Sunday, January 8

[gottawonder]

Today I am grateful for:

Continued mellow weather.

Am I imagining things, or is the day just a sliver longer already? I usually notice it quite a bit by the end of January; about an hour longer than the shortest day by then.

I talked with Sister E, and finally it sounds like her very, very elderly MIL is able to be placed in a care facility when there is a space available. In the meantime she is in the hospital. This seems to often be how it happens, is that something kind of gets to a tipping point (in her case, a recent bad fall coupled with a bladder infection that needed to be treated with an IV drip) and there is a hospital stay, then a decision for them to move to care.

I feel like she needed this transition a while ago. My sister says her MIL is blind and having issues with memory, so can't be relied on to eat or take meds and so on. My sister was driving over an hour one way, several times a week to care for her, and it is just too much. Especially since her husband now needs a lot of care too.

I think it is going to be a positive change for everyone.

I think my sister is very tired from trying to care for everyone.

I went to see River, and the Sunday rider was just finishing up when I got there. It was nice to chat with her.

River was pretty focused, and I continued to work on clarity of my cues and got some good results. We rode for a while too, and that went well. I am really enjoying having music while I ride. It feels a lot less lonely out there when it's just us.

I came home and had a nap (lots of these lately, but that's kind of the nice thing about winter for me) and read a bit. Some top-notch snuggles from our dear Celeste (really, she is SO snuggly).

I learned about the species of Huntsman spiders that is social:

"But the social huntsman, Delena cancerides, lives in complex family groups up to 150-strong, led by a dominant matriarch. A single mum establishes a retreat under bark of a dead tree. Then her offspring from one to four clutches remain with her until they reach sexual maturity at almost a year old. Peeling off bark to find a family of these spiders can be quite a shock."

https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/wildlife/2016/04/hidden-housemates-australias-huge-and-hairy-huntsman-spiders/

Huntsman spiders don't use webs, they RUN AFTER their prey. They are apparently not dangerous to people, but they are big and scary looking.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/XwVtoo8HQIw

Comments

[sherlockishere]

OK that's one link I will never open! Did I ever tell you I have a spider phobia? Born of my big brother throwing them on me when I was a child. Shivers.

Music is the best when riding!

[gottawonder]

I am not generally phobic of spiders, though I don't like surprises.

I took a long look at those last night though, and decided that though they are harmless, they would make me panic if I were surprised by one (or 150 of them!).

[spatzenpost]

The sudden feeling that the days are getting longer always makes me so happy - we just noticed this weekend here.

[gottawonder]

There certainly is a moment too, where you feel like the quality of the sunlight is different as the the sun gets higher in the sky during the day (if you notice, in the winter the sun is lower in the sky, and more in the South. It's whole arc is low).

While we are a long ways from Spring, the longer days does help.

[spatzenpost]

The odd thing is that winter hasn’t even really started here, and the sunlight is already getting a bit stronger. We won’t really have cold and snow for at least one to two more weeks.

[ratunderpaper]

I really enjoy the dark, gloomy days of late December, but the lengthening days are nice, too.

By the beginning of March, we notice that the sun still hasn't set by six o'clock.

[gottawonder]

As a person who is a late riser, I have a hard time with the shorter days of winter.

[ratunderpaper]

I've been rising later and later... but heading to bed earlier and earlier. Let's see what tomorrow brings. I signed up for an early zoom ballet class.


zzzzzzzzzz

[lantairvlea]

We have huntsmen spiders here. They're like smaller tarantulas. I ended up with one on my shoulder while feeding horses once, it must have been chasing crickets around the hay flake I picked up! It was a bit of a shock, but after brushing it off my shoulder I hunted it down to admire it.