Under siege

Egads, cyber friends! What a crazy week it's been. I don't know what in particular made it so, but I feel like I've been working at a frenzied pace yet still accomplishing nothing. But that isn't the point.
The point is that Nashville has been invaded. Not the dreaded British, or even the body-snatchers. That would be a welcome relief. Cicadas. Yup, those giant, googlie-eyed, grate-on-your-nerves insects. The Volunteer State is due for its 13-year crop, and they have resurrected in impressive numbers. I hate them. The incessant buzzing. The horrifying splat and subsequent goo-ishness they leave on your windshield on the highway. The vicious attacks on my person and property. OK, that's giving them too much credit. They're way to dumb to plan anything so intricate as an attack on a life form a gajillion times their size. But they do fly at you, and they are really hard to get off because, as mentioned, they are ginormous. I was sitting in my lounge chair in the backyard earlier this week, catching some rays while I studied, and (I'm so not kidding, wish I were) a giant, dead cicada fell out of the tree and landed on my head. I screamed, did a little dead-cicada-on-my-head dance, and headed straight for the cicada-free great indoors.
But relief is on the horizon. I get a cicada-free interlude this weekend since I'll be in Seattle for Laurie's wedding. And then, only 17 days until I escape permanently to Houston! Wish me luck in the meantime.