Okay, this happened at least forty-five minutes ago but I still have a really bad case of It's ON ME!! (aaaaaa aaaaa get it off!!!) You know.
I store my easel in the barn, which has no real doors, but just a huge tarp covering each end of it. There's a big pipe that is used to hold the tarp down, and it's got a crude pulley system to raise and lower it. I think my problem may have been stored in that pipe.
I've been in the barn several times in the last few weeks, rabbits and all that, ya know.
But today I got my easel out and started on a couple of paintings because the sun was out and it's almost 80 degrees outside.
So I got my paintbox and turpentine and easel and canvas from the barn and as I was walking back I put everything down because I felt something scratchy on the back of my neck (my hair was in a pony tail so I don't get paint on me). I grabbed and tossed off what I thought must have been a pretty large bit of shrubbery and twigs. But when I saw what I had tossed on the ground I just went YIKES!!!
It was a very large black spider
quite reminiscent of a black widow. However it had a few white markings on its back, and it felt harder than the black widow I'd similarly grabbed a few years ago in New Mexico.
It doesn't help me that I KNOW there are no poisonous spiders here in Alaska. No snakes, no poisonous spiders. (Hobo spider reports are probably false and also more than 800 miles south of me.) It was a BIG spider, creepy-looking and it was crawling under my ponytail!!!
So what if it was harmless?
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
I did do the bit of painting I wanted to do, though. But ever since I can't get over feeling
IT'S ON ME!!