Some things you just don't need in the morning...

[reynardo]

Especially when it's 6:30 am and I'm rushing slightly to get to my Customer Service Rep job.



I'm trundling down to the Harbour Tunnel. For those who don't know Sydney, we live on the southern side of the harbour, and there's an on-ramp for the airport-and-south freeway nearby. (Yes, I'm translating for the yanks.) I can leave my place at 6:20 and be at work on the north side (Chatswood) in 25 minutes, no worries. Once you're on the freeway and heading for the tunnel, though, there's not a lot of places to pull over - you'd have to get through the tunnel and work across about 8 lanes (you end up in the middle of an interchange).

So when a HUGE huntsman spider chose the moment when I was entering the tunnel to appear from somewhere and climb across the INSIDE of my windscreen, I jumped.

And very luckily, did not swerve.

And drove, very still, very much trying not to move too much, for the next 10 km from the tunnel entrance through and under the harbour, and up the other side, and along to the Pacific Highway. By this stage our little furry friend had moved himself along the visor, across the top of the windscreen and over to the passenger side.

I think I need to explain "huge" here. Think one of those small round plastic take-away containers, big enough to hold about 25 olives or a serving of coleslaw. That would just have fitted over him and not caugh his legs.

Five minutes later, the cabling technicians outside my office were highly amused to see a small white car pull over to the kerb, and a woman hop out, run around to the passenger side while waving a newspaper, throw open the door and scream at the occupant to

"Get the hell out of there and never bloody come back again!"

, while swatting the newspaper on the seat, the head-rest, the dashboard, the door and finally the footpath.

Yes, I try not to squish spiders. Especially when they are nice about getting rid of flies and mosquitoes and such.

OK, if he had bitten me, it wouldn't have been serious - a headache and an itchy spot. But I do not appreciate being startled like that!!!!

Comments

[djfiggy.livejournal.com]

Good God.
I almost forgot about your plethora of enormous spiders.
It's just one more thing I'll have to "forget" informing my parents about before this vacation...

eeek!

[sarin-girl.livejournal.com]

I hate spiders!! I would have soo pulled over and yeah... hehe or maybe even stopped right where I was...

But what's this rushing to work at 6:30am?? man that's nuts...

[vegancat.livejournal.com]

Hilarious!! Not for you in the moment I'm sure - but it was a terrific read! I (literally) almost rolled my car many years ago when a teeny, tiny spider dropped down from the visor. I guess if I had been in your situation I'd be dead!

[chaos-crafter.livejournal.com]

Ahh, the training spider.
The spider that knows just the moment when all fears will have to be put aside, so it can train you to be more comfortable with them. It's a high risk job, taken on by the true heroes of the arachnidae. Many die, but each one moves things a little bit closer to people being able to cope with spiders.

As an aside, a friend of mine, while driving with his sister in the car, had a similar experience.
He looked up and saw the spider, just as it scuttled to his sister's side of the car. They were doing 60 at the time (that's 37 mph). All he heard from her was an eep.
He looked over, and she'd just got out of the car _and_shut_her_door_behind_her_!!
She was standing by the road looking stunned.
She didn't even fall over.
I don't know how it was done, but as an example of the superhuman feats managed by phobics that one rates quite high.

[ayradyss.livejournal.com]

My husband wrapped a van around a telephone pole once, brushing a spider off the windshield...

[harliquinn.livejournal.com]

Okay. I've trained myself to not wince in the car when I get shooting pains in my pelvis.

I've trained myself to not jump when tiny brown spiders crawl around my windscreen (even if they do look desperately like Brown Recluse Spiders).

I've trained myself to not throw up in the car.

I *don't* think I would have been as quiet about it as your friend, however.

[vaingloriesque.livejournal.com]

Arrrrrgggh!

Oh, God, how horrible.

[shadow-5tails.livejournal.com]

Nicely done, whatever the cabling techs might have thought - and kudos to you for keeping your cool.  My mother once swerved off the road and through the trees down an embankment at the appearance of one of these furry friends.  Of course, it chose to make its appearance on her seatbelt, and she'd jumped as it started across her shoulder...

Mind you, I find myself rather missing the old huntsmen at the moment; Jika tells me that they're wonderful at keeping the white-tails out of the house.  Given the choice between the big fuzzy bestower of the itchy spot and the nasty nasty-looking causer of necrotic dermatitis, I'd love any huntsmen you can send my way!

[frou-frou.livejournal.com]

actually my dear, the white-tail has been slandered! It is actually the much rarer Recluse spider that will give you flesh-eating bites.

and as you mention, Huntsman spiders are actually quite loveable and afaik quite harmless to humans (this is the first I've heard of their painful bite, I know of no one who has actually been bit). they do have a rather scary looking countenance though!

(actually I found this which does suggest that their bite can be quite painful at times

[wingedkami.livejournal.com]

meep

I'm glad I live here. The spiders are only big enough to scare me, not big enough to make me pass out from terror.

[jesusandrew.livejournal.com]

Something similar happened when I was in a car being driven by an arachnophobe. (He was once given a 6' spider catcher, but even that was getting too close to them for his taste.) We were travelling on a freeway, when suddenly he began talking in an almost teeth-gritted way, head determinedly fixed facing forward. There was a big spider on the driver's side window, crawling around at head height. I was very impressed by his self-control, as he had to drive for another 15 minutes before he could try to get rid of it. It had completely vanished by the time he'd parked and we were able to search the car.

[tabbytiger.livejournal.com]

Eek! Spiders are not my favourite creatures. Huntsmen scare me. I do not know what I would do if I found one while I was driving.