This is what was wrong with our car.
Spread across the large majority of the back door, this beast was hanging upside down, waiting for prey. The thing that amazes me is that Mendon didn't notice it in the rearview mirror and I didn't see it until we were out of the car. It is, to say the least, huge for these parts.
PS. Regarding the actual problem with the car, we don't know. It didn't act up for any of the guys at the shop and it's fine now. Katie, our resident car non-expert, reports that this funny condition happened to her as well. In that case, the problem was with a temperature gauge that adjusts the gas mixture that goes to the engine. So she reports.
This means that 1. I do not feel relieved. 2. We paid Barry $60 for a towing and a spider of death. Great. Just great.
It should be noted that this is not a picture of the actual spider. Kristen's adrenaline levels were sky-rocketing when she noticed the enormous web on back of the car. It was pretty incredible. The spider had managed to construct a web from the top of cieling to the floor of the back of the car. Not a single strand was attached to back door itself. So, when I pulled open the back door, it just made the web flutter in the breeze (seeing that it was made of reinforced steel, it didn't move much). It looked like a pretty tough spider and I might have paid it more respect for being so enormous and in the back of our car, but Kristen was having serious problems with it by then.
I have geico insurance and for something like a dollar fifty five all year I can get free road side assistance including towing. You might want to look into that- or joining AAA.
Umm, just to make sure - we did tell you that you have to make sure that the floor mat doesn't slip up under the pedals, otherwise the car won't start, right?
Also, if that's the spider I just saw over at a friend's Flickr account, something like a golden web weaver or something, it is fairly harmless. Not that I wouldn't have felt like I was dealing with Shelob if I'd seen it.
(don't we have Geico?)
Hmmm... Did not hear anything about the floor mat / pedal issue. Although, to be realistic about it, the car started just fine, it just also happened to turn off a little too well. We'll see what it is eventually - it will either be nothing, or we'll have it fixed.
Also, I wonder about that Geico thing. Do we have that on our policy? If we don't, why not? Because, we definitely have Geico.
As for the other problem: it's an Agriope aurantia. It's supposed to be pretty common for this area, but I've never seen anything of this magnitude and scariness. If you google the agriope, you'll find that it does a funny web-writing behavior, and that is just what we saw in the back of the car. That's actually why I found it; I saw the line up the middle of the web far earlier than I saw the spider. The writing behavior also makes the species unquestionable. I wonder if these guys were the inspriation for Charlotte's Web. (Myth on the web reports that there was at least one "sighting" before the election of McKinley? I think the local thought he could read the to-be-president's name in the zig zags).
Also, is anyone else waiting for the pun about something like, "but I read it on the Web; it must be true?" Just wondering. :)
I am enjoying the spider that wiggled and tiggled inside story youse guys are delineating for me. Maybe there is a spider hairball in the carburetor or over the fuel injectors. Kind of a one way valve thing where you can start the car but it won't stay running at stops. Rugs bunching under pedals would be a problem in any car. If you name the spider, you keep it.....
Golden rule of House Pets number 1,436, section b under arachnid care and breeding in automobiles older than four years.
It should be right under the section of spider webs being broken on noses and mouths ,in the early am: webs that run from the mirror to the garage roof (kind of like being slimed).
I think Charlotte done thought it was Wilbur. When it went over 30 mph, did she say "That's some pig!" ?