a kind of peace

There is a cement truck down the street creating backyard Paradise for the neighbors and temporary insanity for my dog.
Advantageously for myself, the dog was already enjoying the splendours of our own backyard when the truck arrived.
The inceacant barking of that 5 pound creature drives me to the brink faster than any other sound I know. I can bear up under the whining of my 2 year old and the wails of my 2 week old for a good long time. Then the dog joins in on the chorus and my patience is spent. My blood-pressure starts to rise, I can feel the difference in my veins. I begin to pat and bounce the baby a little harder and faster. My responses to the half-sobbed requests for snacks and Blue's Clues get shorter and shorter until they are nothing more than an aggravated "NO!"
How fortunate for all of us that right now both children are angelically sleeping and the yelps and howls are buffered by the entire width of the house.