The Basement

     I don't think I have written about this before. Our basement is one place where no one would care to spend much time. Two rooms are usually wet as a spring which once supplied cool waters for dairy products, has never been totally cut off. Two other rooms are, needless to say quite damp. Only the built up and walled in furnace room, which sits in the basements center, is high and dry. So the basement is dank, dark, and gloomy to say the lest. The truely strange thing about our basement is the fact you cannot keep light bulbs down there. I have replaced the recepticles, checked the wiring, all to no avail. I've tried long life bulbs, low wattage bulbs, low wattage bulbs with the " button", even bulbs guarenteed for 10 years. None last longer than a month. I have bulbs upstairs with the "button" that  are still burning when you need them that are over 5 years old. But not in the basement; they appear to have burnt out. Yet I rarely go to the basement and my wife never does. I'm always very careful to turn out the lights when I come up from the basement. From now on I plan to use the cheapest bulbs I can find, because it really doesn't make any difference.

Diningroom light

     Strange activity or something is beginning again. Summer is usually very quiet , but  beginning mid August, events are starting up again. Yesterday I was sitting at the computer in the library, it was midafternoon. My wife was out shopping or whatever, my dog was sprawled in floor taking a nap. The diningroom doorway to the library is less than 3 ft. from the computer console. I noticed the diningroom light had come on, but really didn't think much about it until it went off, maybe a minute later. Thought my wife was home, but the dog hadn't moved and she can rarely get in without his excited welcome. I said something to my wife and got no answer, so I got up from the computer and went to the diningroom. The light switch was definitely off. I switched it back on and off a couple of times to see if there was something wrong with the switch. There didn't appear to be any problem with it. I checked the driveway, my wife's car was not there; she wasn't home yet. I suppose it could have been an electrical abberation. Lights going off and on are not unknown here, but its been years since we had experienced it. Even back when it did happen it was usually in the parlour, not the diningroom. Times coming when I plan to set up a taperecorder and camcorder to see if I can catch, whatever, on video or audio.

Panting

     I  was in the library, using the computer, reading entries in the Atlantis Rising Forum; when I heard heavy panting coming from the diningroom. I thought it was my dog and said,"Whats wrong Rowdy, are you lying in the sun?" Upon hearing his name Rowdy got up from under my chair and looked at me. He was obviously asleep under my chair when I heard the panting sound coming from the ajacent room. When I spoke the panting sound stopped. The panting that I heard was like that of a dog who is very hot from exertion. To me it sounded like the panting of a dog considerably larger than mine. The sound definitely came from the diningroom. My dog and I were the only ones home. This is a new one for this house. Another noise I can't explain.