Well, this is new

Okay, I'm a little freaked out. It's 9:00 pm, 32F -- a chilly January Saturday night. I heard a weird sound outside, sort of a heavy metallic rattling dragging noise. It took me a minute to find my glasses. I looked out the front window and there's definitely something outside right in front of my house. I turned on the porch light.

There is a beat up old wheelbarrow full of -- something, rocks maybe -- in the middle of the sidewalk. There's no one around.

I go back to my room and put on sweats under my nightgown. Slip on sneaks. Get a coat. Unlock the front door and . . .

there is nothing. No wheelbarrow. No rocks. Some branches and other small debris in the yard, but it's been really windy the last few days and I don't think any of it is new. Definitely no old farmers pushing around rusty old equipment.

I'm 99% sure I am not hallucinating. The cat definitely heard the initial metallic dragging. I wish she could describe what she saw out the window while I prepared to investigate. She's already napping on my lap so I guess that indicates that whoever was doing whatever, well, they've gone.

My street is only one block long. It connects two slightly busier cross streets. Normally the only excitement is drivers making the turn onto this road too fast. And sometimes in the summer people drive their riding mowers in the street. Almost all after dark activity involves opossums. (The raccoons moved out of the neighborhood during a really bad ice storm maybe fifteen years ago and they've never come back.)

I don't know why I'm sharing this. I guess so there's some record. If I die in a bizarre, tragic "accident" involving rocks and a wheelbarrow, please kick up a fuss. Thank you.