"The Further Adventures of Mary's Mustang"...

The banana spider is called that for the color of the web it creates!

 Good Throwback Thursday Morning, all bodies.

Pursuing further the continuing adventures of Mary's Mustang, she told me a her encounter with a spider that somehow took up temporary residence on her moody mustang. Rio, that's the mustang's apparent name, didn't seem to be bothered by the rather large insect, but it bothered the motherly Mary.

Like many, spiders, no matter what shape or size, rate high with poisonous and non poisonous snakes, so Mary decided to shoo away the nasty bug. Unfortunately, she grabbed the closest available tool to dislodge the spider off of Rio's right ear.

It was the "switch stick" Mary uses to move along her herd. Rio was not planning on staying in his stall and in mustang talk let Mary know.

"Mustangs are wild and moody animals," she told me.

"And, Rio bites!"

"You know, Ben, I'm getting too old for this kinda shit!"

Apparently, Rio looked back at her with that switch and backed up towards her out of the stall attempting to give Mary a good kick.

"It's not worth all this drama," she said. If the damn spider isn't bothering him, fine with me!"

The tension subsided when Mary dropped the stick, and backed away to to find that Rio had shook his head a few times to flip the unwanted aural intruder away.

"I'm getting too old for this," Mary reiterated.

My encounter, five years ago, with the seasonal banana spider is "documented" at: https://graphicgumbo3.blogspot.com/.../it-was-big-enough...

Second Giddy Up cup!

Copyright 2021/ Ben Bensen III

"Semper Fi" Saturday...

 

Good "Semper Fi" Saturday, y'all.

Those huge black 18 wheeled debris trucks are all about picking up a plethora of hurricane debris up and down Hwy#40 and Hwy#25. Occasionally, driving by the neighborhood on the way to the hospital or back from it, I noticed a Merrywood favorite out in his front yard sprucing up.

John is one of those positive forces in everyone's life. Whenever I see him at a local community event, I never recognize him and with good reason.

I always expect to see him in running shoes, shorts, a polo shirt and his olive drab, Marine Corp cap worn smartly no matter what kind of yard work he's doing. A few days ago, I spotted him raking under a huge magnolia tree and decided to roll down the car window to harass him.

"You've got to be kiddin' me," I said. "How many pushups are you up to lately, dude?"

John walked over to the side of the road with rake in hand and replied that he lost count!

"How ya been?", he asked me.

"Well, I'm hanging in there... Not feeling as good as you look," I replied.

"How's about those situps? How many times a week you down on the floor crunching?"

"I don't know, Ben. I do a couple of sets every so often!"

"Well, I said, whatever you are doing, keep it up 'cuz it looks good on you!"

We "small talked" our way through Covid, the hurricane and the debris pickup, amongst everything else.

Just before I started to pull away, I once again complimented him on his robust 'tude on life.

With a smile, with rake in hand, John asks, "How old you think I am, man?" Betcha' can't guess!"

Before I could muster up a good answer, he throws out that he was born in 1935.

"I was born in 1935, Ben, so you do the math!"

"Dude, I said, now you have me at a disadvantage... Math was never my forte, man!"

With a laugh, I replied as I started to drive away,"I'll get back to you on that, okay?"

Checking my rear view mirror, I noticed as we both waved good bye, and he started back raking, I thought...

"86," eh?

Third cup of courage!

Copyright 2021/Ben Bensen III