Creepy photos: spiders and skin- not for all viewers

Don't you just love it when you find friends while cleaning? These guys heard there was going to be a party. I'm glad to assure people that they were vacuumed up before any party guests arrived!

I think these were taken at least two weeks after radiation. Skin is looking really good! 

 

Check in

 Just checking in. How's everybody doing in the relentless lead up to Christmas? Those of you missing loved ones due to distance or the afterlife, are you doing okay? Text if you need to talk. I'm here. Church workers, do you have the support you need? We appreciate all you're doing to get ready for Christmas; thank you. Teachers, you hanging in there? I've been hearing varying descriptions of the classroom craziness and am praying for all of you heroes, haha! You can do it. Just a few more days. Keep breathing!

Another reason to celebrate: I am officially done with my Red Devil side of chemo! My doc said all my blood cell numbers were good to go, told me I looked wonderful, asked if I was up for it, and I declared, "let's get it over with!" I had a good day with my Zita- thanks, babe! Hooray for another thing crossed off the list. Whew! It has been a YEAR of ridiculousness, no doubt. And as for 2025...

My next appointment will be in January when my Taxol treatments kick off. Doc claims that one will be easier all around though I should expect neuropathy in my hands and feet for a few days after each treatment. Always some new wrinkle to add to the learning curve. We'll see how that goes. Right now, I'll just be over here pumping myself full of water and salad to keep things flushing out and moving along and doing small things as I can accomplish them. Looking forward to Thing Three's holiday concert, I have a visit with my plastics doc and PT this week, and otherwise it's real life and Christmas prep. 

Hang in there, everybody. Be safe, stay off the egg nog, sneak a cookie when nobody's looking, and take care of yourselves, not just everyone else. You're allowed naps. You're allowed coffee with a friend out of the house. You're allowed to decorate the tree with every ornament you own or just leave it lights only if that makes you happy! Go for a walk if the temps and the ice aren't intimidating. Play the Christmas carols or blast you own favorites. Have a bubble bath- when was the last time you had one? The only thing in our tub is spiders... it is sadly neglected and I may need to have a date with it after evicting the small predators since NOT all drains lead to the ocean...

My point is, the year is rapidly drawing to a close. I know you parents with kids at home are overwhelmed and everyone is counting down the days for school to be done for awhile. Wash those hands and eat real food and remember to hydrate. Breathe. You are all so loved. Enjoy your holidays the best that you can and don't stress about perfection. Be merry and bright! xoxoxxo

Lodging a complaint

 We can't be the only ones with this problem. We have lots of spiders in our home, lurking in bathrooms, hanging out in ceiling corners, weaving webs across the stretch between doorjambs. I'm generally the first one out of bed, so I have the distinct displeasure of breaking web strands in the morning. Lovely. And where is the spider NOW?

Generally I leave them alone. The terms and conditions are that they earn their keep. I don't mind if you want to chill in a corner of the ceiling, but you better be the one to catch the stray mosquito. I know houseflies are fast, but with my fly swatter I am faster, so they get a pass on those. Why do we still have fruit flies even with the apple cider vinegar/dishsoap concoction and resident spiders?

A few mornings ago I saw a baby Guillermo, as house centipedes are known in our house, scurry out from behind our bathroom mirror and wedge himself behind the sponge on the sink. I missed him emerge, but next saw him attempting to run the gauntlet between a bathroom rug and a spider in a web under our floorboard heater. He, sadly, was intercepted. A battle ensued, a spindly bathroom spider tried to join the fray and was rebuffed by the sleek spider, the baby Guillermo ended up curled like a sad comma, and the sleek spider reigned triumphant. 

My complaint is this: why do I have THREE predators in my bathroom who are attempting to off each other when I had to smash FIVE moths in the pantry all by myself with a sixth out of reach on the popcorn ceiling? 

Get outta my bathroom an' get to work or you're all fired!

Guillermo

 The other day I was doing yoga in what we call the sitting room which is adjacent to our bathroom when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw something small skitter across the floor. I debated about getting up to investigate and decided to continue and check later. 

I didn't find anything.

Last night, I flipped on the bathroom light and lo and behold there was a house centipede just chillin' on the wall next to the toilet paper holder. You know the kind- they look like someone's eyebrow. Lots of delicate legs. And antenna-ish things. Wonderful hunters/predators yet extremely high on the Heebie Jeebie Scale. Not sure he/she realizes he/she is poaching on the territory of the many, many spiders we already have in there. Today I counted five in the bathtub alone; there's no shower in there, and it's a fancy tub so it doesn't get used as often as it should. Every time we DO use it we evict spiders, plural.

He/she took off and hid under the baseboard heater. I am reallllllly hoping it finds a better home before it's cool enough to turn that heater on; pretty sure toasted centipede is not going to be a desirable Yankee Candle scent. 

In the meantime, I shall name him Guillermo, because writing that name looks like it has lots of legs... 

Another misty morning

We had a two hour delay due to fog today. It is kind of fizzing outside, as Liam likes to say. Happy Friday!

Naturally, I'm sitting here listening to Led Zeppelin's Misty Mountain Hop, which you can hear here if you so desire. I had nothing to do with it, just borrowed the link from YouTube. 

Anyway, misty mornings are fabulous for finding spider webs. There were various filters used on these photos, notably Vivid and Dramatic Cool, for visibility purposes. 

We have very industrious spiders. If only my children could take lessons, heh...

These are the lovely flowers PaPa planted for me. I had picked out perennial, shade loving, native plant seeds and he planted them for me... and then we had a torrential downpour in which the gutter overflowed and all my seeds washed into the pond. 

This pond.

You're saying, "that's not a pond. That's a jungle." While you are correct, don't judge. We rarely go in and out the front door and I forget about the pond (obviously) and should probably throw what we call mosquito donuts in. They're these donut shaped crisps (a bit denser than a Samoa from the Girl Scouts and minus the chocolate stripes, but that'll get you close enough) which knock off the mosquito larvae or whatever so you don't have bugs from the standing water. I can still hear the pond pump running, but it sounds asthmatic and I'm not sure that it isn't full of algae or baby lily pads. 

And then there's the back forty:

Lalaith Havens, signing off and wishing everyone a wonderful weekend!