Everybody has a job

Sheila has an important job. It's her job to keep the guys in that big noisy truck from stealing our stuff that Walt keeps putting out on the sidewalk each Tuesday. She's very good at it. She stands at the window and barks and barks while the guys fiddle with our cans...OUR cans. The very nerve! But eventually they get scared and they drive away. Fortunately, they leave the cans behind and Sheila has done her job.

Every afternoon, she scares that guy with the big leather bag away. She can hear him fiddling with our mailbox and she knows this is a Bad Thing. So she stands on the table and barks and barks and he eventually goes away. Our mail box is secure, thanks to Sheila.

Lizzie has an important job too. It's her job to keep all dogs and people walking by the house from coming to bother us. Sometimes she barks. Sometimes she just leaps at them. One day she knows that glass won't be there and she'll be able to get to them. They look at her and scurry on by without approaching the house. Sometimes if it's a particularly scary dog, she will leap at the window, over and over again. "Go away! Go away!" she barks.

And they do. Lizzie is a good watch dog.

Both dogs work together and they keep all those big noisy machines in the yards around us from coming into our yard. They are very effective. There hasn't been a single lawn mower or leaf blower that has come through our back fence and into our yard (obviously).

Even the birds have their job.

If you leave the bedroom window open at night, there is no need to set an alarm clock because the trees around the house are filled with black crows. Around 5:30 or 6, they start waking up and the cacaphony starts. Such a racket! They are calling to each other, the mother birds are finding worms for the baby birds and calling papa birds to breakfast (at least this is how I imagine it).

Soon, you see rush hour start. In big groups, the birds begin flying out from the trees and out in the fields. They are going to work. The rest of the day the trees are empty of birds (and it's safe to park your car under one!)

If you drive out into the country througout the day, you see all the fields littered with black birds, all pecking energetically at the dirt.

At around 5 p.m., if you're out in the country, you see this swarm of birds suddenly lift off from the field and start flying toward town. If you're in town, you see the birds flying overhead and settling back in the trees, on lightposts, telephone wires, possibly the equivalent of a bird bar, where they go for after-work decompressing before heading home to the trees.

Once again, the racket can be deafening, as they call out to each other, settle in with their martinis and their copy of the evening paper, get the kids ready for sleep and eventually settle down for the night, until it's time to go to work once more.

Crows do not understand "weekends" or "holidays."

Or retirement.