Total frustration

      The circunstances of todays episode leaves the matter suspect. To begin with the day stated with promise. The weather was overcast but not especially cold for this time of year. My wife decided to visit a friend and left about noon. I had the dogs out for a walk so while we were out I decided to pile them into the car and go to the post office (the post office isn't that far away, I should have walked). I was probably at the post office close to an hour. Our post master dispenses the best coffee in town and is the nerve center for local gossip. Returning home, I put the leashes on the dogs and open the door and was ran over by said dogs in a big hurry to get out. Unfortunately, there rapid departure and pulling on their leashes, caused me to exit the car before I extracted the keys from the ignition and upon closing the door, I locked it out of habit. By the time the dogs and I got to the door of the house, I realized what I had done. I was locked out of both the house and car. No problem, I thought. I carry a valet key to the car in my wallet. I have a special pocket in the wallet where this key is kept at all times. I took my wallet apart looking for the key, no luck. That key was gone. The pocket was secure and closed, but no key recided in it. While I was taking everything out of my wallet in a vain attempt to find my key, I had tied the dogs to their outside pier. So we keep a key to the house on the outside (no not under a rug), so I put my wallet back in my hip pocket and went to the area where the spare house key is kept. It wasn't there. I turned the area upside down looking for it. It simply wasn't there. It must have been nabbed by a squirrel or something but it wasn't there. I returned to the rear door and discovered my dogs were gone. Their tyeout cable was gone too. Holy cow, I had to find those two knotheads as they are totally not roadwise. Luckily, I saw them before they got too far. Lucky also that both dogs were tied together so when I called them the younger one came straight away, so the older dog had to follow. He gets loose he likes to play chase for a while. I discovered the spring clamp on the cable was busted so I had to litterly tied them back with a knot in the cable. I checked every window on the car, hoping I could find one down enough to wire the lock tab, no luck. I checked every window and door on the house, sealed tight. I finally gave up and started doing some work outside. I worked outsideuntil my wife came home several hours later. I told her what had happened and she gave me her keys to my car. I walked over to my car and put the key in the door lock and there, directly in front of me lay the valet key. That key was not there, There was no way I could have missed it. But there it was shiny and bright. First of all how did it get out of a zipped pocket in my wallet? How could it have been lying beside my car door without my seeing it? This time Mr. Ghost, it ain't funny. And what happened to the house key?

Neighbor's father sees child.

     I had to get this into the Journal as quickly as possible so I could keep the facts fresh. My wife and I had just returned from town. She was unloading the car and I was walking our two dogs. We were in the front lawn when my neighbor across the street came over; dressed in his shirtsleeves even though the air was chilly. He says,"I gotta tell you this". He had my attention. "My farther-in-law stayed the night last night and he saw a child enter his bedroom." I'm thinking....So, you have two young boys...he continued,"You've met my father-in-law and you know how down-to-earth practicle he is." I had to agree the man was very straight forward, no foolishness tolerated. "Well," my neighbor continued, "He says a young child, both larger and older than my two boys came into the bedroom late last night.""And", he continued," thats not the first time I've seen him." "One other time, when I stayed over, the same thing occurred." "The first time, I convinced myself I was dreaming." "There was no question, this time I was wide awake." "That child would have been 8 or nine years old." "I just thought you ought to know." My neighbors kids are 5 and 1 so they have to be ruled out. The farther-in-law is very straight laced, neither drinking nor smoking.  "and then," my neighbor continued,"When I called my sisterand told her ,she laughed, I thought I was going to be in for some heckling; but instead she said I have to tell you about something that happened to me." His sister lives pretty close to this same village, by the way. She continued, The twins (her twin sons) were almost 5 years old, they came downstairs and asked me who the man was upstairs?" "I said there better not be a man upstairs." "We immediately went upstairs to see." They pointed out the guest bedroom and said he was in there." "There was noone in the bedroom or anywhere upstairs." "So I said what did he look like?" "All I got was he was big and wore funny looking clothes." Then she said, "We had forgotten about the episode until a couple of months later when the kids pointed to a picture in a book of people in civil war era clothes and said, "Thats how the man upstairs looked." Never a dull moment in this burg.

Natural Explaination possible

    This episode could have a natural explaination. I was in the library playing on the computer. The dogs were both beside me. My wife was in town and I did expect her back at any moment. I heard voices (more than one) coming from the kitchen. Other than "Whoaeeeee", I couldn't make out what was said. Both dogs immediately ran to the kitchen barking like idiots. They usually don't bark when my wife enters until shes in and then only yips of glee. They were intent, so I also immediately went to the kitchen. Both dogs were standing beside the kitchen range (which incidently is almost in the middle of the kitchen) looking perplexed and barking irradically like they were confused whether to bark or not. The kitchen door was shut. There was no indication that anyone was near. I went to the door and looked out. No one in sight. I suppose someone could have come in and were scared off by the barking dogs running in their direction. But I certainly didn't hear the door shut...... but here again, I just do not know.

Flour trick in basement unsuccessful.

   You recall , a few days ago, I spread flour over much of our basement floor, hope to discover whatever has had my younger dog upset on at lest two occasions. I checked it out yesterday. No sign of anything in the flour, not even mouse tracks. As I was writing this, the thumping sound was again heard. The computer time said 7:02. This mysterious sound is like an itch you can't reach. If it has a physical source; I've failed to locate it.

Strange pumping sound still eludes discovery

 Last Sunday the pumping-like sound occurred at 4:01pm,6:01pm,7:01pm,9:01pm,10:01pm,11:01pm. Each time the sound was repeated 6 or seven times. Plenty loud enough to hear in the Library but no where else inside or outside of the house. On Monday the sounds were heard at 9:02pm, 10:02pm followed by a single kerthump at 10:12pm, then back to normal at 11:02pm. Today (Tuesday) the sound started at 3:02 in the afternoon, but was not heard again until 6:02pm. I await, yet, the 7:02  which is 10 minutes away as yet. Not knowing the source of this noise is very frustrating. Not knowing why it is audible in only one room is mystifying.

Strange pumping sound continues

   The strange pumping sound continues. Friday we heard it twice one at 10:01 and again at 11:00. Today (Saturday) it sounded very loud at 9:00AM. This is the first time its been heard it in the morning. My wife was in the diningroom and did not hear it. This evening it sounded at 8:01. The origin is a complete mystery. Hearing it in only one room makes no sense. Both the den and diningroom open directly into the library. The doorways are open, yet this sound, usually loud enough to be easily heard, is audible only in the library.

Weird Events Today

     Today has not been my day.  I just all but finished our Christmas tree decorating when, for no logical reason, the thing came crashing down. All 12 feet of it. Talk about frustration and an unholy mess. I barely got the mess cleaned up when my wife said we may as well eat supper, as she had it ready. We sat down to eat and were discussing the tree tragedy then suddenly a shadow passed over the table. We both looked up and exclaimed,"What the blazes?". There was nothing up there. The Kitchen is lit by a hanging double light with two 100 watt equivalient bulbs. Other than a small light over the sink, thats it. The lights did not flicker, it was a moving shadow. But a shadow of what? Surely we would have been aware of a bird or bat in the house. I told you the weird around here began shortly after election day. This year is starting off with a bang.

Strange sound repeats

     Last night the sound repeated at 9:59. I went to the basement five minutes to 11:00pm. There was no sound registered, I figured it didn't repeat. When I came upsdtairs, my wife said "Well, what is it?" I replied "You mean you heard it up here?" "yes", she said, "Didn't you?" No I hadn't and whats more the flour I scattered on the floor of the basement was totally undisturbed, not even mouse tracks. The sound is quite audible in the library but no where else inside or outside of the house. Yes, thats weird.

Strange sound resumes

     Back on February 23rd I wrote about a strange sound that seems to only be present in the library. Before I got a chance to explore into the matter, the sound quit occuring. Its back again, begining last night it was first heard at 7:58pm. Neither of us were in the library at 8:58, or thereabout so we don't know if it repeated at that time; however, it was heard again at 9:58pm and 10:58pm. I await to see if it repeats tonight.

Dog barks at something on the stairs

    Today, while I was decorating our Christmas tree, my wife opened the door from the diningroom and came into the parlour to see how things were going. I had shut the dogs out of the parlour while working on the tree because their wild romping could have disasterous results. Needless to say they joyfully bounded into the room when my wife opened the door. The older dog stayed in the parlour with us as we discussed the tree. The younger one ran on into the hallway and bounded up the steps; stopping just before she reached the turn in the stairs,  and started barking frantically. Both of us quickly ran into the hall to see what the commotion was about. Standing stiff legged on the stairs the younster was staring dead ahead and having a fit. We saw nothing on the stairs. We called her, she ignored us and continued barking. Our older dog was standing beside my wife, whinning. I started up the stairs and the pup turned and beat a hasty retreat back down the stairs, went past me, past my wife and on into the parlour. I continued on upstairs to determine what up-set her so. I saw nothing unusual. My wife laughed and said, "Well I guess she saw the ghost". Interesting, that turn in the staircase is where I recorded the strange sounds that sounded like some stringed instrument being plucked and the photograph that appeared (to me at lest) to show the faint image of a womans head. I wondered if this new dog would react like the older one. Apparently she will.

Dog insists somethings in the basement

     Today our younger dog went into a barking fit and tried to dig her way through the basement door. As you might recall from past postings, our basement door is steel and has a bar lock on the kitchen side. Had our basement not been a muddy mess, I'd have opened the door for her and seen where she went and what had her so agitated. I didn't want muddy paw prints all over the house so I didn't let her through to the basement. However, I did go down to see if I could figure what she was after. I saw no sign of anything amiss. My wife said this was the second time this week that the dog has insisted there was something in the basement. So in true Hardy Boy fashion, I took a bag of flour down into the cellar and spread it about on dry areas of the floor. I'll go back down in a couple of days and see if there are any tracks. I've pretty much sealed off the basement for heat conservation. I don't see how anything bigger than a mouse could get in. On the other hand, I wouldn't think anything as small as a mouse could so agitate my dog from a floor away. Maybe the flour will reveal our culprit. I have seen no indication of rats, but if rat tracks appear, the mystery will be solved ,and I'll have to put out rat bait.

Christmas Tree trimming ghost?

     Again, this happened to my wife and dogs. In preparation of Christmas, I have the job of setting up and decorating our Christmas tree. The tree, an artifical 12 footer, comes in four sections. Because of its size it takes a good bit of effort to even set it up. As my wife was home, I closed the parlour door because I didn't want the Schnauzers to be rough housing in that room while I was up on the ladder. The ladder is a ten foot aluminum step ladder. I had finally got the sections of the tree put together and was stringing on the electric candles toward the top. Naturely some of the candles didn't light. Remembering I had purchased some new ones a few weeks ago, I left the area and went to the attic to locate them. I could hear my two dogs having a fit ,as only spoiled dogs can do, just as I was entering the doorway leading to the attic and figured someone had come to the front door. I went on about my business getting the candle lights and a couple of extension cords. Not finding the extension cords I wanted (I needed short 6 ft ones) I came back downstairs by the rear staircase and entered the kitchen hoping to find the cords in a built-in closet. My wife said, "Where have you been?" I said,"Up in the attic getting the new lights." She said, "We've been visited again". "Oh, how so?""Didn't you hear the dogs throwing a fit?" she replied. "Yes, I admitted, "But I figured you'd answer the door". "There wasn't anyone at the door", she continued, "I came into the diningroom to see what they were carring on about and I distinctly heard you going either up the ladder or down it." "I opened the door and said,"See, its just your......", there was no one to be seen. I called, you didn't answer." I didn't hear her call, in this house, if you are only upstairs you can hardly be heard, in the attic, forget it. The dogs are schrill and their barking does carry better than a human voice. I have no idea what she thought she heard on the ladder. It wasn't me. I had been off the ladder for some time trying to figure which bulb was out on a set of candlelights, before I thought of the new ones.