I really wanted to get a better picture of all the cicadas, to give you a better idea of just HOW MANY there are by my work. I went out to the front of the building this morning, hoping to get a picture in the sunlight before they got too active and swarmy (is that a word? lol). Unfortunately, even with the zoom lens, my digital camera could not focus close up on one cicada, nor could you really see all of them on the trunks of the trees or on all the leaves when I stepped back and widened the view. Oh well. Suffice it to say, we probably have millions of them across the street from my building, which is part of a forest preserve (I think), with a river close by (hence my building is on N. River Road, lol).

I wish I had a recorder so you could hear how loud they are though. From inside the building, in our office on the second floor, we can hear the buzzing outside. When I was standing out front this morning, looking at a single cicada that was on a flat part of the base to one of the posts in front, all of a sudden it vibrated it's tymbals, and I was astounded at how loud it was! One little bug making a noise that loud. Fascinating. Put the million or so all together, and no wonder we can hear it inside our building. Of course, we have them on trees and ground on all four sides of the building, so I don't think any office is immune to the sound, except possibly the 12th floor, lmao.

For those of you who have never heard cicadas, here's a link to the song King of Cicada and in the middle part of the song they have some cicadas. The song itself is pretty bad, but at the middle of the song, if you turn your speakers up about halfway, that's how loud it is in some areas. C'mon, you know you want to hear it! LMAO!

Ok, enough on the cicadas. There was a note posted on the outside of the buildings in my complex yesterday. The note was dated the 11th, so it was only a day late. Apparently, the complex has money to spend, and they are going to be doing some refurbishing to the insides of the buildings. Things like paiting and new carpeting. That's all fine and dandy. I wish they'd spend it on better lighting in the parking lot before replacing the carpeting in my hallway that's only about 2 years old as it is. I haven't mentioned it to them yet, but maybe I will offer it as a "comment" tomorrow on the way home from work. I prefer talking to them in person whenever possible. Anyway...today I came home and they've started the painting already.

To give you some history, the outside of the outer doors used to be a dark green. Then a couple years ago, they came around and painted them a cream color. Made them look much nicer, and made the doorways more visible at night (in my opinion). When they painted the outsides of the doors, they left the insides of each door white. Within the last year, they replaced all the doorknobs and locks, and replaced the kick panels. Sometime today, they started painting the insides of the doors, and one wall. All fine and dandy, except for the color they picked. Maroon/rust. Very dark color for a stairwell that has one round light on each landing. I tried taking a picture of the fresh paint tonight, but the lighting is SO POOR, my camera couldn't even see anything, lol. Maybe tomorrow when it's lighter out. I just hope they don't paint ALL THE WALLS that same maroon/rust color. OMG, it will be so dark in the hallway if they do that. They only light we have, other than the artificial, is a small window next to the front door, and two windows in the front of the building above the door, one at about the 2nd floor and one at about the 3rd floor. And the front of the building faces NW, so it doesn't get any direct sunlight. Might have to ask the leasing office about the wall painting too, lol. Not that it will do anything, but they may not realize how dark the hallway will be if they paint all the walls that color.

Ok, finally sending the last few Don Williams songs to Kerry. I would start a few, then get distracted, remember 30 minutes later, start some more, get distracted, finally sending the last 9 or so. Will read an email or two while those go.

Hugs and smooches!