A Day in the Life of Chaos

A few weeks back I wrote an essay on things that go yelp in the night.  It was a recounting of a terrible sound that nearly froze my blood in the darkness of the night.  Coyotes were on the loose.  Nature was at my back door.  I live in a town with a buffer of woods edging the back of my property.  It is an area where deer roam and coyotes stalk the night.  Snakes hide under rocks by a stream and turtles move from sun spot to sun spot.  Hawks circle over head and occasionally a lake heron will fly buy surveying the gold fish and koi in my ornamental pond. While frightening and savage there is something peaceful about knowing I coexist with the natural world so close to my door. Just beyond the flickering light of the Animal Channel on my 56 inch LCD tv is a primeval world of hunters and the hunted. The people that populate my job are a curious mix of educated northerners transplanted here by some cosmic design and red neck Task Force officers.  A Task Force officer is simply a pol

Last night I was sitting on the couch watching the film Up In The Air, when something very down to Earth hit me.  In a way, I am glad I wasn't watching An American Werewolf in London.  If I had been I might have shit myself.  There is a scene at the beginning when two friends are walking across the moors on a foggy night somewhere in the English countryside.  There is a howl, then a growl and well, you can imagine what comes next. The movie was playing and I found myself completely enraptured by George Clooney's characterization of a solitary man living a solitary life when I heard this sound like a creature being eaten alive.  It was one of the most horrific noises I have ever heard.  The screech was bone chilling as it called out through the night. I looked around and remembered my Corgi mutt Hillary was outside.  I had this image of her being torn limb for limb and I stood with terror in my heart as I looked out into the dark abyss.   There is a forest behind my house,