I just discovered something you have all long suspected — I am a huge pussy. An American pussy, to be precise, but one who enjoys each and every day spent living here in Hannover, Germany. I love it here! I can handle the cold, hard slap of culture shock, and I am slowly (though painfully) learning the German language, but the simple challenges presented by the changing of the seasons continue to test my mettle.
Today started with the usual routine: I got up, got dressed, and retrieved my bike from the garage so I could ride it to the gym. However, I failed to notice the staggering number of acorns covering the street and sidewalk in front of our house. It is Fall as I write this post, and there is a giant oak tree looming over our roof. Every time I go out the front door, I hear the crack of an acorn as it strikes the pavement, reminding me that every year, a certain number of people actually die because of falling coconuts hitting them on the brain.
Though smaller and less threatening, acorns are not the adorable comedic fodder we’ve been led to believe by the Ice Age movie franchise and its clearly retarded squirrel character. No, these little sons of bitches are rock hard and impossibly smooth, so you can imagine how a thin bicycle tire might interact with one at high speed.
After getting on my bike and pushing off, I descended the slope of our driveway and began to make a right turn as I entered the street. My front tire bounced off an acorn and turned my handlebars even more to the right, nearly sending me over the top as I struggled to keep it from going perpendicular. Of course a car was passing by at that moment, but I wasn’t in any real danger of being hit; the car was simply there so the passengers inside could witness the expression of sheer terror on my face and mock me for it accordingly.
I got my bike under control, pulled over to the curb and looked back over my shoulder. There were so many acorns in the street I felt like I’d just unwittingly navigated a minefield during wartime. “6th Division, Charlie Company, Landmine Detection Unit. We just run right through that shit with blindfolds on. 97% success rate. Best record in the Corps.”
I’m joking right now, but at that moment, I was pissed off. I walked my bike back to the garage, opened the door and practically tossed it inside. Determined to clear the street of every last acorn, I reached for one of the brooms leaning against the wall and saw something move from the corner of my eye. Oh yes, it was the largest spider in Germany.
As you can see, I managed to snap a few pictures of the spider after coaxing my scrotum back out of its hiding place. That other thing in the picture, my friends, is a €1 euro coin. When I tossed the coin on the ground, the spider started to shake really hard, as if scared. Then I realized it wasn’t scared at all; it was shaking its web in order to better snare whatever doomed creature had fallen into it. Isn’t that just awful? And isn’t that a perfectly legitimate reason to leave the coin there forever, spider or no, so it will never be touched by human fingers again? Christ, just telling this story makes me feel like I’m covered in bugs. I’ll need 2 milligrams of Xanax and 6 ounces of Jameson if I hope to stand a snowball’s chance in hell of falling asleep tonight.
Since this spider was obviously too huge to live, I grabbed a garden hoe and — using the flat side downward like a piston — smashed that motherfucker with enough force to cause an earthquake on the other side of the planet. I did this repeatedly, and also while screaming like a little girl. Speaking of little girls, there’s a kindergarten right next to our house and the garage door was wide open, so the kids who were walking home from school that day heard, “AAAAAAAA—*clang* *clang* *clang*—AAAHHHGG!” while seeing a grown man employ a level of violence so profoundly unnecessary it was probably illegal.
I bet those little kids are scarred for life, crying themselves to sleep every night after begging their parents to explain why their new American neighbor hates living in Germany so badly he beats the very soil beneath his feet.
“Wait, the bad man was doing what now?” soothes the parent. “Screaming? And then he started crying, you say? Oh, go back to sleep, Klaus — you were just having another one of your silly little nightmares.”
Oh God, My Wife Is German. 
Bahahahahaha! My husband used a broom to hockey puck a water bug the other day while my three year old (three!) uses tissues to pick up spiders.
Weaker sex…my toocus. (sp?)
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LOVED this post!! Thank you for sharing your adventures and so sorry that you have an infestation of giant german spiders in your garage. (Because obviously, where there’s one, there must be a whole nest of others, right??!?)
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Aww, don’t worry! You def not a huge pussy. In fact, you’re one brave guy! If I’d seen a spider this large, I’d beat Usain Bolt by at least 2,5 sec and I’d never EVER would set a foot even close to that garage. So cheer up! You did 95% of the girls in your neighborhood a huge favor.
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Hahahaha!!!
Many people will tell you now,
it’s wrong to kill an innocent spider.
Instead, have something special for you.
First you need to know the annoying ad campaign
for the perfume “Moments” with Priscilla Presley.
Of course we saw many posters for
these “Moments” also!
And here the Special Edition for
“Oh God, My Wife IS German.”
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Haw haw haw! Those are great, Marlies. Thank you. :)
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You can hear those spiders make noise when they walk across the tile floor of our house– I think they wear wooden clogs.
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Haw haw!
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I think you should have stayed in the city….
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Oh my sweet Jesus! As an arachnophobe, this post scared the shit out of me at work…warn a sister next time you need to photograph a monster! :P Glad to know I’m not the only adult who reacts a little extreme when it comes to spiders!
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I’m sorry! I thought the spider pic might be a bit much for some people… but it communicated the effect, right?
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That it did indeed! I’m sure the screams I produced were close to those coming from you at the sight of the real thing! And way to go you for getting pictures…I’d have been crying too hard at my nightmares come to life to think of a picture!
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This is why you need a cat. A cat will do the dirty work for you, get a little recreation and exercise batting the spider to death in a little ritual torture of its victim (Ms. Spider), have a small snack of the spider, and it’s purrs (allegedly) decrease the risk of heart attacks and high cholesterol in people who eat high cholesterol German sausage and the like.
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Weggieboy – you are absolutely right about the cat – just – the moment you see your cat with the spider legs dangling out of the mouth arachnophobia kicks right back and makes you want to avoid your beloved little “Stubentiger” (german petname for cats, “roomtiger”) … at least for a while. Trust me, been there, done that, got the bloody T-shirt.
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Eeeee-gad! I remember those suckers…HUGE! I typically let spiders be, but those? Thanks to the vacuum cleaner gods, were Miele futter.
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You should invent something for the bike to clear the path of acorns, like a cow catcher.
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Haw haw! A nut catcher…
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I would kill for an oak tree like this in our vicinity, for certain reasons, but all we have is scrub oak and pretty pathetic stuff at that. Even if it meant navigating land mines in the road, and spiders.
Lovely post.
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Thank you, Wolf!
Why would you like an oak tree? Because they’re pretty?
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If you follow the “certain reasons” link, you can read about my adventures making acorn bread…
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But have you been attacked by the huge horse chestnuts, covered with spikes? You can get a concussion when one of those buggers bounces off your head!
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Haha! Spiders are loathsome, whether they’re in Germany OR America! My favorite instrument of death against them was the hairspray flamethrower.
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Jeeeeeebus that is a huge spider. It didn’t really sink in until I thought back to how big 1 EUR coins are.
*shudders*
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Holy smokes… that spider is HUGE… I would have dropped dead immediately… I’m so scared of them!! :-(
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A few years ago, my father found one of these spiders in his towel while reaching for it after a shower.
He is usually not an arachnophobe and not easily frightened but he did scream as he found it. As far as I remember he killed immediately.
But usually spiders in my parents’ house or mine aren’t killed, I guess it was more a shock reaction.
(I’m not scared of spiders- the only animals I’m scared of are wasps. Horrible beasts from hell. And cockroaches are f*cking disgusting.)
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