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Not much luck finding a reasonably large spider in the yard (there were few and it was a smallish lot). Luckily this was not the case in my garage, where there were a few larger spiders. I don't think that spiders make it through winter, but my guess is that they can get started earlier indoors.

Now I like spiders, but this one with it's red tint in bright light and its oily-looking carapace did give me some shivers.

Looked a bit like a black widow in shape (it also looked almost completely black in normal light), but no hour-glass on its back -- anyone know what it is?