Ezra wrote:Tarantulas - a little creapy but really not a big deal, I've yet to meet anyone who's been bit, I think you'd have to try really hard to get them to bit. Once we had a little family living on the porch, a Mama (palm sized) and several babies (2" or so leg spread)

Now we have scorpions too (I never knew they were in france??) They do hurt but its basically like a bee sting. Ive seen them from 1/2" (common) up to 4" (not so common) in my house

Black widows, more common than I'd like to believe, I've seen several around the yard, none in the house so far

Rattle snakes are what you have to watch out for, I found one nestled up against my screen door a couple months ago. Scared the shit out of me.

Just little detail from life in the desert

As I don't use the same metric system than you do, I have had to figure out the sizes. 7" is now my "unity" to compare.

Yes, we have scorpions in southern France. They aren't too dangerous but they can give you fever. The ones I had in my flat were usually 1/3 7" long. The snake I had on my balcony was a 2 7" viper. The craziest thing was that I was living in the city, I had a very small garden but it was far to be like the desert. Nobody believed me, until my GF actually saw a scorpion herself. She freaked out.

I don't think I could deal with tarantulas, seriously

1/2" = 1.2 cm = small scorpion

2" = 5.08 cm = baby tarantula

4" = 10.16 cm = large scorpion

Rotten Tanx wrote:If I found scorpions, tarantulas and rattlesnakes in my house I would go put my head in the oven. I couldn't even begin to try and deal with that. I've only just summoned up the courage to piss while there's a moth on the ceiling above my head.

With the heat wave last week I had a 2" "waterbug" (AKA Big Fucking Cockroach) in my bathroom.

I killed it, but couldn't sleep the rest of the night. I had the cold sweats.

I am a wuss.

My dog was at the beach really close to here.

She was frolicking in the surf when the heads of 3 seals popped up out of the water. These seals were very close to the shore and very close to her.

In her younger days, I think she would have tried to get after these seals. I was glad when she got her ass out of the water in a big hurry and ran back toward me.

Ezra wrote:4" = 10.16 cm = large scorpion

i hope i'll never meet one of those on my way.

For 10 days now, there has been an invasion of jellyfishes near the Mediterranean coasts and it's dangerous to swim in the sea. There is no way I get burnt by those bastards so I don't go to the beach. Of course, this is just happening during my holidays.

Today, the forrest of pine trees near Nice is burning. There is smoke everywhere, look:

This is Nice earlier today:


and this is Nice one hour ago (same angle):


Those fires are often started by criminals and they really sucks!
There have been Canadair flying around all the afternoon.

Sly Bug wrote:As I don't use the same metric system than you do, I have had to figure out the sizes. 7" is now my "unity" to compare.

Yes, we have scorpions in southern France. They aren't too dangerous but they can give you fever. The ones I had in my flat were usually 1/3 7" long. The snake I had on my balcony was a 2 7" viper. The craziest thing was that I was living in the city, I had a very small garden but it was far to be like the desert. Nobody believed me, until my GF actually saw a scorpion herself. She freaked out.

These measurements are very beautiful.

I just met a mate of mine for a couple of pints in the pub round the corner from my house. We swapped news and compared summers over Stella and peanuts.

When I went for a piss, I was struck by the graffiiti.

A couple of "London bombs - inside job"'s made me think that clocker bob might have a cousin (or just some anglo-bobs) in north London, but the one that really perplexed me was - (and this is verbatim, I shit you not)

"I love butter in the same way a sparrow loves the rotting corpse of an old lady"

Now, in my time I have got very out of it, and I've done various plain foolish things in pub toilets, including scratching some dumbness on the wall, but... sparrows? Semi-consumed old ladies? An all-devouring love of butter?

The youth of today.....

I gave up smoking 6 days ago, and just went for a run. A run! Only did about a mile. Feel like I'm going to die. Help me.