Our front door is open on warm late afternoons, and when I sit in my favorite living room chair I have a nice view of this shiny spider web. Sometimes it seems to vibrate in the breeze in perfect time to the music we're playing, making a pretty prism. This is either magical, or else I'm just becoming senile, staring at a spider web. (No, I have not been shopping at our new cannabis retail outlets.)
The spider is catching flies and getting bigger each day! Well, a good housewife would get up and knock it down, but summer has taken a toll on me. The spiders are everywhere in this old house and garden.
However...this morning there was an enormous one in the kitchen sink, and a big one in the bathtub last week when I was not in a mellow, reflective mood. Washing them down the drain is an epic and fair battle, but winning still makes you feel kind of heartless.
The researchers think a combination of hotter temperature (the heat island effect) and more abundant food are plumping up the spiders. The coons are getting fat on cat food.
There was an article this week in USA Today ranking cities by their urban heat index. Based on data from 2004-13, the top 10 U.S. cities with the most intense urban heat islands -- measured as the greatest difference in average temperatures between urban and rural areas over the entire summer -- were:
Las Vegas (7.3°F)
Albuquerque (5.9°F)
Denver (4.9°F)
Portland (4.8°F)
Louisville (4.8°F)
Washington, D.C. (4.7°F)
Kansas City (4.6°F)
Columbus (4.4°F)
Minneapolis (4.3°F)
Seattle (4.1°F)
Aha! My sister Marji owns a pest exterminator business in Las Vegas, and she tells me her best customers are the arachnophobics. Sounds like job security to me.
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