Just When You Think It's Safe to Go Out

Once a week, after a telework day, I go into our little Village and visit the acupuncturist.  I HATE needles, but acupuncture doesn't hurt at all, the needles are SO thin compared to the needles you get shots with.  Plus it's helped with pain, stress, and sleeping better, and my insurance covers their share. I walk out of there SO mellow, it's the highpoint of my "middle of the week".

It's off of our Village's crazy traffic circle (which I incorporated into my novel Small Town Roads because it is the craziest traffic circle I've ever driven in and I moved here from Indianapolis, home of the maniacal traffic circle.) So after I make my way around the corner onto the side street without the blaring of a horn, the screeching of brakes, or someone giving me the friendly Chicago "You're #1" wave,  but with a different finger, I can park out front of it or one of the small businesses that are closed and for sale.

Today I couldn't as it was the day they scoop up leaves from the street and that side of the street was closed.  It's too close to the circle and too busy to park on the other side and dart across so I went south two blocks (the next block is one way in the wrong direction) into a residential neighborhood and parked.  I was parked at the end of the street in front of an old white farmhouse-style house. Across the street from it was an old stone church, with no one in sight.

Ever seen a house and it just looked CREEPY?  This house did.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe it was the junk around the side yard and junk in the back, the slightly peeling greyish-white paint, and the dark upstairs windows, but it was really bothering me.  Plus I felt like something was WATCHING me, and I noticed how dark it was getting and how deserted the street was.  I prayed they didn't have some mean junkyard dog back there with all the junk because there was no fence.  I got out of my truck, still feeling eyes bore into me.  I looked around ready to dash back in the truck if the hound from hell came rushing out of the dark.

Then I saw it - in the window - its eyes GLOWING.

It was a tiny little chihuahua dog wearing a bow.

He was guarding the front window as inside I could see a kids video game on the TV playing in the background to the sound of a lot of giggling.

Sheesh, I'm a scaredy-cat.

Have a wonderful evening, remembering our crazy friends that we so miss, both two and four-legged,