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Monday, October 4, 2010

Going Shopping at the Tile Store

I post so often about the beautiful parts of southern New Mexico, it's only fair that I also show you some of our creatures with another kind of beauty. We don't want the place to be over run with people, after all. To go along with the recently-featured mantid (see Pray or Prey) and the centipede (Bite the Toes?), I bring you this little fellow.

We ran into him the other day while we were down at the tile store picking out floor tiles for the living room and the study (a very exciting upcoming project). As we crossed the sidewalk this customer came wandering down the pathway.


I'm sorry now that I didn't include anything in the photos to give you an idea of scale. Let's just say that he was big enough so that we could keep an eye on him from inside the store, and that we could still see him strolling off across the parking lot when we drove away later. He was five to six inches across, and controlled all of his many legs with awesome concentration and grace.





Hello! Is this the way in?




Maybe this is it...

Darned door has to be here somewhere!

I will post some before and after photos of the living room and the study, as the new tile floors get underway. I am very excited for a number of reasons, some of which will be obvious when you see the "before" pix!
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10 comments:

  1. Yogi♪♪♪October 4, 2010 at 5:34 AM

    Interesting little critters. As a young lad in New Mexico I remember they would crawl up on the screen door. It would make for a spooky site. For some reason I was never scared of them.

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  2. AnonymousOctober 4, 2010 at 5:44 AM

    OMG, I would still be running! I would not have been able to concentrate on another thing but that spider. He must have come out knowing this month is Halloween! I can't wait to see you new floors. You will be so happy once they are completed. I just love mine. I wish I had been able to do the whole house!

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  3. the7msnOctober 4, 2010 at 6:58 AM

    Happened to see this video last week:
    http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/09/28/dnt.tarantula.mating.season.begins.KOAA?hpt=T2

    Your new friend was probably just looking for a girlfriend.

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  4. clairzOctober 4, 2010 at 7:36 AM

    @Yogi: I'm not really afraid of them, either, although one ran at me once on the road to Tucumcari and my sister still laughs about my reaction. See The Big, Big Spider and the Brave Red Shoes for that tale.

    @Judy: We are doing the new tile in the parts of the house that were an addition and on a slab. We have plans for having the carpets torn out of the old part of the house early next year and getting the hardwood floors refinished. I so look forward to no more carpets!

    @Linda: Thank you for the video link. We used to see a lot of tarantulas on the crawl out on the High Plains in August, but I had no idea they were still so busy this late in the year. Well, there's always something new to learn in New Mexico, right?

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  5. matronOctober 4, 2010 at 9:07 AM

    I do not mind the spiders we have in Ireland,they are harmless and quite small,but your friend would have sent me running,glad we do not have them here.!!

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  6. beckyOctober 4, 2010 at 9:30 AM

    I used to see these a fair amount growing up in southern cal... now they (along w/ horny toads) are a rarity there. they, like me, must've left due to overcrowding.
    :)

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  7. JCOctober 4, 2010 at 10:05 AM

    I can handle spiders but not those ....

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  8. Sandy ~~~October 4, 2010 at 11:22 AM

    Ewwww...I'm thinking I will be more acceptive of the rattlers. At least they have pretty coloring?

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  9. SonyOctober 4, 2010 at 5:50 PM

    Nice furry friend!! Glad you're meeting interesting... souls who help you pick out tile!

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  10. BethOctober 5, 2010 at 5:17 AM

    Holy Moly...that's a big spider! We don't grow them that large around here, but we do have a fairly big population of black widow spiders under the rocks near our porch. I suppose your big, non-poisonous fellow is preferable to our smaller, poisonous ones. We always lift the cushions on our porch chairs and swing before sitting down in case there's someone lurking under them. :-)

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