An update on the cicadas:  the brighter the sun, the louder the noise.  Today is bright and the noise is terrific, hard to even be outdoors in.  And it is affecting the other animals.  Last week we had a squirrel that got in the garage and refused to leave.  For two days we left the garage door wide open, and nothing doing.  Usually, a trapped animal will make a beeline for any opening, especially a car garage door. You can't miss that.  Finally, he left, or he is just hiding better.

Then, this morning, a chipmunk came into our bedroom.  Timmy, still in bed yelled, "Squirrel, squirrel in the bedroom".  But it was only a chipmunk.  He had found a screen that I had not secured tightly yesterday.  That's another story- I was ironing the Bird's Nest tablecloth, had it doubled up on the ironing board, when I hit a bump, and at the same second, heard the cicada's scream.  Yes, I had ironed one of my friends that I have been saving lives of for the last two weeks.  Anyway, I opened the screen to throw out the dead bug, and couldn't close it right.  So that's how Mr. Munkchip (that's what Atticus used to call them) got into the bedroom.

We opened the windows, took out the screen, shut the bedroom door, and thought he would just jump back out.  But no, he stayed in the open window, watching Timmy mowing the lawn for two hours.  He was calm and collected, just like the squirrel in the garage, he liked it inside...the noise was a lot lower.

I don't know if he is still in there or not, but my theory is the local animals can't take the noise anymore than we can.  Rain tomorrow, so it will be quieter, but then when the sun returns, there will be more noise than ever.  I think we have a billion cicadas on Clay Hill Road alone.