I have a small aversion to spiders, in our household we call them mini monsters.  Not a phobia, I don’t run screaming from the room, but I would really prefer that they were invisible.  I know that they are wonderful little creatures, and keep all sorts of other beasties at bay, but I would prefer to live my life without co-habiting with any of them.

Mr ShoeThatAlwaysFits comes home tomorrow – he won’t be worrying tonight about the mess, or the domestic appliances that may have blown up whilst he’s been away (there have been a few) – he’ll be more concerned about coming home to some kind of arachnidarium

He’s never recovered from his homecoming from an extended trip 10-15 years ago.  It was a hot summer, just like this one, and we had wooden floors throughout our lower floor.  Large spiders liked our house, and that summer we were spider catnip.

Now, Mr ShoeThatAlwaysFits is our chief spider catcher – and I love him dearly for that amongst other talents.  However, he had been gone for 3 weeks – and we were averaging about 5 spiders a week.  I’m not talking the cute little money spiders, I’m talking large bodies, very long legs, and very very noticeable whilst scurrying across the floor.

I discovered that I could catch them easily enough by putting a glass over them, but that’s as much as I could bear.  He walked into our living room to find that I had used every glass we owned (and had bought many more) to capture the blighters.  You had to walk carefully around them in some kind of weaving motion, to make your path through to the kitchen, where there were more.

He was gobsmacked – I explained that I couldn’t sleep if they were loose, but that once I’d caught them, I couldn’t move them or put them outside.

So, tonight, on the eve of his return home, I think he’ll be more worried about that kind of homecoming.