My Encounter with a Brown Recluse Spider . . . Maybe

This is a Public Service Announcement!

Three days ago, I was working on my cars in my garage. I reached down to toss some leaves out into the alley and got bit on the wrist by something, presumably a spider. The bite flared painfully up over the next 48 hours. Today has finally crusted over and the surrounding redness is finally receding, though it is still painful. I used ice and anti-biotic ointment.

Here is my advice: 1) If leaves are lying around in your garage, use a rake or gloves if you're going to touch them. 2) If you get bit, if it's painful, if redness starts expanding around the bite, and if you look up "brown recluse" on the Internet, you'll have an "oh, shit" moment. They are common in Missouri (where I live) and many other states to the south and east of Missouri. Most people will be OK in a few days, but it can be a big deal for which there is no anti-venom and it can inflict a small minority of people with serious long term medical complications 3) many articles tell you to bring the spider to the doctor so they can ID it. This leads to comical images of going out and looking for a spider you never actually saw. You'll imagine looking at their little spider-faces and trying to decide which one looks guilty (even though it was just minding its own business when you trashed his/her home. Which brings me back to Rule #1: Next time I touch a pile of leaves in my garage, I'm going to use a rake or wear gloves. I've never got bit before but I should have thought about it, because a good friend of mine (you know who you are!) had some serious medical treatment for a brown recluse bite several years ago while cleaning out her garage.

I have an acquaintance who works in pest control. He told me that every house in St. Louis has brown recluse spiders in the house. They go about their business and you might not see them. If you'd like to have fewer of them in the house, you can spray pesticide, but I don't like the idea of spreading those chemicals around given that my two teen-aged daughters live here. Instead, a few years ago, I bought a pack of sticky pads that people sometimes use to catch mice. They catch bugs too. If you leave them out for a few months and then inspect them, you will be AMAZED at how many spiders and other bugs end up glued to your trap.

Or rule number 4: Don't ever clean out your garage.

Continue ReadingMy Encounter with a Brown Recluse Spider . . . Maybe

Rocks turning into treasures

It's fun to watch common creek rocks (that I found around Farmington Missouri) tumble into these shapes and colors. These rocks are about 1-2" and they have been tumbled through 3 levels of grit over three weeks. They are now tumbling in polish grit for another week, where they will pick up a clearness and a shine. For this batch I gathered reds and patterns and these types of rocks are easily found in creeks around Farmington and Fredericktown, Missouri. These rocks didn't look much like this until tumbled, however. After I posted an earlier post on tumbled rocks, two friends caught the passion and bought rock tumblers of their own. For anyone else interested, I'm using a Thumler brand rock tumbler, Model B.

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Beautiful Scenes from Southeast Missouri

I've lived in St. Louis all my life, not realizing (until recently) the amazing vistas located within a two-hour drive from my home. I took these two photos today (on an iPhone 11, processed with Aurora HDR). Both of these scenes were taken in the Mark Twain National Forest, somewhat south of Fredericktown, Missouri. Top photo is of the St. Francis River.





This third photo shows a friend's Irish Wolfhound, "Owen," enjoying the sunset over the St. Francis River in the Mark Twain National Forest.

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Nighttime Insanity

"Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives."


--William Dement (Sleep Researcher)

I love this quote. Our nightly insanity is something we all share, young, old, rich and poor.

I would add this: If someone were to record my thoughts during the day, including my worries, reminders, warnings and scolding of myself, they would think that I am insane all day long.

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The Courage to be Seen As You Are

At her TED talk, "The Power of Vulnerability," Brené Brown points out that courage and vulnerability are two sides of the same coin. When I first heard this, it seemed oxymoronic, but then it made total sense. You need courage to be vulnerable to others and when you are vulnerable, you can have real relationships, which makes you strong, courageous. Here's an except from Brown's TED talk:

There was only one variable that separated the people who have a strong sense of love and belonging and the people who really struggle for it. And that was, the people who have a strong sense of love and belonging believe they're worthy of love and belonging. That's it. . . . What they had in common was a sense of courage. . . . [T]he original definition of courage, when it first came into the English language -- it's from the Latin word "cor," meaning "heart" -- and the original definition was to tell the story of who you are with your whole heart. And so these folks had, very simply, the courage to be imperfect. They had the compassion to be kind to themselves first and then to others, because, as it turns out, we can't practice compassion with other people if we can't treat ourselves kindly. . . . [T]hey were willing to let go of who they thought they should be in order to be who they were, which you have to absolutely do that for connection. The other thing that they had in common was this: They fully embraced vulnerability. They believed that what made them vulnerable made them beautiful. They didn't talk about vulnerability being comfortable, nor did they really talk about it being excruciating . . . They just talked about it being necessary. They talked about the willingness to say, "I love you" first ... the willingness to do something where there are no guarantees ... the willingness to breathe through waiting for the doctor to call after your mammogram. They're willing to invest in a relationship that may or may not work out. They thought this was fundamental.

. . . .

[W]hen we work from a place, I believe, that says, "I'm enough" ... then we stop screaming and start listening, we're kinder and gentler to the people around us, and we're kinder and gentler to ourselves. 

Continue ReadingThe Courage to be Seen As You Are