Life in San Francisco

Bomb Threats and Black Widows





Don't ever let me say my life if boring - it's anything but. Here's what's happened over the past 36 hours:





Yesterday morning I tried to go into my office early to pick up a file for a meeting with a prospect. I left the house at 6:45am so I could get the file, and return home in time for Gary to make it to work by 7:30am.





When I got close to the office, I noticed that the street was closed off by police cars and yellow tape. I figured someone had been robbed, and that the police were conducting their investigation. So I drove around the back way, and thought I would be able to get in and out in plenty of time. WRONG! Just as I got close to my office from the other direction, I noticed that the police were turning people around. There was plenty of hustle and bustle at the San Francisco Wholesale Produce Market, where my office is located, and tons of cars were driving, and people were working. I got close to two police officers who were directing traffic, and basically turning people away about 20 feet from my building. I asked them if I could go ahead and pull into my parking space. They asked me where I was trying to go, so I explained that I worked in the building right over there, finger pointing a few feet away, and that I just wanted to pull into my parking space in the carport next to the building. It was then that they told me there was a bomb threat at the Bank of America, and that no one was going into the building.





I tried to find out how long it was going to take until things were back to normal, but the police officers didn't know, as they said they were waiting for the mechanical bomb sniffer to figure out if it was really a bomb or not. I decided not to wait around to see, and went home. It certainly made for any interesting way to start my meeting with my prospect.

Weirdly enough, this is not the first bomb threat I have been exposed to in recent weeks. I was trying to get to Japantown a few weeks ago, and the Civic Center was completely shut down. Eventually a big bus-like police vehicle came through. Apparently, there was a bomb threat near the SF Symphony.




Today, as the boys and I were about to go into the house, Ben noticed a big, black spider by the front door. He shouted, and said it was a black widow spider. I told him he was wrong, that there was no way it was really a black widow. He insisted, so I took a picture to compare to pictures on the internet. Low and behold, he was right. It was a black widow spider. It had a beautiful red hourglass on it's underside, and was about the size of a quarter.

Not knowing what to do with it, I called the San Francisco Zoo to see if the insect zoo wanted it. The head of the insect zoo, Patrick Schlemmer, asked me if I could see the red hourglass on the underside, and I told him I could. He asked me to bring it in.





So I got a mason jar, put it near the spider, and it climbed right in. I put a lid on loosely, and off we went to bring the spider to her new home. Patrick took one look at her, and said she was really beautiful, in fact, much nicer looking than the one they already had. He asked if we were zoo member, which we are, and after I told him we were, he said we would see her on display the next time we came to visit. Apparently black widow spiders can live up to seven years, so we may be seeing her for quite a while.

How many people do you thing had encounters with both bomb threats and black widow spiders in a 36 hour period? Like I said, my life is anything but boring.

Labels: Bomb Threats and Black Widows