Saturday, June 14, 2025

Big Daddy (the daddy long legs)gives me a scare!

Welcome, I’m Mary Louisa Locke, the author of the USA Today best-selling Victorian San Francisco Mystery series and the Caelestis Science Fiction series. In this daily newsletter, I reflect on my life as an indie author trying to age gracefully. Occasionally, I will also publish some of my shorter fiction in this newsletter to read for free.

Daily Diary, Day 1746:

First of all, thanks to all of you who have responded so positively to my Friday post. Since most of the protests are happening this afternoon, I am hoping I will find some good photographs to put up tomorrow. But as the day goes on, I will post photos on my bluesky account and my personal Facebook account. Meanwhile, I hope that everyone participating will stay safe.

Edgar’s Friends: On a much lighter note, I had a very exciting moment this morning with the upstairs Daddy Long Legs I call Big Daddy. As of last evening, the only visible daddy long legs were the teeny tiny one that took up residence at least three days ago between the magazine rack and wall in the downstairs bathroom and the almost as tiny one that had a web between the baseboard and the vanity in the upstairs main bathroom. Big Daddy, which had been hanging out above the toilet had been gone for over a day. But as I got up and entered that bathroom first thing this morning, turning on the faucet to brush my teeth there was a flurry (thank heavens I had my glasses on) and Big Daddy scurried out from behind the handle that turns on the faucet. He frantically climbed up the wall and then swung over to the hand towel. I really couldn’t leave him there—so I got a toothbrush (new one in package) and nudged him off. But he then dropped to counter and ran right into the sink (where the water was still running), I immediately nudged him out of the water, and with some effort got him to climb out of the sink (he really is huge and you could see him frantically throwing out lines to get purchase). He then went onto a crumpled up Kleenex, which permitted me to lower him on to the floor and he scurried to the baseboard at the bottom of the vanity. He moved along that baseboard, which did assure me his legs were ok. Such excitement! Really got my heart rate going.

Interestingly, there was no sign of him or the tiny one when I got out of the shower. Wonder if they will ever be brave enough to return?

Otherwise, today I plan to be very quiet. I have done my extra upstairs cleaning, but no walking, since I evidently over-did it on Thursday (ended up with a 50-minute walk while talking on the phone.) This time it is the bottom of my feet, particularly the left…ball of foot feels bruised…so I am going to stay off it, elevate it, and maybe even a little ice. I don’t think it is anything to worry about, just a reminder to not over do. However, I will do some chair Pilates and the recumbent bike (which I bought for just this sort of event—when I needed to cut back on walking.)

I also got some writing done Thursday and Friday, and with no scheduled zoom meetings or phone calls, I hope to get more done today. Oh, and I was pleased that my daughter felt well enough to fly back home yesterday.

Here’s a rose from this past week. But they are becoming scarcer and scarcer.

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