An Itsy Bitsy Spider Altered My Dinner Plans

Warning: If you are afraid of spiders, skip this post because there are a few photos of a (super cool) spider that recently changed my dinner plans.

Hubby had decided to go out to eat somewhere I didn't feel like going so I decided to grill a Boca Vegan patty on our outdoor grill. We had buns, lettuce, tomato slices, chopped sweet onions, ketchup, mustard and mayo. Everything I would need to make a great burger.

So imagine my surprise when I headed out to the grill only to discover a spider had built its web along the grill lid and side tray area including on one of Kitai's dog toys I'd put on the tray area.

A Cross Orb Weaver is also known as an English Garden Spider

What to do, what to do. At first I thought I'd just break the web and send the spider scurrying. But then I took a closer look. It was a really pretty spider that had built a perfect web. *Sigh* I didn't have the heart to ruin all of its hard work.

It takes an orb spider roughly an hour to build a web which doesn't seem that long until you consider the average spider only lives 1-2 years. So that one hour becomes much more significant relative to spider hours. It's kind of like dog years but even shorter. I'd guess one spider hour is like 100 people hours.

If I were a math whiz I'd figure out the time equivalent between people hours and spider hours and the exact percentage of its life it takes a spider to build a single web. But I am not a math whiz.

ETA: Reader HiLLjO kindly did the math for me and says:

Each hour is two days to a spider!

I was a mathlete... :oP

Now I'm really glad I didn't break the web. Thanks for the math help HiLLjO!

It's scientific name is Araneus diadematus

So, when hubby got home the spider was sitting in its perfect web out on the grill waiting for dinner and I was inside the house frying mine in a pan.

At first he thought I was ridiculous but after going outside to look at the spider he thought it was pretty cool too so then (I think) he thought I was slightly less ridiculous but still ridiculous nonetheless.

I Cheated Death with a Little Help from a Friend

But don't forget, a spider once saved my life (literally) so I'll admit I probably go further out of my way to show them more consideration than the average BBQ'er or gardener.

Wouldn't you?