Spiders

"Dad, did you know that there are spiders as big as tires?"

"Car tires?" I asked in alarm.

"Yeah!" he said. 

"I've never heard of spiders that big before.   Where exactly are they?" I asked with a distinct note of panic in my voice. 

"They live in the desert," he said, matter-of-factly.

"Which desert?" I asked, not bothering to keep the skepticism out of my voice.

I had a picture of myself riding my camel across the Saharan dunes only to encounter an arachnid the size of a truck tire waiting to snack on my flesh and that of my camel.

"The desert," he said. "You know, the hot one."

Yeah, that’s what I thought.  <insert eye rolling here>

- 12 October 2017