8:24 p.m. - 2004-12-30
Snow, tarantulas and tsunamis
Ah, another quiet day here in the land of Moral Values!! Snort.
Let me expand on that. Another quiet, warm and snowless day. It was so warm that Bruce did yard work and painted some of the house, and I actually got through the day without my usual three layers of clothes and a scarf.
I confess, I do miss the snow. Snowshoeing. I grew up on snowshoes, and I have them hanging on the living room wall here, sadly unused.
I miss the zen stillness of snowshowing through a blizzard. I miss the rigorous shuffle, the way I can work up a sweat in below freezing temperatures. And I miss not being able to hear myself think because at a certain point I've just stopped thinking. Just totally focused on the white and the snow.
When I was first diagnosed with lupus, a therapist asked me to write a story about how I would want to die. I wrote a story about being an old lady out on snowshoes, who just has a heart attack and falls into the snow. After all these years, I still think that would be fantastic.
Sigh. It's strange how I can be so in love with the warmth of the South and still miss the snow. You just can't have it both ways, can you?
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I've stopped even looking at pictures of the Tsunami. I feel like a casualty vampire, all these people dead and here I am reading about it over my cup of coffee. It makes me feel like a creep.
I really felt like this watching an ABC special last night, during which they showed a man from Sweden who had been reunited with his 2 year old son. They both looked completely shell shocked, and they still hadn't found the boy's mother. I just wanted to hug them. The whole thing is so horrifying and ungodly awful.
I just can't watch anymore. I just want to go over there and help them dig out of this.
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The highlight of the day was going to the local big box pet store to get crickets for the tarantulas. As usual, the salesperson asked "Who're you feeding?"
"Two tarantulas" Usually this is the point where they go "Eeeeeeeuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrr!! Ooooooook!!! YUCK!!!!" and make faces and fling their hands about.
Not the salesman I had today!! Little did I know, but I was being waited on by Tommy, alias Tarantula Man!!
Tommy had at least ten tarantulas, and asked me all about what types we had and how were we keeping them. Since we are still so new to the tarantula thing, I asked him a bazillion questions about the furry beasts.
He was a font of wisdom. Among other things, he told me that if they get out of their enclosures, their instinct will be to run up our arms and into our hair. Evidently tarantulas like hights. How charming.
He also advised me not to wear leather gloves because if the tarantulas tried to bite through a glove they'd break their fangs.
"Sooooooo....I should let them bite me?"
He grinned. "Yup. It'll hurt like hell, but you'll get over it!"
Gee.....thanks Tommy!
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