Gasp

[rejectomorph]

A breeze has risen, making the hot air feel deceptively cool. Clouds are forming, too, suggesting a change in the weather. They might bring cooling later, but tonight their most likely effect will be to hold the day's heat longer. I am no happier than Sluggo.

The black widow in the garage has been slaughtered. I discovered a second one nearby, and attempted to deal with it the same way, but it may have escaped. I was unable to find the cadaver. The creature may be hiding in some cranny, waiting to take its revenge on me. The garage badly needs cleaning.

I am about to unearth a place long concealed behind stacks of books in which old magazines are stored. I am in hopes that a publication I have long missed is there. It is a copy of a long defunct magazine called Creative Art which was published in 1928 or so. It is an issue devoted to prognostications about architecture in New York City, and contains some splendid drawings by a number of the architects who were working in the city at the time. If I find it, I'll try to get some scans done somewhere (as I have no scanner myself) and post a few of the drawings.

Now, post and go away before Sluggo shows me the blue screen of his extreme displeasure.

Comments

[waning-estrogen.livejournal.com]

about two years ago, a friend of mine was visiting elderly inlaws in Grants Pass, OR and found their garage was infested with black widows. I'd never heard of them here in the northwest. true, Grants Pass is kind of southern Oregon, but still, I was quite freaked by it. I don't like spiders much to begin with, but I know they are generally beneficial. I've taken to only killing them in the house when they startle me, but if I found widows, I think I'd call in the ex-terminators.

[rejectomorph]

I've been on the lookout for black widows from a very early age. The house we moved into when I was six had a yard full of rustic rock walls and a drainage system that featured a lot of little pipes to carry the Southern California downpours under walks and such, and these were both places the spiders liked to congregate. We used to burn those we found outdoors. Much quicker than bug spray. Of course, black widows generally avoid open spaces in which they are easily stomped, but those long fireplace matches can reach into the rocky nooks and crannies quite well.