We Had A Pet Spider

We had a pet spider…for a while there, a couple of weeks ago.

None of us were particularly fond of spiders prior to her arrival. But this one won us over.

Spidee lived on the out side of the top window pane on the back door at the bottom of the stairs. So we’d see her as we came downstairs in the morning to start the coffee.

And we’d see her again when we walked back upstairs to wake up our son.

And back down to make breakfast.

And back up to tell our son to put his pants on, stop dancing in front of the mirror, and come get ready for school.

But the evenings were where it’s at.
Every night we’d watch her, backlit by the moon, doing exactly what she was put on the earth to do: freehand gorgeous delicate tapestries.

She was an artist, a bridge builder, a problem solver, a hunter. It was marvelous.

Hit the bottom of Netflix? Get yourself an Orb Weaver.

One day she snared a massive grasshopper. How does a grasshopper wind up on the top window pane of a door? I don’t know but it was that dude’s last hop.

Spidee chewed him up head first.

And then, just like that…Spidee disappeared.

Our house has not been the same since. For days we’d catch one another pausing and looking wistfully at the top corner of the door. Sometimes a sigh. Sometimes a grumble. Or one of us would remark about how boring moths are.

This is Pretty Cool:

1. Last week was the 15th anniversary (!!!!) of the release of my album “Everything Just Happened the Way That It Happened” which kicks off with “On Its Way to You” – a love song that has a line about the spiders we eat while we’re sleeping.

2. Fall is my favorite. And it’s a great excuse to watch “Over the Garden Wall” over and over and over. I’m constantly singing “Patient Is the Night” featuring Chris Isaak.

3. Speaking of “Patience” – I interviewed Duff McKagan of Guns N’ Roses for American Songwriter magazine. He got a kick out of me telling him my dad destroyed my “Appetite for Destruction” tape when I was a kid. And he told me about writing those iconic songs

4. Fall makes me think about nuts. Nuts make me think about squirrels. Squirrels make me think of that one time we saw a “Squirrel Carrying A Squirrel” up a tree. I wrote a song about it 🙂

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