Cicadas

We got back from vacation this afternoon and it is good that is over, because I am tired and I need a rest. We rented a condo at South Beach in Chatham, Cape Cod, MA. The picture, I had in my mind before vacation started was of an idyllic, peaceful, restful time at the shore.

So why, I ask myself, am I so tired? I reflect back to laying on the queen bed in our white walled bedroom, with the long cornflower blue drapes billowing in the breeze. My eyelids became heavy and, just as I was about to drop off to sleep, a buzz began. Slowly at first, then the sound escalated, until I realized it was just too loud for me to go to sleep. The crazy cicadas were at it double time. Now I had heard the sound of these creatures during many summer nights and they were, to me, the white noise of August, but this was more like a reciprocating saw outside the window. A blurb on the radio reported that cicadas get louder when the temperature climbs, so their shrill love call may be correlated with the current high temperatures. Then again, their name is a direct translation of the Latin cicada, which means buzzer. Cicadas can produce sounds as loud as 120 dB. So I looked up what that really means in terms of familiar noises. Ready? Near total silence - 0 dB, a whisper - 15 dB, normal conversation - 60 dB, a lawnmower - 90 dB, a car horn - 110 dB, and a rock concert or a jet engine - 120 dB. As I searched for more information, I came upon this, which seemed to explain more than scientific facts.