I thought I had better write something just to reassure myself that even though I have recently passed the three-quarter century mark I am still here. Now that I have a page open my mind has gone dead again. Two nights ago, however, we found a baby possum in one of our bird feeders close to the house. The dogs were all outside too, so we got them in before they could get a whiff of the little guy, though Simon sussed out that we were trying to get away with something and lingered at the bottom of the three steps, close to where the feeder hangs. None the less we got them in safely. Mary tried to give the possum a piece of bread, but he or she just hissed at her. So, we watched from the window for a while, turned out the lights and went to bed.
To continue the creature features, I was sitting at the table, much as I am now, wearing my L. L. Bean "insect shield" slip over t-shirt. I felt something moving on my ear, swatted at it and watched as a dark spidery shape landed on my chest. I recoiled in terror, well, sort of, swatted again and it disappeared. I suspected it was one of Shelob's offspring but who knew? I searched the floor but found nothing. In any case, about an hour later, an hour! I felt something very wrong moving inside my left sleeve. I pulled open the sleeve and there was the damn spider crawling up my arm! This time I knocked it on the floor and heard a very satisfying crunch as I put my foot down once and for all. This time I could have used Garfield and his rolled up newspaper, but where is a fat cat when you need him?