Six Legs

My long-time, six-legged arachnid nemesis finally fell today.

Cockroaches and lizards have virtually disappeared from my room, so aside from the occasional beetle I'm left with only the "shadow spiders." Huge, completely flat, light gray and lightning fast, they stick to the walls (as opposed to also coming onto the floor) and don't seem to spin webs and therefore don't bother me. Adult cockroaches are a different story; I'm immensely relieved not to see them hanging around my ceiling anymore. There's something fundamentally disgusting about cockroaches... They're the size of small animals without any of the cuteness that makes small animals likeable, you know? But thankfully spiders have never overly bothered me. I usually kill them if I can, but they don't stress me out. If I'm feeling lazy I sometimes don't even try; they're all over the place anyway. I find about three a day on average, so I'm getting quite adept at killing them in under five smacks. I'm telling you, they're unbelievably quick- five shots or less is very admirable, if I do say so myself.
Katherine Niemann, spider killer extraordinaire!

...Old Six Legs was the exception.

In an epic battle that lasted more than ten wallops and raged over two walls, I managed to claim two legs, but my victim ultimately escaped with its life.
And has been taunting me ever since.
Six Legs spent two days centered a foot over my door, staring at me (accusingly, I believe). When it finally decided to start moving around again, it stayed frustratingly out of reach at all times. Until- bingo! it finally got careless. I came into my room this evening after being gone all day and there it was, only a foot or so above the floor near my makeshift bedside table.
Doing something nefarious I'm sure...
I reached for the shoe. Bambambam! Three strikes.
Six Legs disappeared into the crack between my door and doorframe. I didn't give up though. As I was searching my door in the dim light, I caught sight of it scampering away across the floor (can you still scamper if you're missing a quarter of your limbs?) out of the corner of my eye. It hid in the shadow of my table. Fatal mistake! Six Legs was toast as soon as it opted for the floor.

I just hope I got it before it spread the word that sometimes even I need more than five tries...


(Happy Birthday, Brandrews!)