Black Widows

What the heck is it with black widows? I go ages without seeing one, and then bam.. they're everywhere. I mean everywhere. What's weird is I don't have much of a problem with most commons spiders, but these guys just freak me out (black widows and bears tend to be my fear factors).

First, I go to drop of my recycling. Just a quick and easy jaunt outside, which I do barefoot. I tend to go outside a lot barefoot when I can. I don't like shoes all that much. But after I put the bag in the bin, I reached down to grab something that had fallen, and I saw a black widow just running for my foot. Okay, she wasn't running, but she was moving toward my foot (see.. I admit when I exaggerate, unlike some people who tell horrible stories about poor Stumpy). So I squealed and ran away from the recycling bin, swearing never to go near it again w/o shoes. Oh, and that thing that I dropped, I left it there. Opps, I litered.

So then, the next day, I go to my parents to mow their lawn. I go to the shed to remove the mower... and, well, let me describe this shed. Two doors. Both need to be open to get the lawn mower out. One unlocks from the outside, the other from the inside, you need to reach around and down to get to the lock. So I walk up to the shed and find that my dad left the door that locks on the outside open. A huge ol' black widow made a nice little nest in that space between the top of the door and the shed. I would have to stick my head and my body in underneath the black widow to unlock the other door. Uh, uh, so not happening. I went to get a stick to destroy the nest....the stick got stuck in the nest. I found a bigger, longer stick. It worked. I closed the door and am hoping that when I go there this weekend, that big ol' black widow will have disappeared.

But my black widow story doesn't end there. Oh no, that would be too easy. No I wake up this morning, decide that I need some clothes drying downstairs, and for some insane reason, I peek in the washing machine. And there, low and behold, in my washing machine of all places is another big ol' black widow. WTF!!!??? In my house? In my washing machine? What if it had decided to crawl into my clothes I had hanging, what if it decided to crawl upstairs in my bed and kill me and suck my brains out? What if it decided to crawl into my car (I've had one in the engine before, I let the guy who changes my oil deal with that one). I set the washing machine on HOT and started it for a small load. What a waste of energy and water, and I hope the black widow suffered (oh, geesh, if there is a hell, i am going for that, aren't I). Stupid black widows.

Anyone want to come over this weekend and remove the mower from the shed? Free lemonade!!

**********
UPDATE
*********
Oh, freakin 'ell, the black widow seems to have survived the wash. I guess putting it on small load was the wrong thing to do, extra large might have done the trick. What in the world am I going to do about the black widow in my washing machine? AHHHHHH.