Shriek and Shudder…

Alysa: The day that Jon and I were packing up our last house, getting ready to move to Mmopane, I was folding our clothes and repacking them in our duffel bags one last time. When one bag was finished I would haul it out onto the front steps to be loaded into the truck and then return for some more. Gathering the last few things left in the bedroom, I picked up Jon’s motorcycle helmet and out of the corner of my eye I saw something black fall to the floor and race across the carpet. Yes, I am embarrassed to admit that I audibly shrieked. I saw the ‘thing’ run under one of the nightstands. Calling Jon into the room we carefully removed the items on top of the stand and then slowly counted to three as we flipped it over and prepared to run if chased. This lovely creature is what greeted us. Jon is overjoyed that it didn’t end up on his head, escaping from the helmet across his face. (Yes, I am physically shuddering at the thought). Thought you’d enjoy seeing our non-poisonous rain spider.

The board that the spider's forelegs are resting on is roughly the metric equivalent of a 2x2, to give the picture some scale.

Jon: It turns out that the spider is what they refer to as a rain spider (giant wandering crab spider) and is completely harmless. However, as the name suggests it is rather large.What I would like to point out is where it was hiding. IT WAS IN MY MOTORCYCLE HELMET PEOPLE!! Poisonous or not...what if I had tried to put it on with that thing in there?! I get weak just thinking about it. Needless to say, I will never ever ever again be able to put on any helmet of any sort without thoroughly checking the inside to make sure there are no nasty surprises lurking inside.