Tarantulas and Toys

I am really itchin' to blog today, but I literally have NOTHING to talk about. So I told Clint and Trinity to "pick a topic, ANY topic," and I swore that I would write at least a paragraph about it. So let's start with Trinity's topic: Tarantulas.

Okay, so what can I say about tarantulas? Well, for starters, I don't find them to be at all scary. I've mentioned this in a previous blog, but I'm just not equipped with whatever gene it is that makes people screech like a girl whenever they see a spider (that's not really fair, because often times the person shrieking actually IS a girl). I've just never been afraid of spiders, even as a child. If I find one in my house, I catch it and let it go. Especially spiders that are predators; they play such a monumental role in keeping down pests in the yard. The only exception to my "no kill" policy are mama black widows, because I can't have a bunch of little baby widows (wow is that an oxymoron) running around the house. But even then I tell the spider "sorry" before having Clint take care of it (I can't squish 'em myself because I'm a sissy lala). I don't think the apology really comforts the spider as it's life is being squashed into obliteration, but it somehow makes me feel better.

Regarding tarantulas specifically, I find them to be an interesting combination of creepy and cute. When I was in San Vicente, Mexico two summers ago, we found one in the desert and I actually held it. They are SO tame. The one that I held actually started crawling up my arm toward my shoulder, and I had to keep poking and prodding it in the right direction. It never came even close to getting agitated. You can tell a tarantula is losing patience when it does the following things: 1. Shakes its fur off, 2. Rears up and bears its fangs, and 3. (only if #1 and #2 don't work) Bites.

Okay, I think I covered Trin's topic enough, so on to Clint's topic: Men and their Toys. Every married female out there knows that men never really quite outgrow "toys," and they will always have that childhood desire to tinker with something. Last week Clint purchased a 1969 Volkswagon Beetle. Now this might be a reasonable purchase if we didn't already own X amount of vehicles (to divulge the exact number would officially place us into hillbilly status), but considering the cars we already own, it's quite a rolling-eyeball-inducing purchase. I have decided to be okay with it though, because in exchange for the Bug, Clint is going to landscape our front yard. But to get him to do this in a timely manner, I had to bribe him with a tattoo (he gets the tattoo to celebrate the yard being finished). Yeah, I can't keep up with all of the deal-making and bribes either. It does sound like Clint's making out like bandit while I'm stuck with another piece of crap car, but at least my crappy cars will be parked in a nice yard. Plus, I have to admit, I'm actually getting into the restoration of this car. So far Clint has bought a new headliner, tint for the windows, new front windshield, and a new electronic ignition. That's more than he has done for any of his other so-called car projects, so I think this one might be the real deal.

I like this kamikaze blogging. If I were more tech-savvy, I'd start a "Topic Tuesday" page (similar to "Wordless Wednesdays") in which all participating bloggers would be given a unique topic, and they would be challenged to write at least a paragraph on their blogs about it. Then of course they would have to post links to their entries, which would bring in mass-amounts of bloggers seeking to gain more of an audience, and I would get rich with all of the hits (okay, I might have crossed into the line of "fantasy" here, but don't burst my bubble). No one take this idea, 'cuz as soon as I get smarter, I'm doing it.