Cicada Killer Wasps

Here are the reigning Iron Workers MDA fundraiser champions! Disco Lopes, me, Jumpin' Joe and Johnny Bags.
We'll look to repeat next year. Actually, we had so much fun, as we always do when we get together, we're going to plan on going golfing at an outing of some sort once a month.














As I mentioned, this weekend I was in Rockford for a softball tournament. It was the Class D North State Championship and had 56 teams participating. We went 4-2 and tied for 9th place overall. It's interesting.....this softball stuff. We lost our first game, won four straight over two days and then lost before cracking the top 8 teams. If we "got off the bus" hitting better, we would have had such an easier road. The first team we played wasn't anything special (they went 2-2 and finished in 17th place), but what a difference the loss made. It meant that if we won two more games on Saturday, that we had to play every hour on the hour starting at 9 a.m. on Sunday. Our third game on Sunday was against the eventual tournament winners who hadn't played yet on Sunday. It was pretty warm, even at noon, and I can't help but think that if we didn't already have to play two relatively close games, our 12-9 loss might have turned out differently. Oh well.

Here are some interesting pictures of the Cicada Killer Wasp nests in my yard! They are all over....guess no one told them the cicadas were here last year.


This will give you some sense of the magnitude of the nest. I believe there is only one per hole.











Here's a close up. Look at how much dirt was excavated!!!












Here's one of the other nests.














And a few more!











Look at all of that dirt! When do they find the time to move all of it?