USA vs. Australia

Against all odds, the USA team made it to the quarter-finals of the Rugby League World Cup, where they faced off against the Australian team last Saturday at midnight. I stayed reaaaaaaaal quiet about this one, but remained cautiously hopeful in the days leading up to the game. I didn't even stay up to watch it, and I'm really glad I didn't because Australia (the Kangaroos) handed the United States (the Tomahawks) a 62-0 loss. On the plus side, a few of the American players may have impressed the Aussies enough to parlay their performance into a contract with some of the clubs down here.

A photo of the American fans from The Daily Telegraph.

Cicada Song

Now that the weather is getting hot the cicadas are making their way out of their underground burrows where they have spent the last couple of years as babies. Once they come up to the surface they molt, leaving behind creepy shells that I find in the shrubs outside of my apartment. They make a really powerful chirping sound, and somehow they know to all start up at exactly the same time to the point where it’s almost deafening to be outside. I kind of enjoy the sound, and they usually don’t keep it up for too long.  While I was reading out on the patio a bird chased one onto the brick, and kept swooping down at it from the trees. Cicadas are about the size of your thumb, and after a while this bird decided that he was a bit outmatched. The poor cicada stayed there motionless for probably an hour before deciding it was safe to fly off.

This morning as I left for the gym, I heard a really strange croaking noise, similar to a frog but not quite. I didn’t know what to make of it until I looked up and saw a magpie tearing into his breakfast; this particular cicada wasn’t as lucky. I’m probably being overly sensitive (do cicadas even feel pain?) but the sound really bothered me. Where were all his cicada buddies that were singing with him the other night, and couldn’t they have just swarmed that dumb magpie?