Fred is dead

Fred was the spider that lived above the front door to our house. He was probably the only spider I've ever not been afraid of. He was big and spotted and would sun himself during the day and curl himself up into a ball and wedge into the boards of the porch at night. He freaked me out at first, and I would duck when entering the house even though he was nowhere near my head, but after awhile I got used to him, at which point I named him. For awhile there he had a companion spider, whom I named Ethel (of course), but she left relatively quickly (how fickle we ladies are). Anyway, I came home the other night, and Fred was nowhere to be found. Troy said it's too cold out now for spiders and that he probably died. I won't lie - I was a little bummed.

So yeah, I felt that Fred deserved a little obituary. So there you have it. He was a good spider.