But I had a good day.

I was leaving school and I saw a rather large spider weaving a web between a bush and a tree. She was struggling a little, it seemed. She was fat, brown and yellow striped and she had one of those giant abdomens (thorax??). The web was a little wonky, not quite one of those perfect ones you see in textbooks or on the discovery channel. She was working solidly, without rest from fret to fret, pulling a strand from her bum, holding it out so it wouldn't inadvertantly get stuck on something else, and then she would touch her bum down to where she wanted the thread to stick, and move on to the next fret. It was amazing, impressive.

When she was done doing the rounds, she stalked to the middle and undid all the support threads that were there for the foundation of the web. The space would be where she would hang to sit and wait for lunch.

Thoroughly fascinating. I stood there for about 15 minutes watching her. And then it occurred to me why her web was wonky and not quite perfectly spaced.

She had only seven legs. It suddenly seemed all the more amazing that she would go on and continue in her work, without stopping, with one less leg. She learned to adapt the way she strung her webs to having one less balance point, one less appendage to hold the thread away from the other threads.