Spiders, Wasps & Birds...oh my!

I have had the priviledge of helping one of my dearest friends (and FLYSistah) look for a new home the past few weeks. It has been an adventure and a TON of fun! But then! Oh my! We went out last friday....

We had 34 houses to start with! We wittled it down to 21. Whoa Baby... lets hit the road running! We were doing awesome! Most of the homes were vacant (read:short sales) and in need of yard attendance. We saw more black widows in one day than I have seen in one summer!!

At one point, my DFS (darling FLYSistah) was following me around a waist high weed trail to the back of a house to look for a key box. Suddenly...not sure why...I looked up. There hanging is a disheaveled web above me was THE BIGGEST black widow I have EVER seen! It was on the 2nd story, so quite above us, yet we could see her hourglass like we didn't need glasses!

Now, bless her heart, if my DFS has not been standing behind me, blocking the path and preventing my escape, because you see I NEVER would have ventured into the weeds to go around her as I knew that husbandless spider up there likely had offspring, I would have run screaming to the car! *SHUDDER* just thinking about it. Needless to say we both quickly hightailed it and that house was not one we explored further. (Note to other agents: TAKE CARE OF THE YARD IF YOU WANT TO SELL A HOUSE.)

Another of our adventures brought us a new kind of terror. At almost EVERY home there were wasps nests of some kind. Yellow jackets, mud dogs, you name it... we saw it. Aplenty! At a particular home that tickled DFS fancy from the internet pictures, there were large bushes over growing the front porch... and each and every flower was entertaining AT LEAST one wasp. I got the key gingerly off the gas meter and we debated on entry. Being that it was a favorite, and hoping my door open skills would not fail me, we counted to 3 and dashed as fast as we could through the bushes and burst through the front door. Happy to report narey a sting. And sadly... the same procedure was followed upon exiting. I must include here that neither of us are as young and spry and we used to be, nor do our scales make us terribly happy these days... so the sight of us bursting forth from the house with some girly squeals likely would have been America's Funniest Home Video foder!

And last, but not least by any means, as we are driving the wonders of Saratoga Springs Redwood Rd we had the fright of a lifetime!

We were driving along, enjoying our chit chatting and chili cheese corn chips and skittles, when lo and behold some birds in a nearby field decide to take flight. At first it seemed harmless... but oh! it was not! There were likely 40 or more birds, and they flew low. They were big and fat and grey. And there was NOTHING I could do about it!

Fat little grey bird? Meet car windshield, roof, mirror, grill, etc!

My mirror was knocked in to the car and the glass on the back popped out and beat on the side of the car until we stopped attached only by the wiring that de-fogs it in winter.

The glass was shattered...

And look closely... do you see a perfect bird imprint??

How about now?

The both of us had a hard time getting our heartrates down... and likely this would have been the ipitimy of laughter on slow motion replay and we screamed like little school girls as the car was pelted with our fat feathered friends!

Oh! I promise you, if you need help finding a new home, appearantly I can offer some good life altering excitements as well!

BWAHAHAHAHA!! Do you think I can write off car repairs as a Real Estate expense since it happened while showing houses?? hmmmm...