Life Is Funny: Er.Um.Uh.That.You.There...

By MAD21

I hope I'm not the only one who has trouble forming proper sentences when shocking things happen. Things like being a passenger in a car when the driver doesn't realize the cars in front of us have stopped. Instead of saying something coherent like, "Hey! Hit the brakes, the cars have stopped!" It comes out as, "Er, uh, ack, um, uh... (most times accompanied by furious pointing and pushing the invisible brakes with your own feet on the floor in front of you)."

Depending on where you live, you may or may not know what a Cicada is. Let me inform you. They are these nasty, LOUD, huge bugs with wings that come out in July and August every year. Each year apparently has a different variety, there are the "every 2-years," and the "every 17-years," etc. All I know is that we have them "every year." They don't bite or sting or anything, but the ick-factor is very high, at least for me. They are like gigantic grasshoppers on steroids.

This is not the "17-year" group this year, which tend to be the extremely noisy variety (that also come in HUGE numbers), but it has been a pretty noisy summer. Even my dog, who loves being outside in the heat, doesn't like to stay outside for long. We have seen many of their shells stuck to trees (they are like snakes in that they shed as they grow (EEeew!)). But the worse is when these things, who usually just hang out in the trees, come flying around you when you are working outside... which we have been doing a lot of this year.

Last weekend my hubby and I were planting some trees. At one point I looked up and saw that he had a HUGE Cicada on his backside. As I tried to get his attention, what came out was:

BUTT - CICADA - ON - YOURS - !!!

We had a good laugh. At least they were words that you could understand, just in the wrong order. I know, being around me can be challenging sometimes. It keeps life interesting.

Now, let me inform you that as with most things in life, with big bugs come even bigger bugs who are the predators of the smaller bugs. So as nasty as these Cicadas can be, what is worse is the Cicada Killers that come along with them (who do have a nasty sting). Yes, that is what they are called. Think giant wasp on double steroids. Ya. Your skin crawling yet?

While at swim lessons with the kids last week, there was a family sitting next to me with a few younger siblings of another kid in the class. As we sat there I caught flying movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked over and saw that a Cicada Killer had flown onto the back of the little boy (who was maybe two), attached to a Cicada. I got the mom's attention by pointing at her son saying:

UM - ER - UH - THERE - CHILD - BACK - !!!

She looked at her son rather confused until she saw them, to which she exclaimed, "AAAHH!" And swatted them away. Off flew the Cicada Killer probably pretty peeved, because he dropped the Cicada next to us, but not before he had killed it.

Ya. We live an exciting life around here. Have I mentioned how much I hate bugs flying around and on me? <shudder> These are at the top of my list. Right up there with centipedes and Wolfe Spiders.

My friend and fellow blogger Wendy at Weight..What? has a fun carnival at her blog called "Life is Funny." Every Monday we talk about something in life that we find funny. Be sure to go visit her blog to read her post along with links to other blogs who are participating.

Comments

[Helen]

I'm not a fan of insects either.