Mother Nature is trying to kill me

So yesterday we get ready to take the dogs for their morning walk and I point out a spiderweb by the door to Spork. He says, "Yeah, I poked at that with my foot yesterday." I look a little closer and notice that it is a black widow. Spork digs it out and smashes it repeatedly with his shoe until it's just a greasy spot on the floor.

Later that day...

I probably haven't mentioned this before, but I keep an old plastic cup from Andy's Frozen Custard* in my bathroom to water my plants. I decided to water the plants, since it was Monday and all, and found this inside:




Since there's nothing to provide scale here, he's about 2 inches from leg tip to leg tip.

I jumped. The spider jumped. That made me jump and almost drop the cup. I, of course, took it to Spork to see him jump, but he just said, "Spiders are cool." Harumph, I guess he didn't recall the morning spider puree incident.

About 6:00 PM...

I'm outside doing the garden thing, preparing the soil to plant some okra. I take my garden fork (a threek, technically) and pull the mulch back towards my flip-flop clad feet and this pops out at me:



My reaction was a swearing fit audible only to dogs. Then I realized that it was "hiding" from me. Snakey apparently thought that if it couldn't see me, I couldn't see it because once the tiny little leaf covering its head was removed, it took off like lightning. Unfortunately, it took off into the garden, so I know its still in there... Somewhere...

So what's up with Mother Nature? Is she pissed off at me because I didn't send her a Mother's Day card? How can I make amends?

*If you haven't been to Andy's, it's freakin' fantastic!