While I continue to rest my paw, I’ve had a lot of time to just quietly sit and listen. Oh sure I could bark at trespassing squirrels, but then what? I can’t chase them, and they’d figure out really quickly that I’m all bark and no bite. Besides, sometimes it’s good to just sit quietly and listen. You never know what you can learn. Take for example, I never realized how obsessed humans are with lawn mowers until now.

Seriously, around here it’s the lawn mower version of “Dueling Banjos.” On the weekends, at any given moment between the hours of 8:00 AM and 4:00 PM there is the sound of a lawn mower in my neighborhood. Sometimes it’s nearby, sometimes the sound is carried on the wind from miles away. Usually it is well coordinated that as soon as one mower stops, another begins. Occasionally there is a lull, and other times the sound rises to a crescendo with multiple lawnmowers performing at once. Some have the distinct buzz of an electric mower, most are the familiar drone of the gas powered ones, and then there’s the loud rumble of the diesel powered tractor the farmer uses to hay the fields.

I can’t possibly explain this obsession. But I can say based on the height of the grass in our yard, Dad mows to the beat of his own drummer.