fine whine

Today we went yard and garage saling. Wheee.

Jessica really gets a kick out of that sort of thing, and I have to admit liking finding a bargain, such as I did with a forty dollar benchtop router. I bought it in part to be able to say that I had a router now, which would necessitate the explanation of the difference between woodworking routers and networking routers. We also bought some glass pans for cooking and other sundry items which I no longer remember.

Something I do remember, however, is one householder's ingenious solution to the cicada problem otherwise plaguing the no-longer-quiet neighborhood. At about two feet off the ground this person had run a piece of tinfoil around the circumference of the trunk, and the cicadas could be seen only under it. Evidently they cannot climb over smooth metal nor can they land on a tree.

We saw them covering just about anything else: concrete geese, car tires, slow moving children and more. And this one house, with the tinfoil, had none on its trees. Why, then, wouldn't everybody else do the same?

Probably because it looked really funny. Half of me wanted to congratulate the guy for his ingenuity and the other half wondered if clear saran wrap would have the same effect.