Observations

Went for a late-night walk the other evening. Not a long ramble. I confined myself to the porch. Got to the east end of the south porch and discovered an orb weaver had set up shop. Right by the evergreen sumac. It was a nice big web, with a nice big spider. It covered a considerable amount of space between the roof and the porch pole. I went back to investigate further in the morning and discovered the web was gone.

I went back last night. The web was there again. As was the spider. I have no idea what it’s catching. I hope it’s mosquitos. I tried to take a picture, with little success. I’ll have to use a different lighting system. I’d really like to identify the spider, but I need to see its markings. It looks fierce, and I’d hate to run into late one night, that would give me the shivers. Although, now that I think about it, I probably encountered a relative on more than one occasion, as I walked through the woods to deer blinds in pre-dawn darkness. Those days are over.

It’s fun discovering little natural wonders like this. Keeps the old mind fresh, which I believe is a good thing, and is certainly a nice tonic to my generally discombobulated state as I try to navigate the human world. Let’s just say there’s a song about people being strange by a band from my youth that pretty much sums up how I feel these days. But I suppose that’s an interesting bit, too. Dealing with strangeness. I think the trick is to take nothing personal, which is something that typically causes humans no end of grief. It will be interesting to see how I do.

John W. Wilson is the author of The Long Goodbye: A Caregiver’s Tale