my dad sent home a flat green scorpion from the northern saudi desert during desert shield that had become an unwelcome guest in his boot one night. scorpions are kind of flat anyway, so the extra crushing made it fit nicely in an envelope, with one of his letters. i liked that one better than the only other one i saw... on my arm. it had been living in that canoe me and my buddy were carrying down to the water, over our heads. just happened to see that unwelcome shape there, maybe an inch and a half long. i dropped my end of the canoe on my head to bat it off, never saw it again. gave me a really good headache, that falling boat.
spiders are more familiar and don't make me quite as nervous. never messed with a tarantula, but have run afoul of enough of those chubby orb weavers while surveying that they're just a nuisance. one of the coolest things i've just happened to notice was a black widow in a slim hollow in the wall planking above my grandpa's front porch.. it reached down and grabbed an unwary wasp off the comb those poor suckers had built up there next to it. have to admit, i appreciated its work.
i guess they're just another part of creation. a very ancient one at that (sea scorpions were likely the first creatures to venture out of the ocean, way back in.. well, like the silurian period.. around 300-400Myr ago or something. spiders are old too). no special love for them, though.
HF 0645z11march