I don’t use my Jeep much anymore, especially in the summer. I used to. But since I adopted the work-at-home lifestyle there just isn’t much need. Besides, if it’s possible, the motorcycle’s always the first choice.
But this errand called for four wheels. As I cranked down the window I noticed that a spider had constructed a web from the driver’s side mirror to the body proper. I looked closer. The spider appeared to be sleeping near its ball of? spider eggs, more likely than not!
Should I cancel my plan? Not on your life! This would prove to be an interesting trip indeed. I brought the motor to life and cranked the window closed.
By the time I had driven but a short distance the spider was quite awake. 30 MPH winds will do that, when it shakes your nursery violently. But the spider and egg-ball held fast. Soon I was out of the local streets and onto the highway. I only needed to travel a short distance and barely reached 55 MPH. As I approached my destination it appeared that the spider had lost its grip but when I looked closer I realized that it had merely gotten close – very close – to the egg-ball. Perhaps it was trying to protect it? I locked up and went about my business. The return trip, I resolved, would become a better test.
The spider appeared to be sleeping again when I returned to the Jeep. I hit the highway and accelerated. 55 MPH, 65, 75? The web shook much more violently than before as I passed my turn at 85 MPH. The old Jeep with the tired clutch didn’t want this any more than the spider did but I asked for a little more. At 90 MPH I backed down and eased into a jughandle to turn back.
The web had pulled loose from its iron grip on the mirror and hung from the body panel. But before the light changed the spider poked itself above the window line! It had survived!
The remainder of the trip back was sedate. And when I parked the spider, and the egg ball, and the mostly destroyed web, were still attached. Later I’ll have a look and see whether progress is being made on the rebuild.
There’s probably a moral to the story but I’m damned if I know what it is.
Back in the early 70s I worked, for a while, for an automotive parts exporter, making daily runs to the ports from their central NJ warehouse. We bought a number of Delta 88 state police cars after the state had had their way with ’em out on the NJ Turnpike. Man, were those automobiles fast! Never pressed one to the limit myself, but no matter what I ever did ask of it, it delivered. In spades.
I recall my stint with them as a pretty good job that ended quite abruptly. I had returned to the warehouse well after dark. It had been a long day. I backed the rig into its parking spot – just as I had hundreds of times before. I never saw, much less felt, the little sheet-metal storage shed that the boss had erected near the back fence… He wasn’t that good with his hands and it had taken him the better part of the day to assemble the thing, destined to store propane tanks for the forklifts once a suitable lock had been obtained. I understand he was pretty proud of his handiwork. So when I showed up for work the following morning he was absolutely fuming. I can see him like it was yesterday, the little hot-headed Cuban, jumping up and down and cursing at me in his native language. He fired me on the spot.
Itsy bitsy spider…
OK, I don’t know the moral of this story, either, but I do know that my ’75 CJ-5 topped out at 84 mph with a few hundred RPM left on the tach. Just couldn’t overcome any more wind resistance. Soft top v. hard? ’71 Gremlin topped out at 93. ’83 Olds Delta 88…no, I only look that crazy; I’m not about to stand on a Rocket 350 with Rochester Quadra-jet until it won’t go any faster.