Day Six: Oh, Thank You Very Much
Aug242008
I just read the comments and immediately googled for “brown recluse spider Ohio.” They are “uncommon” here. Another reason to stay put. I did not google “camel spider,” thank you very much, Amy, but if you have spiders the size of dinner plates over there, you should come home immediately. Tell the military I’ll write you a note.
In other news, life is slapping Bob upside the head this week, so we obviously picked a sucky week to start. I’m just going to have to wait until he gets back to Campfire because we’re still working on the characters, tossing them back and forth while we write them, and we’re miles apart of some of them. So for once, I can’t work ahead. I can, however, go back to Always Kiss Me Goodnight, while I research tarot and try to find pictures of the forty-year-old trailer that Glenda lives in. I want it to be an Airstream, but that might be too small. She raised in a kid in it (our hero) and for the first eight years or so, her husband was there, too. Did Airstream even make a trailer with bedrooms?
I know, Google, Jenny.
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25 Comments to 'Day Six: Oh, Thank You Very Much'
On August 24, 2008 at 11:24 am ArkansasCyndi said...
Yes, Airstream trailers have an bedroom. The couple could sleep in the bedroom and the kid on the pullout sofa. Never seen one with two bedrooms though
On August 24, 2008 at 12:09 pm Linda Sherwood said...
My first home was a 50s era trailer. It was more like a camper than a trailer including the hitch. Very tiny. There was a bedroom and a real bathroom. Everything was built in, kind of like a ship.
The bedroom was in the back and was pretty much the size of the bed with one little corner to get out a back door. The bathroom was probably 2×2 and included a tiny sink, a shower not built for two and a toilet. You could pretty much stand in one place and do all three from there.
The kitchen was all built-in and the dining room table made into a second bed. The entire space was probably 8X20. It wasn’t big enough for a built-in sofa. It was the first place hubby and I lived. We moved when we found out I was pregnant.
The heat was iffy and the old heater was located right next to the fridge. The heat didn’t like to work all night long. We once woke to find we had ice in our toilet and another time we had to scrape frost off the TV screen in the morning (I am not exaggerating).
On August 24, 2008 at 12:16 pm Amy Corwin said...
Try googling “Wolf Spider”. We have tons of them around here. I generally just slip a glass over them, slide a piece of paper under them to keep them in the glass, and throw them outside.
They are pretty harmless despite their size. They don’t spin webs and are often seen running around inside buildings–very common. I find them frequently enough in my house to have lost my dismay and angst over them and just follow my routine–fairly routinely in fact.
I won’t say I like spiders and I’m marginally nervous in terms of not exactly wanting to handle them or worse, be bitten by one. But I’m managing a sort of “live and let live”.
Besides, if they are finding some sort of bug to chow down on in my house, I’d probably rather have them do the pest control than me. I really don’t want to know. Their food could be the worse problem.
Cheers and don’t worry!
Love your blog,
Amy Corwin
On August 24, 2008 at 3:51 pm Sheri said...
Oh, an old Airstream–the luxury trailer of the 50′s and 60′s. They are still wondrful, classic trailers–all wood paneling, stainless steel, aluminum… Yes, you could live in one, but only one bedroom. Depends on the size of the trailer–they came in many different lengths, from about 16′ to over 20′. Obviously the bigger the trailer the more living space inside. three people could live in one fairly comfortable, granted it was of the bigger variety, especially if the child is smallish at the time. Or a teenager.
It’s that in-between age that gets difficult because you must have room for all the toys and junk that tweens have to have to survive. You know, Barbies and all their accessories for girls and Tonka trucks and HotWheels for boys. Then there is the endless array of skates and bikes and sports paraphenalia that both sexes must have… And don’t forget the electronic toys–computers and video games, stereos and MP3′s, etc… Yeah, an old Airstream could get a little crowded after awhile! But yeah, I totally love it. I can already picture it…
On August 24, 2008 at 6:01 pm ZaZa said...
Ooh, ooh, ooh! Look at the cover of, I think, the last Killers CD. That’s your trailer. Maybe even one (two?) of you characters. Hmmm, well here’s the album: http://www.amazon.com/Sams-Town-Killers/dp/B000GY729M/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1219616043&sr=1-3
Unfortunately, that has only part of the trailer. Now, where did I see the pic with the whole trailer??? Can’t find it. Sigh.
On August 24, 2008 at 6:14 pm Cathy said...
This is kind of off the subject, but I just finished Agnes & the Hitman. I *loved* it. It was just perfect, and I hated to see it end. Ya’ll did a fabulous job!
As someone who has been bitten by a spider and gotten a wonderful staph infection from it, I can say that if they have the audacity to show themselves, then they are just begging to be obliterated.
On August 24, 2008 at 8:02 pm Mary Stella said...
Jenny, just Google “affordable housing Florida”. I’m sure trailers suitable for family-raising will pop up.
On August 24, 2008 at 9:02 pm MJ said...
An RV park in Bisbee, Arizona has nine Airstreams for rent by the night. Their site includes pictures of the restored interiors:
http://www.theshadydell.com
On August 24, 2008 at 9:10 pm talpianna said...
Jenny said: I just read the comments and immediately googled for “brown recluse spider Ohio.” They are “uncommon” here. Another reason to stay put.
Yeah, but so are black vultures, and you got THOSE…
On August 24, 2008 at 10:56 pm JulieB said...
I actually met a vulture on my camping trip eleven days back. They are disgusting, and yet, oddly fascinating and compelling. I became rather enamored with her in truth. And, of course, anyone in the room could tell she thought she was lovely.
I guess my miserable mood did not let my weak attempt at humor shine through. I know it was not a brown recluse. Unless it was a passel of tiny, brown recluse hatchlings….
I’m still glad you killed the spider. I’m cranky and tired.
On August 24, 2008 at 11:01 pm Cherry Honey said...
If you’ve ever seen Wonderfalls (and if you haven’t, you really should Netflix it), you know that Jaye lived in a trailer. In a place called the High and Dry Trailer Park, which always killed me. I was pretty sure I had heard somewhere it was a real Airstream that they cut up to do the filming, so I Googled it. I came up with several links claiming it was an Airstream, including this one:
http://www.yoursourcemag.com/interiors/airstream.html
Apparently some interior designer bought the trailer they used for the show and refurbished it. Cost him over $200,000, but it sure is pretty.
On August 24, 2008 at 11:05 pm Jenny said...
No, no, Julie, you’re attempt at humor was good. I’m just paranoid. It’s been that kind of week.
There was a bug out on the patio tonight that I’ve never seen. Bright screaming red, like Chinese lacquer red, with a black band. NOT a spider. Kind of skinny to be a beetle. I sincerely hope it has gone elsewhere because beautiful colors like that always make me think poison. Bleah.
And I worked on AKMG. This is one of the lousiest twelve days I’ve ever done. ARGH. But I did find Glenda’s Airstream, so that’s something.
On August 25, 2008 at 6:58 am ubergeekmom said...
I spent my first years in a trailer. I have a vivid memory of standing on the ‘sofa’ doing the baby dance while looking out the curved end windows, a baby gate stretched from one side of the trailer to the other making the location a perfect playpen.
My mother is an artist and we share a love of all things hand-crafted. From time to time, Mom speaks of the beautiful dishware she’d received as a gift. It was a full set, hand-tossed, sea blue, with an amazing arts & crafts form. I know. I have the only remaining bowl. Seems she was bathing me in the trailer sink and my pudgy hands grabbed at the right spot on the cabinets. All the dishes tumbled out and broke. I’m sure it was frightening at the time but I have a great souvenir.
On August 25, 2008 at 11:50 am Lou said...
The scientists say that the Brown Recluse doesn’t exist in California. However, my boss, who almost died from the bite of a Brown Recluse, lives in California. Go figure…
On August 25, 2008 at 1:53 pm Lily C said...
Just to add to the paranoia, the accepted mythology over here about camel spiders is that when they bite you, they inject you with an anesthetic substance so you can’t feel the bite, and when you wake up, they’ve eaten half your leg away…Just thought I’d share
On August 25, 2008 at 2:40 pm Jenny said...
So, another reason I won’t be going to Iraq. Or California.
The best I can counter with is that I have hornets in one of my birdhouses. Somehow, it doesn’t have the same weight.
On August 25, 2008 at 3:13 pm JulieB said...
Well, I seriously debated posting this, because I wish I hadn’t just read Lily C’s comment on the camel spider (Jenny I will join you in not, ever, going to Iraq) but I couldn’t resist following up on Lou’s post.
Brown Recluse spiders love cardboard. So maybe it was a travelling spider.
My daughter’s friend was bitten by a BR when she was a toddler. Her mother was too. They realized it was in an old quilt she’d brought back from her mother’s attic in Texas. The baby was hospitalized, but the mother was treated with a topical antibiotic. She still has the dent in her leg.
And Jenny, hornets don’t rate on the creepyness factor as bad as spiders IMO, but man, they are MEAN.
On August 25, 2008 at 3:32 pm colognegrrl said...
I just can’t keep myself from writing this – it’s one of my friends’ favorite joke. You have probably heard people say that the sting of just one hornet can kill a horse.
But did you also know that the bite of just one horse can kill a hornet?
(I’m glad I live so far away. So I can’t hear people scream.)
On August 25, 2008 at 6:10 pm Kieran said...
Am I still allowed to write in when I told you to make like Seinfeld about your blog and ride off into the sunset?!?
I lived in a small camper trailer with my two sisters for five years as a kid. It was our bedroom, connected to the Big Trailer by a wooden sidewalk my Dad built. I’ll never forget the day I opened my camper door and there was Ozzie, our crazed horse, standing there wanting to see what the sisters’ room looked like inside.
(Okay, maybe I shouldn’t write in).
We used a small electric heater in the winter to warm the little trailer. I still like electric heaters, how the coils turn on and then glow in the middle of the night and make that humming noise. Very cozy. Potentially hazardous but cozy. (So is sleeping with your sisters in a small camper trailer for five years).
On August 25, 2008 at 7:38 pm talpianna said...
Black Widows in the Privy
Everyone knows someone we’d be better off without,
But best not mention names, for we know not who’s about.
But why commit a murder, and risk the fires of hell,
When black widows in the privy can do it just as well.
Now, poison’s good, and daggers, and arrows in the back,
And if you’re really desperate, you can try a front attack.
But are they really worth the risk of being caught
When black widows in the privy need not be bribed or bought?
So if there’s one of whom you wish most simply to be rid,
Just wait til dark, then point the way to where the widows hid,
And say to them, “I think you’ll find that this one is the best,”
And black widows in the privy will gladly do the rest.
©Heather Alexander
On August 25, 2008 at 8:24 pm robena grant said...
Ha ha, Tal. Very cute.
Obviously I didn’t die from being bitten by a black widow spider, but the Doc said the older you are the less of a threat. Kids are in greater danger. My guess is we have so much poison in us we probably kill the spider. It did leave a huge mark that extravasted into the tissues leaving what looked like a large reddish butterfly just above my ankle. There was some local swelling that lasted for a couple of weeks. And it was painful. And now I have a monthly exterminator service.
On August 25, 2008 at 11:38 pm Slave Driver said...
“There was a bug out on the patio tonight that I’ve never seen. Bright screaming red, like Chinese lacquer red, with a black band.”
That sounds like a type of Box Elder Bug. Harmless, but they like to swarm. They are yucky.
I keep finding these little tiny worms in my strawberrys. Uck! And such a waste of a beautiful red rips strawberry! DRB’s. A little Sevin Dust cocktail will fix ‘em right up.
On August 26, 2008 at 3:23 pm lady T said...
Regarding spiders on the ceiling. Years ago a ten year old friend of mine invented a great tool to get them off the ceiling. I bought two! And since then have made another myself. Take one long wrapping paper tube. (minus the wrapping paper). Cover one end with a 4 or 5 inch square scrap of material. Take a rubber band and wrap around the material and tube to secure.
From there you hold the tube up to the spider and almost as soon as you touch the ceiling it drops down through the tube onto the mateiral bottom. Something about the dark makes it drop. From there take outside or flush!!!
On August 26, 2008 at 9:49 pm Kerry said...
I googled images “1960 Airstream” and found not only great photos but a web site of people who collect and restore airstream’s. There was also one of a company that rebuilds and/or restores old Airstreams, I’m sure they could fill you in on all the details. I also ran across a blog there and they had 5 people living in one for 15 days and had fun!! I always use images first for everything as I find all sorts of fasinating items I would never thought to look for.
On August 27, 2008 at 11:47 am CrankyOtter said...
Box Elder! I was thinking the same thing. Harmless, but they cover everything in sight for a brief period. Also, I think they stink if you squish ‘em.
Thanks Lady T for the wrapping paper tube spider disposal system idea. As I said, CA=spiders