Eudyptes cuteness, courtesy of outlanderssc and baaaaabyanimals:

Put us down! We gots some rockhoppin' to do!

I forgot to pick up some contact lens solution today, so I had to hoof it back to the grocery store where I live work. It wasn't too bad a walk, since I'd had some horizontal time and something to eat since I was there earlier in the day. Plus, the sun had gone down and it had cooled off a little — it was still way too humid to be pleasant, but it was OK. Except that in the 10 minutes there and 10 minutes back, I got devoured by blood-sucking vermin! No, not Televangelists! Mosquitoes! Hundreds ... nay ... thousands ... nay ... GABILLIONS of them attacked me and tried to carry me off ...

OK, so I might be getting carried away in a different sense here. There were a lot of them, though.

And a lot of cicadas, still buzzing away in the treetops, too! Which is what this post is really all about.

I miss Brood X. =sniffle= Brood X is the 17-year periodical cicada swarm that lives in this area, i.e. Maryland. They last wriggled their way into the light in 2004, screwed like mad, made all the birds flip out and think they'd gone to birdie heaven ("Look at all the great buffet, Eunice! And it's all you can eat!") and then buzzed off into the sunset. But they — or their descendants, rather — won't be back until 2021! Waaaaa! Come back little magic cicadas! You were cute ... in a buggy sorta way!



This is a female Magicicada cassini dancing "The Electric Slide" on my hand. See more great "Magic Cicada" photos by sunnydale47!