Spider Tales

Our great nephew Jordan is afraid of spiders. It's not an irrational fear where he runs away screaming at the site of the little eight-legged creatures, but if he sees a web, he moves away and will not be back until the web is removed.
He comes by the fear honestly, because his mom, who we also helped raise, was afraid of spiders too.
This past week he stayed with us when his grandmother, who keeps him during the summer, had a doctor's appointment and asked if he could stay with us a while.
When he arrived, we had breakfast on the screened porch. Every thing was copacetic (his new word), until he spied a spider crawling up the screen. He grabbed his banana and apple juice and headed inside.
When he finally told me that he'd seen a spider, I went through my little routine to explain about spiders and that they too had a place here and a job to do.
I told him that spiders captured moths and stinging bees in their web. I even pulled up a YouTube video that showed a small spider capturing a wasp, but he wasn't buying it.
Finally I had to get the broom and sweep the spider and all the cobwebs off the porch before he'd consider returning.
Jilda cooked tacos tonight and after dinner, I cleaned the kitchen. I had a bowl full of scraps to dump into our compost bucket on the bannister of the deck.
As I stepped outside, I got a face full of spider web. What's worse, I could feel the spider crawling up my forehead.
I spewed out a stream of obscenities that are still reverberating off the hills and hollows of central Alabama.
The spider had set up shop just outside our garden doors this evening. Apparently the living room light filtering through the glass is a magnet for moths.
I normally won't bother any spider except for black widows and brown recluses, but I have to tell you, a spider on my face is a little too close for me.
I thought of Jordan after I'd raked the spider off my head and tossed him into the night. I'm glad he didn't see my little jig, because he's smart enough, even at five, that he might have pulled up the YouTube video on spiders and lectured me about why they are here.