil holding it to the backdoor window to borrow what little natural light was left and trying to read the instructions. What we didn't realize is that lantern's apparently have a fill line (this was discovered the next day in day light) and if you put oil in past that fill line it leaks out everywhere a makes a large mess in which you cannot see because it is pitch black. I later learned that it can also cause the lantern to explode, luckily we did not experience that disaster! We spent the rest of the evening in darkness and woke up to the same.

I shouldn't really say woke up because we spent most of the evening wide awake because the storm was so loud and not to mention the fact that our weather radio (it has battery power back up) went off four times with wind warnings, flood warnings, and weather statements. The weather seemed really bad and I didn't feel great about either Dave or I driving to work in it. We had no way of checking road conditions due to the loss of power. We weren't sure if either of our work locations had power. I tried to contact my boss but couldn't get a hold of him (keep in mind this is about 5:45 in the morning). I began to get ready just in case I had to go in. It was definitely a first getting ready in the dark. We did have a warm shower. Dave held the lantern up to my face so I could see to put my make up on. I couldn't blow dry my hair so I threw it in a pony tail. We couldn't really eat anything for breakfast because we didn't want to let the cold air out of the fridge, unsure as to when the power would be restored. I grabbed a bag of Cheerios's and we left for work (we carpool occasionally). Yards were flooded and trees were down everywhere, blocking roads and landing on top of cars. Many trees, which were up-rooted due to the saturation of the ground and high winds simply blowing them over, were landing on power lines and over 100,000 people in Arkansas were without power.

The whole time I am thinking... "Why am I going to work? It's not like any one is going to come into a showroom looking to by cabinets for their kitchen or remodel their bathroom on a day like today. What person in their right mind would even leave their house today?"

Needless to say, I dropped Dave off and I arrived at work in one piece. I immediately emailed him to inform him his truck was okay and that I was too (I figured he might be more concerned about his truck than me... just kidding!).

Everything was going along just fine until around 10 o'clock that morning I walked down the hall to the copy room and noticed large sums of water on the floor. I opened up the doors to our maintenance closet which stores 2 air conditioning units to find about 1" of water below them. It was pouring out of the walls and seeping through the baseboards. We grabbed a shop vac and mop and began to clean up what we could as it continued to pour out into other rooms. Not to mention that yes, there were actually people crazy enough to come into the showroom to discuss kitchen design on a day like this. Our plumber arrived to inform us that it was not our air conditioning unit but rather sewage! We then immediately called the city who informed us to open up the sewage pipe in the back of our buildings parking lot and release the raw sewage into the street until they could get there to asses the situation. So yes, we had just spent the last hour cleaning up what turned out to be raw sewage. The other designer had even gotten some splashed on her face and clothes. Our boss let her go home for the day and clean up.

As we checked the pipe outside before she had left, we discovered that it had released wads of toilet paper and some other fun surprises! I was sick to my stomach the rest of the day. The city arrived and said that there were about 4 other building on the street experiencing the same problem. The manhole covers were popping off due to sewage coming up out of them.

We did regain power at our home that evening around 4:30 and all of our food in our fridge remained cold so we didn't have to throw any away. It certainly gives you a different point of view living in this part of the country and being so close to so many natural disaster! I cannot imagine being in the heart of one of these storms! In a small scale, I have so much more of a greater compassion for the many who have been faced with such devastation.

In two days we had received 10.26 inches of rain! To put that in prospective Farmington, NM (where I grew up) receives an average annual rain fall of 7.5 inches. Spokane, WA (where Dave grew up receives and average annual rain fall of 16.67 inches. I can honestly say I have never seen so much rain in my life!

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Hooray For Gardens

Fresh picked from our garden! Umm umm good...

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