I was forced to overcome my fear of spiders

I've always had a huge fear of spiders.  I think it's the legs.  There are too many of them.  I was even afraid of Daddy-Long-Legs as a kid.  So of course, my brothers took every opportunity to put them on me.

I was pretty much forced to get past my fears because of a house.

I lived in a tri-level house in rural Iowa that was inadequately sealed.  It didn't help that there was a dirt-floored crawl space under the main part of the house.  Mice and bugs had free range of my house.

And spiders.  Wolf spiders. 

Doesn't it look creepy and scary?

My husband drove a semi-truck.  I drove with him from Iowa to the West Coast.  But I stayed home to take care of bills and house stuff while he drove to the East Coast.

So I was Alone.  With the spiders.

The first time I saw a wolf spider in the family room, I decided I would simply avoid the lower level of the house until my husband came home - in three or four days.

But there were no doors between the levels.  I kept imagining the spider crawling up the 5 steps to the main level of the house.  Every time my hair brushed my shoulder, I shrieked, convinced that the spider was crawling on me.  I realized I was going to be freaked out until my husband came home.  And I was scaring my dog.

So I took a can of wasp spray, because it sprays from a very long distance, went down to the family room, and sprayed the bejeebers out of that spider.  It was all curled up in a spider death ball, but I still trembled and cried when I used a massive pile of toilet paper to pick it up and flush it.

The next spider was a little easier, and the next after that.  I'm still creeped out by them, but at least I can dispose of them by myself.

And I no longer scare the dogs.

Newest stained glass project

The client who commissioned this set of pieces sent me a photo of them displayed in the transom window. 

The colors are smoke gray, iridescent clear, olive green, mustard yellow, and brick red.  The two long pieces are 33" by 9".  The short piece is 9" by 13".  

I don't do boredom well

I'm supposed to be working.  Actually, I *am* working.

But today my work consists of waiting for processes to complete.  I have two computers tied up testing the fix I devised. I can't work on anything else.

So I wait.

I read Twitter.  But the people I follow aren't posting frequently enough to keep me occupied.

I read Facebook.  Ditto.

I check my e-mail - a lot.

I read Google news until I can't handle any more news.

I read back columns from Margo Howard (who doesn't appear in my newspaper).

I read pages and pages of "I can haz hotdog".

I start the next process.

I wait.

Computer time

I recently realized I seem to spend an awful lot of time on the computer.  Well, the home computer.  My day job is *all* about the computer.

I came upstairs at 9:30.  I entered my exercise days into an Excel spreadsheet.  (Trying to maintain or beat my monthly class attendance keeps me motivated).
I recorded some financial transactions and checked my bank balance on-line.

I checked Amazon for the books I was going to order and added a couple more.

I updated my reading list where I keep track of the books I read each year. I updated my daily journal.

I read my e-mail, new Facebook statuses and made a couple comments.  I read new Twitter posts.  I read a couple blog posts and made a couple comments.

I checked e-mail again and reread Facebook because there were new comments.

And before I realized it, 2 hours had gone by.

Is that normal?