Hidden Intruder

From time to time, I experience fear in my car. Usually this is because someone cuts me off or I see some crazy driver and fear for the accident they may cause me or someone else unless they start driving more carefully.

But the other day, something caused me to feel sheer terror like I have not felt in quite a while. An eight-legged intruder.

I was about 15 minutes away from work, singing along as usual, when suddenly a rather largish spider crawled out from under my visor on his way to the other side of the interior roof. I literally screamed. When he got above the passenger seat, he rappelled down to the floor. I was so frozen in fear I couldn't even think of trying to swat at him, not wanting him to fall on me and also not wanting to crash the car. (How would I explain that accident to the cops?)

I refused to open my mouth the rest of the way to work, remembering the urban legend about the number of spiders a person swallows each year. (This illustrates the irrational fear I have of these things.) A minute or two later, I saw him crawl across the windshield where it meets the dashboard, and then disappear down into a vent.

When I got out of the car at work, I conducted a thorough search for him, but found nothing.

When I got to my car after work, I hoped that baking in the hot sun all day would kill this fellow, but unsure, I opened each door, checked for webs, and rustled everything around in case he was hiding, hoping to avoid him coming out again in transit.

I continue to search the car each time I enter it, but I haven't seen this little guy in a few days. Scott has suggested that I clean out the car, and vacuum all the vents, which will hopefully suck him out if he's still in there somewhere.

I know spiders have a purpose on earth. I just wish they would stay away from me.