Shortened attention span
Is there a scale of measure for distraction? Can we compare the level to which one person has moved away from the desired direction of attention to that of another? I wonder. This afternoon, son #3 proved that even the most boring of tasks requires some work. Case in point: mowing the lawn.
We’ve got the greenest mower in the neighbourhood. It’s a dulled shade of pink, but there’s no hydrocarbon emissions, so I guess we’re ready for the next trend. Touch noisy, so he protected his eardrums with some loud iPod time. And then, we heard it… somehow he managed to cut the dog’s chain in half.
That chain, or one like it, has been in the same place for about a decade. More than two dogs have had their roaming spirits tethered by the two poles driven into the ground and then wrapped with galvanized retainer. The mower cut it as cleanly as would any pair of shears, and I took that as a good reason to go off to the hardware store to buy some repair links and a cheap DVD player (I am easily distracted; there may be a genetic reason for everything that happens).
By the time I got home and began repairing the chain, he came around the corner with a sheepish grin. Somehow, during our absence, he managed to cut the wire leading to the pool filter and pump (also in place for a decade) and completely destroy the plug. Mangled beyond recognition, it was. By this time, the hardware store was closed, so we’ll go without the calming sound of a single horsepower electrical motor for a couple of days, until I can return to the hardware store for more parts.
Thankfully, there was nothing else in need of distraction destruction for this afternoon.
