Spiders spin magical Christmas for family

Staff

Published Sunday, December 28, 2003

By Al Batt, Nature's world

My neighbor Crandall stops by.

"How are you doing?" I ask.

"Whatever you do, when you park by the auto-wrecking yard, don't park your small car in a spot marked, 'Compact.'"

"Oops."

"At least that should keep me from getting any more speeding tickets."

"That's right," I say.

"You are the first person ever put on the FBI's Most Wanted List just for speeding. You get blisters from your gas pedal."

"Yes, some day there will be a radar detector named after me.

Say, did you see those two working for the city yesterday?"

"No, I didn't.

"Well, I watched them for hours because I have that kind of time.

One would dig a hole and then the other guy would follow behind him and fill in the hole.

They did this all day long--hole after hole.

I finally had to ask them why they were putting so much effort into accomplishing nothing.

Why they dig a hole only to fill it in right away?"

"What did they say?" I ask.

"Well, one of them wiped the sweat from his brow and said, 'Normally, we are a 3-man crew, but the guy who plants the trees called in sick today.'"

A Spider at Christmas

The family was poor.

There was no money for luxuries and very little for necessities.

The family was poor, but loving.

All the family members were happy.

Christmas was coming and their little home was filled with excitement.

The entire family pitched in and the house was cleaned from top to bottom.

As they cleaned one room, the family found spiders in each corner.

Being so close to Christmas, the children voiced their reluctance to destroy the spider webs.

Their loving parents agreed to leave the spiders and their webs alone.

It was Christmas, after all.

After the house was cleaned, the father brought in a surprise for the family.

It was a beautiful Christmas tree.

Its green boughs seemed to fill the house.

As short as the money was, no one expected a tree.

The family did not have that many Christmas decorations, but what they had, they put on the tree.

An angel was placed at the top of the tree; a good place for it to watch out for all of the inhabitants of the household.

The tree looked like it was missing something, but no one in the family could put his or her finger on what it was that was lacking.

The family went to bed early.

It was Christmas Eve.

Everyone was exhausted from cleaning the house and trimming the tree.

Everyone was excited about Christmas Day.

Already some of the wonderful smells of food had begun to fill the little house.

As the children said their bedtime prayers, they each included the spiders in their prayers.

They asked that the spiders have a good Christmas, too.

In the middle of the night, the children heard a soft sound.

They crept from their beds and walked to the room where the Christmas tree stood.

They thought perhaps Santa Claus was making a visit and they would be able to get a glimpse of him as he devoured the milk and cookies they had left out for him.

They were disappointed to see no Santa.

They were further disappointed to see that the spiders that they had spared while cleaning the house had covered the beautiful Christmas tree with their drab, gray webs. The simply decorated tree now looked grotesque.

The kids returned to their beds.

They couldn't believe that the spiders that they had prayed for had done such a horrible thing.

Their Christmas tree was ruined and they fully expected Christmas to be ruined as well.

The children crawled out of their warm beds expecting the worst.

They walked slowly to the Christmas tree.

A miracle had happened!

The cobwebs on the tree had turned from gray to silver.

The morning light coming through the window hit the cobwebs, causing them to sparkle like stars in the sky.

No Christmas tree had ever looked better.

It was the best Christmas the family in the little house had ever had.

This is the reason that I find it to be good luck to find a spider or its web in a Christmas tree.

Chicago

The National Audubon Society, the Partners in Flight, Mayor Richard Daley and the Building Owners and Managers Association of Chicago have recognized downtown building owners and managers for making Chicago the first US city to dim tall building lights during spring and fall bird migration.

The decorative lights are dimmed in order to save birds' lives.

A Bird Tale

A crow was sitting in a tree, doing nothing all day.

A small chipmunk saw the crow enjoying himself and asked, "Could I also sit like you and do nothing all day long?"

"Sure, why not?" answered the crow.

So the chipmunk sat on the ground below the crow and relaxed.

Suddenly, a fox appeared.

The fox caught the chipmunk and ate it.

There is a lesson to this cautionary tale.

If you want to sit around all day and do nothing, you must be sitting very high up.

Some things worth getting out of bed for

The Village Inn in Hartland.

A small cafe with big food.

The Kee Theater in Kiester.

A wonderful old theater with a Bubble-Up clock on the wall.

Need I say more?

Santa Baby by Eartha Kitt

Christmas bird counts

Christmas Bird Counts.

Please join me on Albert Lea's Christmas Bird Count on January 3.

I need help from you good folks counting the birds at your feeders and in the field. Please call me at 845-2836 or drop me an e-mail at SnoEowl@aol.com if you would like to participate in this enjoyable activity.

Hope

Dinah Shore once said, "There are no hopeless situations-only people who are hopeless about them."

Martin Luther said, "Everything that is done in the world is done by the hopeful."

Without hope, nothing is possible. But with hope, nothing is impossible.

As we enter 2004, please let hope be your shadow.

My New Year's wish for you is all that you wish for yourself.

Etcetera

If you can't be happy now with what you have and who you are, you will not be happy when you get what you think you want.

If you don't know how to fully enjoy $500, you won't enjoy $5,000 or $500,000.

If you can't fully enjoy taking a walk around the block with your mate, then you won't enjoy going to Hawaii or Paris."-Barbara DeAngelis

"When you expect good, it's available constantly, and it makes itself a reality in your life."-Alfre Woodard

You are the director of your own movie. Be grateful for being a decent person.

Happy holidays.

DO GOOD.

(Al Batt is a resident of rural Hartland, his Nature's World column appears every Sunday.)

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