Comments on: Day Six: Oh, Thank You Very Much

By: CrankyOtter

CrankyOtter — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:47:25 +0000

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

By: Kerry

Kerry — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 02:49:45 +0000

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.

By: lady T

lady T — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 20:23:56 +0000

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!!!

By: Slave Driver

Slave Driver — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 04:38:11 +0000

“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.

By: robena grant

robena grant — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 01:24:18 +0000

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.

By: talpianna

talpianna — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:38:56 +0000

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

By: Kieran

Kieran — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 23:10:32 +0000

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).

By: colognegrrl

colognegrrl — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 20:32:22 +0000

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.)

By: JulieB

JulieB — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 20:13:16 +0000

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.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 19:40:07 +0000

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.

By: Lily C

Lily C — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 18:53:34 +0000

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

By: Lou

Lou — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 16:50:42 +0000

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…

By: ubergeekmom

ubergeekmom — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:58:36 +0000

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.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 04:05:00 +0000

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.

By: Cherry Honey

Cherry Honey — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 04:01:57 +0000

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.

By: JulieB

JulieB — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 03:56:02 +0000

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.

By: talpianna

talpianna — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 02:10:32 +0000

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…

By: MJ

MJ — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 02:02:51 +0000

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

By: Mary Stella

Mary Stella — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 01:02:03 +0000

Jenny, just Google “affordable housing Florida”. I’m sure trailers suitable for family-raising will pop up.

By: Cathy

Cathy — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 23:14:17 +0000

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.