The Errant Spider

     This morning I drove ¾ of the way to work white knuckling it on the Parkway. Now, I’ll admit I do have somewhat of a driving phobia, which is just one of a number of phobias that plague me, but my driving phobia did not rear its ugly head this morning. I was happily coasting at approximately 70 MPH, when I detected movement on my dashboard. It was a spider, just strolling along, minding his own business (mild arachnophobia is another of my phobias, by the way). He was a little guy, and not headed in my direction, so I tried to brave it until I arrived at the office, where I would rerelease him to nature. That plan was foiled when he began his descent on his thread of silk, heading directly for my exposed knees. (It could only have been worse had I been barefoot!)  At this point I had to pull onto the shoulder and stop him mid flight before he landed. I have to wonder how bright I was. My car is very nearly an antique, literally, albeit not the desirable kind, like a Muscle Car or a Model A Ford. My car is just plain old! Like me! Appropriate, don’t you think? The pick up on this car is negligible at best, (if this was an Aesop’s Fable, my car would be the tortoise) and it did not want to accelerate as I re-entered traffic with cars bearing down on me at about 85 MPH.  Thankfully, I did manage safe reentry, only because everyone behind me switched lanes. So-I put myself in a precarious traffic situation so that a spider would not make physical contact with me…Sometimes I really wonder about myself….