The black widow

[Mark Wagner]

I know a lot of you are heading north for the star party.  I've been packing my car for a little local foray tonight.  The platform I place in my car to build a quick bed support resides in the far dark corner of the garage, by my 18", truss poles and ladder.

Today I moved the 18 to get at the bed support parts by the wall, and was reminded of the rather strong spider web I'd been encountering recently.  Taking the boards out, the second one I turned over had a nice big juicy trip to the hospital on it, shiny blackness and long angular legs leaving no doubt.  Squish.

I once found a black widow in the inside wheel well of my old Suburban, years ago.  Same creepy feeling.  I insect bombed the truck after ridding the pest.

Look carefully at your stowed gear, if it resides outside.  You never know.  BTW... you could even find a rattler under your telescope too, in the morning.


Been there too with this sunrise surprise:

I hope I can sleep tonight at Coe.

Clear skies!

-- 
Mark

[Richard Navarrete]

Yeah. At Coe you just run into mountain lions. 🦁

Richard

Sent from the all new AOL app for iOS

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[Mark]

Were you there for the rattler, Richard?  I know Rogelio was, his daughter was fascinated and couldn't get close enough expect for her dad!

[Drew Pletcher]

Have seen plenty of deer, and heard a mountain lion chirp but yet to see a big cat.  I did have one encounter with a big cat at Coyote Lake park when it cam down to drink.

On Wednesday, July 8, 2026 at 12:55:10 PM UTC-7 richa...@aol.com wrote:

[Richard Ozer]

For a while, we had a rattler under the floor of the Mt. Diablo Observatory.  We named him Orkin.

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[Akarsh Simha]

Somehow not yet part of my experience. I’ve only seen harmless things like tarantulas (at Okie Tex!), occasional false widows, there was a run-of-the-mill scorpion that jumped out of my car once when id parked it at Lowrey’s place.

I guess there was this one time when Andy was putting away my truss poles at his parents’ place and noped out of a spot because there was a black spider — I was like “come on, a spider”, but a quick inspection of said spider showed a clear red hourglass mark. Okay, thank you for not putting my truss poles there.

No mountain lions or rattlers as yet. They’ve probably seen / sensed me, though.

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[Mark]

Since I brought up the rattler just a few days ago - here's a reminder to be very careful:

Idaho man bit by rattler in California barely survives after 54 antivenom doses | KTLA https://share.google/lz3FaDxWLfNv75Tce

Think about it. When perusing Serpens!

[John Pierce]

On Sat, Jul 11, 2026 at 6:08 AM Mark <itsmar...@gmail.com> wrote:

Since I brought up the rattler just a few days ago - here's a reminder to be very careful:

Idaho man bit by rattler in California barely survives after 54 antivenom doses | KTLA https://share.google/lz3FaDxWLfNv75Tce

yikes, 54 doses, thats gonna be expensive, like $500,000 or more.. 

[Mark]

Yes.  I was impressed.  Did you read the story about the kids' reactions when the event had just occurred?