The Element of Surprise

That's a little jumping spider that scared the hell out of me when it jumped onto a piece of paper near Dave's computer. I don't know why I jumped, except that that is what one does I guess when one is confronted by a spider, no matter how tiny. And she was tiny. That blue line is the blue line on a piece of college-ruled paper. She didn't even span the white space between two of those blue lines. She was very patient with me, waiting while I found Dave's new camera, then waiting while I figured out how to turn it on, then waiting while I took several pictures which were too blurry without the flash, then waiting while I figured out how to turn on the flash, then waiting while I picked up the piece of paper to move her to a more favorable position, then waiting while I took another half dozen pictures on the paper. After that, she was very accommodating and moved to the edge of Dave's black keyboard so that I could take a few pictures of her against a black background. Then she sprung away beneath the keyboard. I saw her a couple more times, once on top of the printer, then again on top of some of the boxes on the printer. Then she disappeared.

I love spiders.

Here is a photo of a spider taken by Dave last night, just outside our door.