Monday, June 27, 2011

Best Laid Plans... Things Happen

Usually I try to keep things upbeat on the blog.  I can't always do this though, because sometimes the bumpy parts impact the parts I like to blog about. There were some bumps and potholes in the road of life this week. Things did not go quite as I had planned.


Wednesday I had to have my cat Maizie put to sleep.   She went into kidney failure. I knew it was coming but it is still excruciating.   I'm glad that she had a good long life--she was seventeen years old. Here's a photo of a younger Maizie checking out the water garden. She was hiding in the bushes by the bank's ATM when I found her 16 years ago.  When I drove up she stuck her head out and I knew she was waiting for me. I opened the car door and she jumped in.  



maizie checks out the garden


Thursday evening my husband helped me load the heavy things in the car.  We found this lady hanging out in the garage.

black widow spider
black widow spider

Note the nicely shaped hourglass.  She got a web going right away.  

partial top view of black widow
black widow spider

This is a variety I had not seen before.  On her topside she had a row of red rectangles. If you click the photos you can go to Flickr and see the photos in more detail.  She has a little white with the red too. 


Since the things we were removing from the garage go into my car we gave everything a complete inspection after we found the spider.


Hubby took her to work and gave her to one of the insane intelligent guys he works with. 


A really big pothole was our son had his apartment burglarized on Friday. He has a lot of anxiety around this situation and we didn't feel like we should go out of town right then when he wasn't feeling safe.  It took a long while with the police report and getting the window fingerprinted and such. Plus by the time things wound down it was quite late on Friday. 


I didn't get to the show I had planned to do on Saturday.  I've never skipped a show before so I feel weird about that but I'm glad we stayed home. 

7 comments:

My Life Under the Bus said...

Oh Leslie - I am so sorry what a week! Our pets are part of the family here. Our Boston passed 2 years ago and I still miss the tick-tick-tick of his little toe nails following me around!

That spider is horrifying!

...and your poor son! Good Grief - Big (((hugs))) for all of you XOXO

Diane said...

Leslie...that was a few bumps wasn't it? I am so, so sorry about Maizie. I know it hurts. I pray things will start on the upside from here on.....And, I feel so badly for your son. I know an invasion of privacy is really tough to push through. Bless his heart.

Heather said...

Oh Leslie, sending a little hug and sunshine your way. I hope this week is filled with sweet things.

Anonymous said...

Oh Leslie, what a terrible week. I am so sorry about your kitty - been there, done that, and it hurts so badly. And your son's apartment, that is scary as well. Is that spider poisonous? I would have screamed if I saw that! I hope this week gets better for you.
Loves, Marcy

Leslie Todd said...

Thanks, everyone.

Marcy, the spider is a black widow, guess I should have said. They are always shiny and black, and have the red hourglass on the underside. I think I did scream when when it ran in front of me. I definitely have arachnophobia.

Pretty Things said...

SO terribly sorry.

And that's a black widow, man. My stepson has been bitten (twice) by one, and he's terrified of spiders now (and he's 28).

Leslie Todd said...

Thank you, Lori. And I'm so sorry to hear your stepson was bitten twice. I have heard the anti-venom can only be given once in a lifetime, and that the bite is very painful.

I was bitten by a brown recluse a couple of years ago. I got sick and had a bad allergic reaction, but only lost about a quarter sized piece of skin. I have a phobia about them too.