The Plow Guy cometh

 

My New Year's luck is still w/ me.  I got the call from the garbage company that they wouldn't be picking up today because of the weather BEFORE I set the bin out.  Good thing, the plow guy won't have to maneuver around it.  I'd ordered a new DVD player on Amazon a week ago.  I'd tried multiple different DVD's on my old one but it had given up the ghost.  I don't usually get attached to mechanical objects but this one had been a gift from my group when I'd left Honeywell.  Still that was about 18 years ago and no machine lasts forever.   Of course, when I tried the player one last time it worked.  First thought: getting another DVD player was OK - this one could go out again or I could use the player on one of the other TV's.  Went out on Amazon to see how long before the new DVD would arrive.  It hadn't been shipped yet AND I noticed a "cancel item" option I hadn't paid attention to in the past.  Thought longer and realized I'd never needed a player on one of the other TV's and I go weeks w/o using this one.   Hit the cancel option.  Amazon warned me they might not be able to cancel the item, followed immediately w/ a 'Cancel Request Accepted' message.   Tonight, just after 11 p.m., Whip started barking and I thought I heard the front door rattle.  Grabbed a weapon and ran to see what was going on.  The motion detector lights were on.  Multiple animals were rushing through the courtyard.  Looked to me like coyotes but then one ran at the front door, I saw it was a hound.  Coyotes I'm not afraid of but a dog pack is another matter entirely.  Whip and I stayed in the house.  The dogs appeared to be fenced in by the mountain of snow the plow guy had pushed up between the house and the stockade.   Suddenly a truck turned down the drive, stopped in the yard, and a man began grabbing dogs and loading them into crates in the back.  That's what was going on!  It was a hunt.  The first animals I saw probably were coyotes.  They were agile enough to jump/climb the snow mound and take off across the field.  The hounds were to flush out and track coyotes for the man.   He came to the front door, said he was sorry the dogs had come onto my property, and drove off.   Like I said, feel lucky neither Whip nor I were outside during that melee.