Friday, September 08, 2006

Cicadas

One more sign of seasonal change: the cicadas have arrived. This house was suddenly engulfed by New Cicada Surround-Sound as soon as the sun went down today. The damn things seem to be flinging their songs out from every tree in every direction, and there are thousands of trees here. The sound, I'm sorry to say, is much like that of a mosquito. Once you've noticed it, it will not leave your head!

It's a sound which is hard to describe... Imagine a mechanical thingamajig in which a belt should drive a spinning thing, but the spinning thing has disappeared, so the belt whirls too fast and loose, making a "thuckathuckathucka" noise so rapidly that you can hardly hear the difference between one "thucka" and the next. Now take that sound and make it high-pitched and give it the ability to vibrate your head if you're standing close to the source.

That was probably nothing like it whatsoever, but it was a damn good try, wouldn't you say? I was very impressed by the "thuckathuckathuckas" in particular.

...

It took me so long to write this, it started to rain, it stopped raining, and somewhere in there the cicadas all fell silent. The familiar old night noises have reasserted themselves and the old night, it seems, is back.

Oh.

Right then.

Quiet, isn't it?

(Yay.)