It’s likely you’ve all seen the news this morning about massive computer system outages around the world. It’s currently affecting our household in only minor ways, the majority of which are related to my day job, however my girls are at the local hospital today for Daphne’s annual check-up and it’s very likely to impact that little maneuver.

I’m also a little worried about exactly what kind of report we’re going to receive from her doctor, given the many and varied struggles with regression that we’ve had with Daphne over the past 3 weeks.
By that I mean she’s almost completely lost her potty training, sometimes just standing still and blankly peeing on the floor, as if she has absolutely no idea that she’s doing so.
We ordered another pack of those Improvia “striping” mattress pads (which should be here today), because we’re having to put them down anywhere that she happens to sit.

Additionally, her recent predilection toward hitting herself in the head as hard as she possibly can, and the repetitive “head. hurt.” taps on her talker, have set both of her parents on edge. The talker “hurt” thing isn’t new, though; she’s been doing that for years. It’s my assumption that she’s either conveying that she’s becoming overstimulated, or it’s an attention-seeking trigger. Obviously I can’t know for certain.

So I’m busying myself by typing here, watching the worldwide fallout from a single faulty Crowdstrike patch, and really trying/choosing to stay on the bright side of things.

And on that note, let’s talk about rampant and indiscriminate death.

Cyber-bugs aside, it’s summer on a farm… And so the insects have definitely arrived.

The beetle traps are out there doing their thing…

The HellVat has suddenly been put on a lower churn setting…

…which likely means that it needs another one of those dehydrated putrescent egg packs.

Also we have these weird little fan sucker things that we run every night that catch the buggies that are tiny enough to make it through the window screens.

It lures the party gnats in with the promise of a blacklight rave, then the fan pulls them down to the bottom of the canister where they adhere to a giant sticker.

I bought them on a whim during Prime Day last year, but damn if they don’t actually work.

Last, but certainly not least, I will now confide to all of you that I do not like spiders. As in…I don’t like them at all. Their many evolutionary adaptations make me uneasy.
So when I walked outside this morning to let loose our flock, and walked directly into a web that had been strung across the doorway sometime in the night, I had a bit of a freakout.

And here’s the actual rendition, from our doorbell cam.

At one point in that video you can see me peer closely at the doorway and come to a horrifying realization…

The web wasn’t empty.
It was filled with baby spiders…

The proud mama spider, now furious at the greying monkey who’s tearing apart her nursery with his dumb bald head, silently glared at me from the corner…plotting my venomous demise.

And here’s what she actually looked like.

Academically, I understand that these spiders are out there doing good work. And I certainly appreciate their insect culling.
But yeesh…
This is, literally and figuratively, simply too close to home. As such, I’m afraid I’ll have to head out there later today and visit broomageddon upon the lot of them.

I need a shower.

See you all next week.

j.s.