The Not So Itsy Bitsy Spider Incident

For those who are also friends with me on facebook - you got the short version last night. Here is the full story:

Yesterday morning I didn't have any patients on the schedule, so I played hooky and headed to the barn to try to get some daylight miles on Gem. With fall coming on fast, my evenings are getting harder and harder to get rides done before night hits. Anyway...just as I got there my receptionist texted me that we now had a 10:30 am patient. I looked at my watch and knew I wouldn't have time to get the mare, tack, ride, untack, cool, get home and take a shower and make it to work. Darn. But having patients is a good thing, so that was much more important.

With an hour to kill, I tackled a big item on my to do list: cleaning out the trailer. It was getting pretty gross in there (and on the outside) and needed a good scrubbing. I grabbed the hose and got a lot of the muck out, but wanted it better. I wasn't prepared for this task, so the only thing I had to hand was Gemmie's shampoo. I squeezed some out onto the floor, grabbed the broom and went to town. It worked surprisingly well :) It looked much cleaner and even smelled good!

It is September, but it is also the South so I knew leaving the trailer all closed up would only create a sauna that would mold my tack in an instant. I left the back wide open and vowed to return that night to close it all up and hopefully ride as well.

Its a good thing too or else I would have snuggled up on the couch at 7 pm rather than drive back to the barn, but I needed to go and so I pulled back into the barn drive shortly after 7:30pm. Unfortunately, it is now fall and the sun is beginning to work against me. I had limited time to ride before it was dark. We headed to the hay field and managed 3 laps around before it was too dark to be safe and called it a night.

On the way out I parked the car in the drive and got out to shut the gate across the driveway. No big deal. As I walked through the narrow opening I managed to ruin the home a friendly spider and get covered in a sticky web. Its gross, but being a solo trail rider it is something I have definitely come to terms with. I catch more webs than I like to think about out on the trail.

I got back into the car, put it in drive with my foot on the brake and turned to my right to text the hubby that I was coming back home. That's when it all went to crap.

There was a 3-4" black, long legged spider chilling out on my right shoulder facing my face. I freaked out!

Completely forgetting that the car was in drive, I opened the drivers side door and leaped out flailing my arms as the spider decided that walking up my arm to my head was the best option for his survival.

As I turned around in panic stricken circles, I saw the van start to roll off down the driveway and get nearer and nearer the road. In the dark.

Crap.

I ran towards the van, figuring that having my van get totaled due to a spider wouldn't go over well with the hubby, and jumped into the still open drivers side door to slam the car back into park.

Phew. Crisis averted.

But now I had no clue what happened to the spider. Was it still on me? Did it fall into the van? Was it on the ground?

Crap.

I tried to look on the ground, but it was too dark and my cell phone was too dim to be useful.

I patted myself down but wasn't convinced he wasn't still present. So...I jumped into the back of the van and hoped nobody would try to enter the barn drive while I proceeded to strip in the van to turn my clothes inside out making sure there was no super big spider still present. Sorry hubby!

Satisfied that the spider wasn't on me anymore and not seeing it in the van, I got back into the drivers side and went home.

If only I had a heart rate monitor on for al of that!

I am positive Gemmie was watching my from her pasture thinking that finally I had gone competley insane.