Doom!

The most recent manifestation of my conflict with Very Small Creatures is my discovery a while ago of a black widow spider of alarming proportions inside the house. The brazen arachnid had, within the last few hours, built a crazy web which was partly attached to one of my cat's bowls. I was unable to destroy the invader, as it managed to conceal itself with remarkable speed. It now lurks in a dark corner behind a piece of dark furniture, and will be difficult to dislodge even when daylight comes. It doesn't help that my back is still in no condition for furniture moving. I destroyed the creature's web, and have moved the cat's bowls to another room. I only hope that the spider does not produce an egg sack before she can be removed from the premises.

The nights are no longer cooling sufficiently to bring down the temperature in my room to the point where Sluggo is comfortable. Even with the fans blowing, the day's heat remains thick here even now, as the first light creeps in. I, on the other hand, get to cool down quite a bit, in part -- that part being my neck and shoulders, which I must periodically chill with ice packs, to reduce the soreness. I can expect at least a few more days of discomfort from the dislocation, but it isn't as bad now as it was yesterday. But, I can't sit here any longer. I must get up and move about, and Sluggo must nap. This afternoon, there will be the great spider hunt. Woe to the arachnid!

Bits

The evening sky is brushed with a splendid assortment of cirrus clouds. Here below, it is sultry once again. A pair of blue jays have been frolicking about in my front yard. I hope they don't decide to nest in the wild plum bushes outside my window, as jays have sometimes done in the past. Blue jays make terrible neighbors, screeching at everything that moves within a hundred feet of their nest, and the chicks emit almost constant, ear-splitting shrieks day after day as they beg for more food. Now that I'm down to one cat, the yard is more attractive to nesting birds. I don't mind the quiet species, but, please, no jays.

The recently pruned rose bushes have thrust up new stems with astonishing speed, and a couple of the bushes by the kitchen window are now more than eight feet tall, and crowned with both blooms and numerous buds. The daisies are flourishing as well, and the oleander bushes along the back fence, still quite small despite being several years old, have produced an impressive profusion of white blossoms for the first time. I've always wondered why these particular oleanders have remained stunted, while those along roadsides nearby, and even in the median of the freeway in Chico, flourish despite the constant stream of exhaust fumes they must endure. I thought maybe mine were duds. I'm glad that they are at last blooming, if not growing into the large plants I had envisioned.

I still have to get up and walk around every few minutes, or my neck and shoulders stiffen up and ache. The fact that LJ is appallingly sluggish today thus has, for me at least, the compensatory effect of giving me the opportunity to do that. Each time I click on a link, I have a minute or two for exercise before the page finally opens. It's an ill wind, etc.

Google AdSense fetched an odd combination of links to my Opera ad banner a while ago. I don't know what text on the page triggered it, but the two paid ads were for something called "Tribute to Ronald Reagan" (an ad for an authorized biography on DVD), and "Celebrate Ronald Reagan" (an assortment of memorabilia for sale.) The odd thing was the subject of the "Related Searches" links below the ads. They were for "scary stories; scary; weird stuff; decapitation." Has somebody learned how to Googlebomb AdSense, I wonder?

Hmmm. Time to ice my neck again, then go out and watch the dusk descend.