My newest role model

I wouldn't exactly term chez fivechimera a "spider sanctuary" per se, because (in non-winter) I do evict the ones who cross my path. But in first grade, our class' student teacher--whom I adored--read Charlotte's Web to us, and it changed my life with respect to arachnids.

Thus, when I saw the ambitiously-sized web spanning mirror and door on the passenger's side of my car, the very last thing I would have thought to do was break it. As it happened, I did break a major strand by dint of cracking open the window on a warm day. The web--by now sporting several mummified insects and assorted blown debris--was pretty well shredded by a weekend trip to Monticello shortly thereafter.

The following Monday morning, however, saw a new (and equally impressive) web which, upon inspection, proved to have its anchor on the seal of the window, rather than the glass itself. During the week, this filled up with more silk-shrouded spider-suppers and was looking pretty dilapidated come the weekend. Then, sometime between last night's storm and my first foray into today's rain-washed morning, a new--albeit more modest--web had materialized.

Yes, I'm aware that this could easily be the work of three different spiders. And yes, I'm equally aware that I'm egregiously anthropomorphizing here. But I'm choosing to believe that I have an eight-legged cross between Fillipo Brunelleschi (for the handiwork) and Winston Churchill (for the dogged stubborness) gracing my car. Why? Because you can never look up to too many people. That, and nobody ever said that role-models had to be bipedal.