  Cicadas . Yup ... they're coming. That's what they tell us anyway. This "Brood X" thing ... hasn't been seen since 1987. I was in college then. In New York State. In a place where they don't have cicadas. They tell us that, here in the DC area, there will be billions of them.
Yes ... that is "billions" with a BBBBBBBB. Billions. Supposedly, most of them will come out overnight on one night, when the soil temperature is perfect. These things have lived in the ground for 17 years, they will emerge one night, spend some time in/on trees and other surfaces, mate, molt, and die.
Ugh!! Exoskeletons and then dead locusts. And, to add to it all, there will be the noise. While they are attempting to attract cicadas of the opposite sex, they make noise. It ought to be deafening. There are already a small number of "early appearances", and some people have seen cicadas already. This morning, one of my colleagues thought it would be much fun to have one of our students bring a cicada in a jar and leave it on my desk. She (the student) named it "Bob". When I got over the original "Yuck, this is gross" feeling, I spent the day showing Bob to all of my students. Most of them think Bob is pretty disgusting, too. At the end of the day, we let Bob go ... back into the wilderness that is Arlington County, VA. I think that Bob was still in shock from having spent so many hours in a metal can, but he was going to die soon anyway ... right?
If you're wondering about this whole cicada thing, there is a website that bills itself as the urlLink Official Cicada Watch for 2004 . If you go to urlLink Google , click on the "News" link, and type the search string "cicadas", there are hundreds of news articles about them, too. Uck!! I am imagining a cicada plague of Biblical proportions. I can't even imagine what BILLIONS of cicadas are going to look like.
Bob was certainly ugly enough alone. Imagine all of his closest family and friends coming for dinner and making lots of noise. I think I'll stay inside. No, I think I'll spend three weeks in Buffalo with my mother. Get this ... my car doesn't have airconditioning, and my SUV's air conditioning is broken. And the temps have been in the upper 80's. That means that I'll be driving around for the next few days/weeks with my windows open. The cicadas will fill my car. Will I even be able to get in and out of the driver's seat? Cicadas!!!!!!!!
! 
