Was It Self Defense or...????

This afternoon I arrived at my favorite retreat center, Desert House of Prayer, for a few days of silence. This lovely, simple center is tucked in the mountains of western Tucson, in an area called Picture Rocks. From the window in my little room the Tucson valley lays out before me - as does the mountain range on the other side of the valley, the Catalina's. This is my third trip to Desert House of Prayer in a year. I come prepared to do yoga, read, draw, knit, walk, pray.

Upon arrival I unpack my art supplies, knitting, clothes, computer, and yoga DVD's. I change into yoga attire, spread out my mat, and put in PM Yoga. But for some reason my computer did not want to let me view this DVD. I kept getting a warning message about some copy write issue between the DVD and my computer. This has never happened before and so perplexed I pull the computer onto my lap and begin trying to figure it out. Turns out I need to update some piece of software.



Sitting on my yoga mat, on the floor, I was fiddling around with the computer, initializing the connection to the internet and so on. All of a sudden I see, out of the corner of my eye, the hugest, biggest, fastest


spider I have ever seen - and its CHARGING straight for me.


There I sit in on my mat on the floor, in skimpy yoga attire, no shoes... you bet I let out a yelp "ewwwwwww!!!!"

And then I dropped my lap top directly on it.

After a stunned second I cautiously lift the lap top. The spider is demolished into several pieces.

The computer is no worse for the wear.

Its a bit odd, starting this retreat, taking over what was clearly this spider's domain (who'd have known?) - and then proceeding to murder it. Or maybe I can settle for self-defense...



Sadly, if it really was a wolf spider then it wasn't poisonous and I might have been able to get it outside. Alas, there are so many poisonous creatures in the desert - I tend to kill first and identify later....