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As if I didn't have enough poisonous spiders with all the brown recluses I have, this little fellow decided to pay me a visit yesterday. I took his picture isn't he cute? 
Yeah, W. T. F. mate. Hahaha. He was sitting by the bottom crack of the garage door. I have eyelets screwed into the door that I slide nail punches into and shove a wedge of wood to pull the door tighter at the bottom. I was reaching down to remove them to open the door up because I was painting and saw his shape and knew it was a black widow. I have never seen one before except when I was a little kid and back then I didn't look at it too close to verify. I was looking for the red hourglass but saw only a splotchy red line on his back... Flip it over and bingo there's the hourglass!!
Everyone knows about black widows but this is the 1st maybe 2nd time I have seen one. I have seen probably hundreds of brown recluses though. Some pictures of one I killed are in this thread here.
I have saved him in a container. I put a few drops of rubbing alcohol to hopefully keep moisture in him so his abdomen doesn't shrivel up and cave in until I can get some casting resin. I plan to preserve him to show other people. I saved a brown recluse once but he dried out and his abdomen shrunk up. I still used him by putting some slow cure 2 ton epoxy in a polyethylene square flip top container with him. The epoxy is yellowed some and there are bubbles so I want to get the casting resin for the black widow as that should make a perfect paper weight/charm/whatever.
I have shown the recluse epoxy mold to people to educate them what they look like and show the fiddle on their back. That specimen is still useful since it shows their long knuckle face-hugger looking legs and the thorax on this one is huge and the fiddle is clear.
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In other news I think I have a paint hang-over today from last night. I have sinus-pressure-like headache. I did get my door b-pillar's repainted black and cleared, my spoiler with some good thick multiple coats of clear so I don't have to worry about it flaking in the future (looks awesome!), and a spot on my roof that looks like the previous owner repaired something, was oxidizing so I shot that and will polish the clear over-spray in today. Not perfect but it always was a different tint and this looks better than a big white oxidation spot. My paint is far from perfect thanks to other people or animals. If it weren't for them my paint would be great. It still shines like new when I hand wash it. Just not all spots are the same color now due to repairs.
I just used the duplicolor stuff as that's what the spoiler was done in by the previous owner. I'm getting pretty good at it now. I do wish I had a real paint gun I would take the car apart and re-shoot the whole thing or at least the roof and blend the drives quarter back from the door.
I also put on my winter 14" wheels with 185/75R14 rubber since it was sleeting and snowing. They have the Beretta/Cavalier hubcabs and I painted the bowties in the center black. Nice touch. Those narrow tires look funny because the rim is only 6" wide and they tuck way underneath the fenders. It's like where are the wheels?!! They are hiding.
Oh yeah, I also spent 3 hours with a tiny rotary tool with some polishing compound going down the whole drivers side removing 2 big long scratch lines. Not sure if someone ran by my car with something that scratched it or what. I don't remember driving against a stick/branch/etc so I have no idea what it was. It was from the fender to the door to the quarter and stopped before rear tire. It looked really deep but thankfully it polished out. I noticed it in my dark garage so that's how bad it was. My car reflects the ground there when clean so I'm glad it came out nicely. Was a ton of work though.
Yeah, W. T. F. mate. Hahaha. He was sitting by the bottom crack of the garage door. I have eyelets screwed into the door that I slide nail punches into and shove a wedge of wood to pull the door tighter at the bottom. I was reaching down to remove them to open the door up because I was painting and saw his shape and knew it was a black widow. I have never seen one before except when I was a little kid and back then I didn't look at it too close to verify. I was looking for the red hourglass but saw only a splotchy red line on his back... Flip it over and bingo there's the hourglass!!
Everyone knows about black widows but this is the 1st maybe 2nd time I have seen one. I have seen probably hundreds of brown recluses though. Some pictures of one I killed are in this thread here.
I have saved him in a container. I put a few drops of rubbing alcohol to hopefully keep moisture in him so his abdomen doesn't shrivel up and cave in until I can get some casting resin. I plan to preserve him to show other people. I saved a brown recluse once but he dried out and his abdomen shrunk up. I still used him by putting some slow cure 2 ton epoxy in a polyethylene square flip top container with him. The epoxy is yellowed some and there are bubbles so I want to get the casting resin for the black widow as that should make a perfect paper weight/charm/whatever.
I have shown the recluse epoxy mold to people to educate them what they look like and show the fiddle on their back. That specimen is still useful since it shows their long knuckle face-hugger looking legs and the thorax on this one is huge and the fiddle is clear.
...
In other news I think I have a paint hang-over today from last night. I have sinus-pressure-like headache. I did get my door b-pillar's repainted black and cleared, my spoiler with some good thick multiple coats of clear so I don't have to worry about it flaking in the future (looks awesome!), and a spot on my roof that looks like the previous owner repaired something, was oxidizing so I shot that and will polish the clear over-spray in today. Not perfect but it always was a different tint and this looks better than a big white oxidation spot. My paint is far from perfect thanks to other people or animals. If it weren't for them my paint would be great. It still shines like new when I hand wash it. Just not all spots are the same color now due to repairs.
I just used the duplicolor stuff as that's what the spoiler was done in by the previous owner. I'm getting pretty good at it now. I do wish I had a real paint gun I would take the car apart and re-shoot the whole thing or at least the roof and blend the drives quarter back from the door.I also put on my winter 14" wheels with 185/75R14 rubber since it was sleeting and snowing. They have the Beretta/Cavalier hubcabs and I painted the bowties in the center black. Nice touch. Those narrow tires look funny because the rim is only 6" wide and they tuck way underneath the fenders. It's like where are the wheels?!! They are hiding.
Oh yeah, I also spent 3 hours with a tiny rotary tool with some polishing compound going down the whole drivers side removing 2 big long scratch lines. Not sure if someone ran by my car with something that scratched it or what. I don't remember driving against a stick/branch/etc so I have no idea what it was. It was from the fender to the door to the quarter and stopped before rear tire. It looked really deep but thankfully it polished out. I noticed it in my dark garage so that's how bad it was. My car reflects the ground there when clean so I'm glad it came out nicely. Was a ton of work though.
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