Along Came a Spider...

You know it's spring around here when the oak pollen coats our driveway and back porch, and shortly after, the spiders come out.  I have no idea what types of spiders live around our driveway and backyard, but it feels like the kingdom of the spiders around here for a couple of weeks every year.  It can be a bit dicey getting in the car each morning, as you never know if someone's decided to make a web between the fence and the cars overnight, and walking through a spiderweb is pretty well a daily occurrence.  

So, a few weeks ago I noticed a spider that got smart and made her web in my driver's side mirror.  I appreciated her thoughtfulness, as it was the one morning that week I made it into my car without the spider web heebie jeebies.  She was a little spider and didn't bug me, so I didn't bug her.  She did get a bit territorial and try to build a web between the mirror and the window a few times, but after a few trips to Sonic she gave up and focused on the mirror.  Every once in a while I'd see her peek out while I was driving.  Then one morning about a week and a half ago, she brought a leaf into her web and I noticed that she wasn't such a little spider anymore.  Normally I would have had James take care of the spider problem, but she wasn't bothering me at all and honestly, I was curious about what her plans were.  Last weekend on the way home from the beach, my much larger spider friend decided to hang out on the outside of the mirror (James got to see her!)...but I don't know what happened to her, because I haven't seen her since.  Maybe she fell off, or it was just the natural end of her life cycle.  Her leaf is still there, and her web is still intact (that thing has been through TWO car washes!).  I don't have the heart to clean them off just yet.  

Sometimes we see things every day and they become part of the landscape of our lives.  Sometimes we forget to appreciate those things, and to be grateful for them.  Sometimes we overlook them completely, and forget they're even there.  Maybe she was just a spider, but maybe, just maybe she was a wake up call.