Pipe Down

They’re back! A “brood” of 17 –year cicadas will emerge this spring along the East coast according to an article in USA Today. Cicadas are loud and in order for a male to attract a female it emits a deafening chorus, which can reach 90 decibels – as loud as a lawnmower.

I’d rather wake up to the sound of cicadas rather than a lawnmower. We’ve all lived next door to the neighbor who starts their mower at 7a.m. on a Saturday morning. If you haven’t had such a neighbor then you are the neighbor. I’d rather wake up to birds chirping rather than a neighbor with a snow blower. I’d rather wake up to wind chimes chanting in the breeze rather than loud, blaring music from a passing car.

When we lived in Pennsylvania there was a cricket that lived in a bush below our bedroom window. On nights I went to bed and the window was open I would hear the cricket. It was a calming sound that rang through the darkness and quiet of the night. The sound of that one lone cricket would lull me to sleep. It was my own personal lullaby. Sometimes the rustling of leaves accompanied it. Sometimes the moon would cast a glow on nature’s symphony. I succumbed to a peaceful sleep.

Mornings on the other hand were a different story. Tap, tap, tap would go the woodpecker outside my bedroom window. Before sunrise the woodpecker would wake me up. Woody came in and Jiminy left; it was like the changing of the guard. My abrupt morning start was in stark contrast to my blissful bedtime. I didn’t need an alarm clock with the pecker around.

The only thing worse would have been if the lawnmower, cicadas and woodpecker arrived all at once.