Make Mine Mike

Well, it's October, signifying the start of a season of some scary stuff.

I don't mean the fact that the Yankees didn't take the division this year. Better that they didn't. Let 'em sweep Cleveland while the Red Sox and Angels wear each other out. Besides, it seems that the Wild Card team winds up winning the World Series anyway. Winning the AL East... been there, done that. Yanks don't need that distinction to get their 27th World Series title.

No, the eerieness is everywhere else in October. Even outside my apartment.

Like this spider, which built a mesh of webs in the bushes and included a fallen leaf as its cavernous hideout. Hideous, huh? Click the image for full-sized freakiness.

Speaking of full-sized... while there are lots of cool spiders around my new place, it was back in front of my old apartment building that I saw this one, about three inches long. I had only seen grotesque arachnids like that at the Spider Pavilion last year. The Natural History Museum people assured me that such web-spinners were native to LA, but I thought such colorful creatures only came out of a Mystic Tan booth.


These creepy crawlers aren't as creepy as this critter -- the squirrel that just hangs out in front, staring at you. Maybe he's expecting food, but when he tries to strike a sexy bedroom pose, you can't help but wonder if he's hoping for something else.