Vivian Maier, Photographer

[Schneiderfrei]

Oh I see, yes I loved that show.  I also love British crime stuff, but Dr Blake was produced really well.  Yeah! I wanna go live there too.

[Greger]

Spookietoo, guys were always right. The toilet seat needs to be up, except in use😁.
Here in western Washington, Oregon, too, we can head over the mountains to parched ground. They have way to much sunshine. And rattlesnakes to. Bears and cougars I can handle. Snakes, got to watch each step. I like a free mind when walking, especially off trail.  With snakes, got to watch each step. And those constrictors, they are looking for lunch.
Years ago they used to say attach jingle bells to ones clothes. Now they say that they are dinner bells for bears. One bear grows to another bear, when hearing the joyful sounding bells, "Here comes dinner!"😀

[hutch--]

He he, you guys forget our friendly crocodiles, they don't discriminate, they will eat anyone. Sydney has funnel web spiders which are seriously dangerous, go up north and you have box jellyfish, don't tread on a stone fish and don't play with pretty blue ringed octopuses. Never swim up north in the open, apart from the salt water crocs, there are bull sharks. You get the white pointers in south OZ.

I am not up to date with snakes, around the central coast of NSW you had black snakes, brown snakes, tiger snakes and a few others That I forget.

[Schneiderfrei]

Hutch is on target, eveything here wants you for dinner.

Greger those are brave words re toillet seats!

[spookietoo]

Hutch is on target, eveything here wants you for dinner.

I've never known how to put it into words, but YES! that's always been my take on the creatures of OZ!

Gregor - Seat up or down wouldn't necessarily matter. I've made an executive decision. If I ever visit OZ, I'm bringing a telescoping inspection mirror. If I lived there, I'd keep one on every toilet.

But just so you guys don't think you've a lock on wicked creatures.....

My Dad remembered this story last night: We shopped at a small country grocery store when I was a kid (the 60's). The owner's brother lived a couple of blocks from us, in a small home much older than ours. It still had it's original outhouse. Upon arriving home from work, he would grab the newspaper and head out for his evening  "constitutional" in the outhouse.

We have shiny black spiders with bright red hour glasses on their belly known as Black Widows. They're quite common here in Tennessee. Not everyone dies from the bite, but many people have major portions of their skin rot away around the bitten area.

Yes, indeed, one bit him on the end of his you-know-what.

Once he was out of the hospital and up and around, that outhouse became history. He was quite happy to take advantage of the indoor plumbing after that!

[theresa in tucson]

Spookietoo, we get scads of black widows here in southern Arizona.  My husband goes spider hunting on the front and back porches with a fly swatter when the sun goes down.  Too bad they don't catch mosquitoes.  If they did we'd leave them alone.

[Greger]

"crocodiles, they don't discriminate"

Nice to hear something doesn't discriminate. Here in the USA the news media does its best to keep discrimination going.
We do have the brown recluse spider, if you can find one. There bite is not good, I hear

[Greger]

"those are brave words re toillet seats!"
A daring chance with those words. Figured I could get away with it, the rare chance. Took advantage of it. And survived. 😁

[spookietoo]

We have the brown recluse also. They are quite common.I'll usually sweep/vacuum 3-4 a year from inside the house. They seem to have a preference for toe kicks under bathroom and kitchen cabinets.

At uni, a boyfriend was from Venezuela. We decided to go shopping one afternoon and I grabbed my boots from the bottom of the closet and shoved my foot into one. He almost had heart failure while screaming, "No, no, no! NEVER put on a boot without checking for spiders first!"

I've checked for spiders ever since - any enclosed footwear that's been stored for a bit. It's one of my few OCD behaviors.

[Greger]

As a boy was taught to turn boots upside down and knock them together and shake out bugs and places where there might be snakes. Sometimes give clothes a good shake, too.

[Steelmillal]

Dang, Y'all went from 'hottie in a herringbone' to "hillbillie with a manky wanky". I've heard stranger things in the last two days. 



We have those recluse spiders around here, too. One killed a neighbors wife. Waited too long to get medical treatment, but that was decades ago so no mRNA star trek meds, etc. Found this fella yesterday while making coffee...justa garden spider,, but size of a silver dollar..and mean!

[Schneiderfrei]

Sleelmillal, I was certain that spider was sitting over a laudry sink!

[Steelmillal]

No G, that's y'all down in Oz. Big roos, retiles, skies, and spiders. It was big enough at 0237, tho!

[spookietoo]

Steelmillal- that's one of those jumping spiders! Even though they're small by OZ standards, I could deal with their size until I found out a 1" one can jump 8'-10'.

I also first thought it was on a laundry sink!

I had one that size once. 3:00 am got up to go to the bathroom and while sitting on the toilet, I watched it walk down the hallway towards my bedroom, but when it saw me it took a right turn and crawled under a table into a corner. No way I was going after it with a flyswatter! Got dressed, went to the 24 hour drugstore and promptly carried bug spray to the counter. Cashier took one look at my purchase and said, "What is it?" Me, "Its one of those brown jumping spiders - this big!" As she started to ring me up, "Yeah, I'd have got dressed and gone out in the middle of the night, too!"

My sister who is schizophrenic, says it's not unusual for her to look up and see a 12" spider crawling down her den wall. It doesn't bother her because she knows we don't have 12" spiders. Told her it's a good thing she doesn't live in South America, should I add OZ to that list?

[Schneiderfrei]

You could add Oz to that Spookietoo.