The most beautiful thing

When I arrived home today, the most beautiful thing was sitting on my neighbor's lawn.

Perhaps you might ask why I am so excited the house next door is for rent.....  Because this means the old neighbors have moved out.

Did I hate my neighbors?  No, I hardly knew them.

It was their dogs I had a problem with.  Their god-awful-dumb-ass-twenty-four-seven-barking-dogs.

There were two of them, and they were beagles.  They barked in the morning.  They barked in the afternoon.  They barked in the middle of the night when I was trying to sleep.  They barked on the weekends when I was trying to relax with a good book.  They barked at breakfast, they barked at lunch, and they barked at dinner.  They barked all Sunday long while the neighbor was busy inside watching football.  They barked so loudly that if I was having a phone conversation, the person on the other end of the line would ask, "do I hear dogs barking?"  I'm telling you, these dogs Just. Wouldn't. Shut Up.

I had seen a moving van out front before the holidays, but I thought it was too much to hope for.  And when, for three whole days after we returned from Christmas vacation there was wonderful silence, I really began to get excited.

And today there was proof.  A rental sign in their front yard.  Hallelujah!