Strange sounds

    This isn't a big deal; but it did happen and it was a definite sound.  Today, in the early afternoon; I decided to go to the master bedroom and read a new book that I had purchased yesterday. The dogs were left downstairs, both taking their afternoon naps, but I implaced the gate on the stairs, as I went up, anyway. My wife was watching TV in the Den. I hadn't much more than settled in and read about one page when I heard what sounded exactly like my dog shaking himself and rattling the tags on his collar. So I said," Get up here" and thumped the bed as I do when I invite the dogs upon the bed. There was no response (normally I'd get a very rambunkious reponse). I immediately got up and looked for my older male (thats who it sounded like). There was no dog to be seen. So this is the first strange effect for some time. As it may not seem significant, it is  a mystery. Later when I returned downstairs, I saw the gate was still securely in place. Both dogs greeted me in typical bouncey fashion when I returned from upstairs. I have no idea what the sound was. I cannot think of anything that would make such a characteristic sound, other than a dog shaking itself.

Bathroom Mirror

       Some time ago I reported that the downstairs bathroom was very hard on mirrors. Its true that every time we placed a mirror over the sink in that bath it would be down a few days later (never broken) and usually lying at a right angle from the wall (usually at the foot of the rear staircase). Last fall we removed the old bathrooms (both upstairs and down) because they were hideous "grapes of wrath" style (glorified outhouses) and not especially heat conserving in winter. The new baths are much more pleasant and far more heat efficient. And besides that, we have had a mirror over the sink for close to a year now and no signs of it falling.  Hopefully the problem left with the old bathrooms.

Recorder is back

     The missing tape recorder, lost since early March, reappeared today beside the kitchen telephone. The kitchen telephone is the most used phone in the house. I now have two recorders to use this fall when the house, once again, becomes active. June and July and the first half of August have been very quiet. Except for the reapparence of the recorder, this has been a quieter summer than usual. Activity usually picks up in early November. I played the newly found recorder to determine if anything new had been added to the tape. Nothing had. These disapparences and reapparences  are not that uncommon here.