Lightning Strike to Chicago

I blew town Friday for a quickie trip back home, hence the radio silence. The good news is that I scored a ten-pound box of Vienna Beef hot dogs which should see the Pastry family through the grilling season. The bad news: Mrs. Pastry bought a new tarantula. If you met Mrs. Pastry you’d never peg her for an arachnophile. However she’s owned a spider consistently since her days in the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic, where she learned to love the things. I can’t say I understand how that happens to a person. Maybe it’s all the time in the Caribbean sun. Her last spider, Spanky, died over the winter. She’s been quietly mourning him ever since. But now it’s spring and there’s a new spider, Bubbles, her life. She seems a new woman. All I can say is: whatever baby wants, baby gets, even if it has eight legs and fangs.

20 thoughts on “Lightning Strike to Chicago”

      1. If you want to make sure Bubbles never leaves her habitat, tell Mrs. Pastry that you might have seen a tarantula hawk near the house. Those things are what scary scifi movies like Alien are based on. They are just part of daily tarantula living in the desert southwest! 😐

        1. Oh that would upset her greatly…just the thought. Little Jo and Joan would probably panic as well. When our last tarantula died, little Joan drew a tear-stained picture of angels taking a tarantula to heaven. We got a worried phone call from the principal.

          – Joe

  1. Does Mrs Pastry also like giant spider movies? I love them. If I remember correctly, one of Clint Eastwood’s first roles was the pilot of the airplane that bombed the title creature in Tarantula directed by the great Jack Arnold.

    1. Yes she does to some extent, but because she hates to see tarantulas come to harm, the endings upset her.

      – Joe

    1. You know I’ll have to try that and see. Odds are I’ll only get in trouble for it.

      – Joe

  2. Joe: My daughter, now 28, loved anything creepy crawly. We had all kinds of critters over the years. She now works as an entomologist

    1. Mrs. Pastry is already has a PhD in modern languages, but that doesn’t mean she can’t get another one. She could teach the nasty things to speak Spanish.

      – Joe

  3. OMG, I can scarcely believe this. Seriously. I FREAK out at the sight of a spider – to me they are all horrendous. I can scarcely think about them without feeling anxious. My parents had to send me to therapy as a child because of my fear of bugs – namely spiders. I can’t watch them on TV. I actually scream spontaneously at the sight of a spider and I can’t think of anything else that has that effect on me. I can’t believe I’m saying this but I don’t think I could live with someone with a pet spider. 🙂 Of course, to each her own, but I’d be too freakin’ scared.

    1. My mother-in-law has the same reaction. And if you’re suggesting that that’s why I tolerate living with one, I resent the insinuation.

      – Joe

  4. My younger son has owned several tarantulas over the years He had a blue one and a red one, the colors are fabulous. But beyond that I don’t see the appeal. They don’t bother me but I don’t see the point either. Hope you have many good years with Bubbles.

    1. Hehe…thanks, Frankly. I’ll pass the word to Mrs. Pastry and the girls.

      – Joe

    1. I considered it, but at the end of the day it’s a food blog. I didn’t have the heart. Or the stomach.

      – Joe

  5. Just curious, does Moxie get along with Bubbles & vice versa?
    Since she knew Spanky as a pup, is it like when you bring a dog up with cats, the dog can accept the cats into the family pack?

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