The Plague And I

The Kid just called back. It's not called a thermocouple after all.

He said he knew they were going to try to give me a thermocouple, so he wrote down what he wrote down specifically so that they would know not to give me that, but the Surly Plumbing Guy obviously doesn't know his ass from his elbow joint. The Kid is calling Home Despot himself, and he'll call me back.

In the meantime, I put the cicada in a cup (used the thermocouple packaging as a lid -- so at least it went to some use, anyway) and put him outside. Just after I did, Johnny came home (he's across the street still, finishing).

"Did you see the cicada on the back step?" I asked him. "It was in my office but I caught it and I put it out."

"No," he said. "What's a cicada?"

"You don't know what a cicada is? It's a green, grasshopper-like thing. It's what's making that buzzing noise out in the heat. It's like a locust--"

Oh.

"How did it get in your office?"

I truly cannot imagine. But (I shit you not) I just saw another in the dining room.

The plagues are starting...