Took more photographs

  Last Saturday I finally got around to taking more experimental photographs of the front stairway where I may have gotten an anamoly once before. The suggestion was made that I try taking photos of the stairs under normal lighting and then existant lighting. I have an old light meter but the lighting in the front hall was so weak it didn't even register on the meter. So first, using the regular hall lighting I tried a couple of short time exposures of varying lengths of time (five to 10 seconds) and then turning off the hall light, I tried again, several times, with long time exposures. I have no idea if I recorded anything as the hall is dark and even though I was using 800 speed film I may not have anything....or I may have overexposed the lot. I guess only time will tell. I did shoot one flash. I've got to start the recorders again. I haven't used them for a while.

A really wierd situation

    What happened with me last Sunday is not a ghostly experience nor did it take place in my house. But it did happen in this town. A situation that is almost impossible to discribe. Last Sunday morning I arrived a church early because being in the chior we rehearse before services begin. As always a very good friend of mine was there taking his place in the tenor section. Looking at the man I at first thought he looked pale and wondered if he felt alright. He was talking and acting quite normal. Then I realised that he just plain looked faded. How else can I discribe it? His whole personage just didn't look quite real. I put the event down in my mind as my imagination. When we filed into the chior loft this gentleman was late making his way into the loft because he was talking to several church members as he made his way forward. The church service was normal and after the service we filed out and my friend and his wife left to go to a restaurant in a neighboring town, as they did almost every Sunday and I went home. My wife was working on a craft project in the kitchen with the radio on . I was using the computer and catching up on several sites. At about 1 pm my wife came into the library and said she heard on the radio that a bad wreck had occured on the state highway out of town and that an elderly couple from our village had been killed. The thought went through my mind that it was my friend and his wife and my wife said, "I hope it wasn't Mr. and Mrs. ----. As there are over 300 people in this town and better than half of them are elderly why did we both think that? I shook it off as silly but it just kept popping up. Finally I said, try to find out who it was. The radio would not disclose the people until next of kin had been alerted. Finally, tuning into the TV station of a town 40 miles away we got the story and the names. It was my friend and his wife. He had been killed instantly and his wife died about three hours later. It was a head-on collision. The local fire department was first on the scene. It was really hard on them as the victem had been their treasurer for years and he was extremely well known and liked in town. They were able to surmise that he was dead before the collision, probably of a heart attack. The truck he was driving swerved into the other lane. His wife, obviously seeing what was happening grabbed the wheel and pulled the truck back toward the proper lane. The incoming car seeing the truck in the wrong lane and not having room to move to the right had swung left to avoid a collision and the truck returning to the proper lane connected head-on. The other driver was injured but not killed. But my friend was 90 years old and his wife was 95. Both were very active physically and the church was already making plans for first her centennial birthday and then his 5 years later. I guess it just wasn't to be. I'm still plagued by the thought...."Did I foresee this coming?"

A Real Scare

     Last night was one for the books. My wife and I turned in for the night at roughly mid-night. Once you pass your 60th birthday you tend to have to get up sometime during the night for comfort. Anyway the upstairs bath is on the opposite side of the house from the master bedroom and at the end of a long hall. Also just off the bathroom is the rear stairway. I admit I was half asleep on my way to the bathroom and I probably wasn't fully awake when I started the return trip to the bedroom. But I assure you, I was wide awake as soon as I heard the rear stairs creaking, like something coming upstairs. This house is old and the stairs creak, especially the rear stairs. The creaks were definitely progressing up the stairs. Perhaps it was a dumb thing to do, but I immediately switched on the light to the stairs. There was absolutely nothing on the stairs and the creaking stopped. At this point I was wide awake. The grandfather Clock in the hall showed 3:15. Going back to bed and going to sleep took some doing. Maybe there is something to that 3am witching hour. Is there a natural explaination? Probably, but I don't know what it is or why the creaking stopped when I switched on the light. My wife and our dogs slept through it, but then again I was the only one close to the source of the sound. If nothing else, owning an old house can be interesting.

Marking pen

    This is going to seem mundane. But I'm sure that if it happened to you, you would wonder about it. Day before yesterday I was planting garden seed into one of those seedling trays that gardeners use to start plants. I had identification sticks so I'd know what I planted and where. These sticks must be written on by waterproof ink as they are under a clear plastic lid which draws a lot of moisture. I was doing the planters while seated at the kitchen table. I had just finished a planting and wrote on the stick, with the only waterproof marker that I had. Not going anywhere, and still seated at the kitchen table, I laid the pen beside the tray and changed to a different seed. Once the second type seed was planted I reached for the marker and it was not there. I picked up the seed tray and looked around it and under it, no marker. I then checked out myself and around my chair, no marker. It wasn't on the table and it wasn't under the table, I even checked my pockets. Throughly frustrated I switched to a pencil and figured I could redo them later in ink. Completing the whole tray in this fashion I then moved the tray to a heat register in front of a window to sprout. We had at lest two meals on that table over the next day and a half.This morning the marker (its a big fat one) was laying in approximately the center of the kitchen table. Go figure.