October is Olney's loudest quiet month. The maples along the older brick streets go orange over a weekend, the wind takes them by Wednesday, and every lawn in town disappears under an inch of leaves. Barnes Lawn Maintenance keeps mowing right through it, cutting and clearing so the turf underneath goes into the cold breathing instead of smothered. There is a particular pleasure in the last pass of the year — the yard raked out to the fence line, the gutter edge swept, the whole place suddenly looking twice its size. Come spring the same steady rhythm starts over, week by week, until the grass finally slows down again.