Death of a Spider and the Funeral
My blog, I get to pick the subjects.
I don’t have any real phobias. I don’t like heights, but not to the point that it would keep me from jumping out of an airplane.
I don’t like snakes, but when I run across one, I just go the other way. Growing up in Arizona I developed a litmus test for snakes. If I could see rattles on its tails, I turned and ran.
I’m ambivalent towards spiders, but something happened yesterday that created quite a scene in the bathroom.
Sharon, my wife, has a true spider phobia. She broke her leg trying to jump over a couch to get away from a spider.
I’m in the bathroom, evening constitutional, and I noticed a spider on the wall.
I whacked at him with a cane and missed. He fell onto the floor, I’m trying to squish him with the cane tip, and I missed four of five times.
Then he ran onto the rug that sits in front of the commode. The rug is dark brown and the spider was black.
I realized I didn’t know where he was at, and then it dawned on me, my shorts were on the ground. The next thoughts, what might happen if he crawls into my shorts or my shoes?
I’m wearing my motorcycle boots. They have metal cleats at the top. I’m kicking off my shorts, grab the underwear, it catches on a cleat and rips.
I moved my boot across the rug and saw him scamper across the floor. The solution, stomp that sucker to death.
The problem, my boots are hiking boots and have big rubber ridges. I’m stomping on the spider, and I keep missing. How much luck can one slow moving spider possess in life.
Finally, on the fifth or sixth attempt, I connected and sent him to spider heaven.
By this time, all the animals, two cats, a dog, were in hiding. My wife was laughing so hard she was having trouble breathing.
I’m so glad my life is amusing to her.
That’s how the spider died.
Hal’s dad’s funeral was today at the VA cemetery in Dallas.
His dad and I didn’t see eye-to-eye on anything, but he was a veteran and everybody knows the respect I hold for those men and women who put their life on the line for this great country.
My son and daughter in law held up well until the honor guard presented the US flag to him.
The honor guard spokesman said, “On behalf of the President of the United States, a grateful nation, and a proud Navy, this flag is presented as a token of our appreciation for the honorable and faithful service rendered by your loved one to his country and Navy.”
The verses below are pertinent as I think about the pain in Hal’s face; his wife and finally even his mother broke down when she saw her son in tears.
2 Corinthians 1:3-5
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.
God will judge his father, it’s not my place, and I won’t speak ill of the dead. I’m thankful, as I told my son, hugging him after, “It’s over, it’s over, he can’t hurt you anymore.”
I’m the only grandpa the kids here see regularly.
What is the job of a grandparent?
I try to spend time with them, give both solicited and unsolicited advice on life. Spoil them just enough to irritate their parents, but then back off and show I really do stand behind their mom and dad.
I try to show them spiritual strength. They need to see Christ is central in every part of my life. Kids believe what they see, not what they hear.
In Peace this Memorial Day weekend,
Dan
May 28, 2010 at 10:21 am
Hi Dan, what a funny story that quickly turned bittersweet. There is a connection between your battle with the vicious spider and Hal’s battle to deal with emotions over his deceased father. Oftentimes, we react according to emotion. (I’m visualizing a man on the john banging around the bathroom with canes and motorcycle boots, hollering and stomping and tearing up the tightie-whites in order to protect the woman he loves from the perils of spider infestation. My reaction would have been to wad up tp and smush it, or if it were a small spider I would have tried to cup it in tp and relocate oudoors. But hey, that’s one nature-freak’s reaction.)
Anyway, I digress. Hal and his father didn’t see eye to eye. Maybe there were hard feelings and resentment and bitterness between them. But in the end, Hal had to see the other side of his father, the man who risked his own life to defend the freedom of so many. There is undeniable valor in that, no matter what else the man did or didn’t do.
I will list your blog in my favorites on Blogger. Great story, I will have to read the ones I have missed up to now! Cathryn
May 28, 2010 at 11:07 am
Cathryn, I talked to Hal this morning and he said, “I’m not upset my dad is gone, just relieved that it’s over.” Yes, he served his country, for nine months, on a supply ship. The ship never left the dock and he was released from duty when he hurt his back carrying a typewriter. Still, he did serve and that commands our respect. I think Hal’s tears were more for the solemn occasion and the words spoken.
The spider, normally I use TP also, but it was on the top of the cane and when I moved the cane he fell off and ran onto the rug, then my imagination took over. Quite a ruckess for 45 seconds and I simply tossed the torn tightie-whites away, bad juju.