anna

Do you remember our resident arachnid? A couple months ago, I blogged about her position in front of our welcome sign on our front porch. At the time, she had been there for over a month - keeping her web clean and neat, and welcoming all who entered our abode. I affectionately named her Charlene as a nod to that wise and encouraging spider who ministered to Wilbur when he was desperately lonely and needed a friend.
Last week I noticed that her web was starting to look a lot like my office. Stacks of stuff piled on top of other stacks of stuff. That's strange, I thought, she's always been on top of maintenence. Then the next day, I noticed that she seemed to be in the same position as the day before - and more stray threads hanging. She's gone, I thought. I reached up and patted her on the shoulder and she did not respond in any way. I kept meaning to bring her down and give her a proper burial, but stayed too busy.
Then, a couple days ago, I walked out the front door and saw her swing far beneath her orb. She was dropping a new support line to the porch rail. Within an hour she had remodeled her orb to new status. I don't know what was going on last week. Sleeping off the cold, much needed rest... who knows? But she's back. A very old spider.
Last night I sat on the front porch and worked on Sunday morning while it rained. Charlene was moving about busying herself with some important spider task. While I planned for the first Sunday of advent, I decided to change Charlene's name to Anna. After all, Charlene, er, Anna is very old and has spent all this time in the same place, never leaving her web. What is she waiting on? She's the only spider left in the yard, or even in the woods behind the house. What is keeping her here? I wondered if she'd been married eight years and widowed 84. I wondered if the cold night lack of insects represented her fasting. I began to look about the front porch for some crusty old lizard named Simeon.
All of a sudden the welcome sign in front of which Anna has been situated all these months took on a whole new meaning. I put down my PDA and decided to stop planning and start preparing.
I'm waiting.