Tuesday, October 09, 2012

Overheard in the Truck...

We're on New Mexico Route 4, wending down a switchback into a canyon. I'm in the front passenger seat of the Nerd Truck. Just under my elbow is a guard rail and just under the guard rail is several hundred feet of nothing. I am leaving sweaty finger-dents in the truck's Jesus handle.

Stingray wonders aloud if we might see any tarantulas in the road, it getting to be the migratory tarantula time of year...
LabRat: "...and we had three of the fellas around the house last year, all excited... or confused. One of them kept climbing the screen door by the computer room there..."

Me [panicking]: "Dear God, I'm hanging off a cliff into space and we're talking about giant hairy spiders climbing the house in which I'm going to be sleeping tonight. This is GREAT!"

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

You know, I've been in that exact place, and I'm always looking down to see the cool stuff.

Spear

Anonymous said...

Deep Breaths...
In the nose and out through the mouth.
Think pleasant thoughts...

And keep your sidearm close by.

gfa

Sherm said...

We have a local drive you may like http://www.peakhappenings.com/wp-content/gallery/sept-gazette-2011/beartoothhwy01.jpg
It looks like this was taken after the landslide took out part of the road.

daniels said...

Don't worry - there are giant wasps that eat the humongous hairy spiders.

Anonymous said...

Oh good, it is the state insect of New Mexico.

The U.S. state of New Mexico chose the insect in 1989 to become its official state insect. The selection of the insect was prompted by a group of Edgewood, New Mexico, elementary school children doing research on states which had adopted state insects. They selected three insects as candidates, and mailed ballots to all schools for a state wide election. The winner was the Tarantula Hawk Wasp (specifically, Pepsis formosa).

Who knew?
Terry
Fla

Tam said...

Spear,

"You know, I've been in that exact place, and I'm always looking down to see the cool stuff."

I think part of the problem is that for the last eleven years I've driven a vehicle where my butt is on the pavement and there's no appreciable body roll in corners.

Just normal motoring in a 4WD pickup has me feeling like the thing's going to tip over at any moment under the best of circumstances...

DaddyBear said...

New Mexico - Come for the long falls off of the roadways, stay for the tarantula migrations.

One of the reasons my wife isn't too cool on moving back to Arizona is the scorpion that she found in our bedroom when we visited friends there.

perlhaqr said...

I've seen those wasps around my house, though sadly, no tarantulas. Big bastards, too, like 2 inches long and shiny electric purple blue.

Hey Tam, if you have time when you come back through Albuquerque, gimme a holler for lunch if you like.

five zero five four zero one zero seven zero zero

Jay G said...

Didn't we see something similar on the range? All I know is it took every ounce of restraint I had not to empty the M&P into it... ;)

montieth said...

Tam two points.

1. What caliber for tarantula

2. You want body roll come try this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzcuwc5LNCI

Ken O said...

Heh. Tam needs to come hang in S. Texas for a while; I spend most of the year with only a shade and no doors on the Jeep. Body roll in the corners gets much more exciting.

BobG said...

Welcome to the southwest.

Anonymous said...

I remember driving a rental car+ down a dirt trail in Arizona and seeing a spider crossing the road in front of me. That's when I knew I wasn't in New England any more....

NotClauswitz said...

Is better to be the driver, but what kind of "normal" 4WD pickup rolls that much, Chevy? Dodge? Toyoter? Fud?

KM said...

The spiders are just males looking for a little lovin'.
If you don't have 8 eyes and 8 legs it's really not interested.
Thanks for the reminder to get out and do some night fire/fauna gawking runs.

Windy Wilson said...

Your truck had a "Jesus handle"? Mine doesn't, and I haven't seen one since I rode in my friend's 1971 type 3 beetle.

sobriant74 said...

As for spider caliber....best to nuke from orbit,...only way to be sure.

Chris said...

Guard rails is no longer correct i'm told. They're guide rails now. They don't guard us from anything. So the State Trooper told me.

CIII

Justthisguy said...

Ah, I mind the time when the Semi-Sweety had her pet tarantula get loose when I was living next door, and called on me to recapture it.

I was kinda disappointed in her; after all, she was willing to keep a tarantula, but not willing to hunt it down and recapture it. The tarantula and I eventually came to an accommodation and I was able to chase it back into the glass box.

That tarantula was an interesting arthropod. I think it might have been capable of distinguishing among different humans, being pretty smart for an arthropod.

I have heard that tarantulas are good to eat, if you singe off the hair, cook them properly, and suppress the gag reflex.

Justthisguy said...

Oh, on scary driving and the Semi-Sweety:

She and I were driving in her car between Southern FL and Northern GA one time, and had occasion to drive over that Sunshine Skyway Bridge, across Tampa Bay.

That would be the new one, which replaced the old one which was half knocked down by a ship in a fog, killing a bunch of people.

Now, the new one is right scary, but not near as scary as the old one, half of which still existed and was still visible off to one side.

She insisted on driving it, even though her hands were totally rigid on the wheel, with her knuckles pale white while she was doing it.

She did keep the car exactly in the middle of the lane, all the way across. The gal has some self-control.