Perhaps it's time for a visit to our eye doctor?

Perhaps it's time for a visit to our eye doctor. I was putting it off until a more convenient time, but that time just may have come.

It's not that we don't like visiting our eye doctor. He's a son, and a drive to Jonesboro might make for a nice getaway and a chance to see him and his family. Rather, it's the cost of buying new eyeglasses when there are plenty of other bills which need to be paid.

What convinced me? Well, it was this incident at our home just a few nights ago.

Mrs. Griz was doing laundry and about to transfer a load of clothes from the washer to the dryer when she saw it and called my name in a tone which I knew meant she desired my immediate assistance. I came running from my study.

She pointed to the bottom of the cabinet above the washer -- you know, the little cupboard made for such things as laundry soap and dryer softener sheets and whatever else might be needed in the course of laundering clothes.

"There's a spider under there in the corner, and I think it might be a black widow because of its color and the shape of its body," she said.

I looked at the creature which appeared to have crawled part way into a crevice in the corner between the cabinet and the wall.

"I don't think it's a black widow," I told her. "I don't think the body shape is quite right."

I didn't, however, reach right up there to squish it with my fingers. I went looking for the fly swatter so I could squash that creature from a safe distance.

But when I returned and looked at the spider, partially hidden in that space between the cabinet and the wall, I feared trying to swat it would only cause it to retreat into the crack and out of sight and range of my fly swatter.

I decided on bug spray instead. I couldn't find the spray can for crawling insects like ants and spiders, but I quickly found one for flying insects. It happened to be there in that cabinet.

"This will do," I figured. "If it's strong enough to shoot down flying insects like flies and wasps, it ought to be sufficient to kill a spider partially hidden behind a cabinet."

I gave it a good shot of the spray and saw the liquid nerve poison begin to run down the wall below the spider.

"Perhaps, I overdid it?" I thought. "Now, I'll have to wipe down the wall."

The spider remained motionless and didn't start to wiggle and squirm and try to get away like usual. It didn't drop to the floor dead or do anything. It seemed unaffected by the nerve agent.

"Honey, I think it was already dead," I said to Mrs. Griz.

I grabbed the fly swatter to poke at it. It still didn't move. I moved in closer.

Instead of having a red hour-glass on its underside, it had a black cross on its back.

"Perhaps I need my reading glasses for a really close look," I thought.

After slipping on my glasses and peering under the cabinet, I began to laugh and feel a bit foolish.

Mrs. Griz wondered what was so funny. She was without her glasses, too. It seems our prescription glasses don't work too well anymore, and we both often opt to go without them or use reading glasses instead.

"It wasn't a spider," I told her. "It's a screw."

The mysterious black spider turned out to be a black sheet-rock screws put in at an angle in the corner to hold up the cabinet.

Anyway, I figure if Mrs. Griz thought it was a spider and if, after I looked, I tried to kill it with a nerve agent, we just might need to go back for an eye exam and new glasses. I'm just not sure I want to tell my son why we think it's time for another checkup.

Randy Moll is the managing editor of the Westside Eagle Observer. He may be contacted by email at [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author.