Another strange artifact and a new camera

On Christmas morning I got a digital camera and printer from my wife. I'm new to digital having always used 35 mm cameras in the past. I read enough of the instructions to take pictures and print them. One of the pictures that I snapped was of our Christmas tree and part of the parlour that it is standing in. On the right wall of the parlour appears a disk shape. just like the ones I snapped on Halloween night. The Halloween parlour shot (taken on an old 35mm camera) showed the disk to be on the back wall. The Christmas shot shows a disk on the right wall of the parlour. Two different types of cameras, same room, months apart, both showing a strange disk shaped artifact but each in a different part of the room. I really would like to know what is causing these abnormalities. If natural, I'd like to correct the problem. If not natural....then what?????

Wife has vision

I really wasn't sure how to title this one. I think there is a good chance that my wife experienced a waking dream; however, she is firmly convienced she did not. Last night, well after we turned in, I was aroused by by wife shouting out. Thinking she had a dream, I went rapidly back to sleep. This morning she asked if I heard her shout out last night. I said I had but assumed it was in her sleep. She insisted she was awake at the time. She said she was awakened by the older dogs low growls. She couldn't figure what he was disturbed about so she aroused to see if she could hear anything that might have set him going. When she looked up from the bed she saw a white misty form standing beside the bed and thats when she shouted. She said the misty form vanished with her shout and and the dog stopped growling. So, I was awakened by the shout, but being half asleep I saw nothing but went back to sleep. Our older dog must have been aware of something to be making warning growls....but what? Was it a waking dream, or did she experience something paranormal???? Our younger dog could sleep through a train wreck, so shes no help here.

Unknown artifacts in photos taken on Halloween

One other thing that happened during the period that I was not able to access my blog. This occured at mid-night, October 31st. I had several readers request that I should attempt to take pictures around mid-night on Halloween. Whether or not I think that Halloween is anything significant or not, taking some shots around the house at roughly the stroke of mid-night certainly wouldn't cost much, so I decided to try it. Although I have better cameras (I still use the 35mm film type) the one that was loaded with film that had a number of shots already on it is an old Anso point and shoot. Truth to be told, I didn't expect to get anything but pictures of the rooms I was taking, I think next year, I'll try some experimental work with better cameras. At midnight, (the Parlour clock hadn't struck yet) with the house lights out, I shot a flash picture of the front stairs and another, as the Parlour clock struck 12:00, down the front hall. I immediately moved into the Parlour and shot a third picture and then moved upstairs to the Greenroon where I shot a fourth shot. I finished the roll off with shots of my dogs a few days later and sent the film away for processing. When the film returned the pictures were bright, clear, and should have been quite satisfactory. But not quite, on three of the four shots I made on Halloween night, there appeared round disk like artifacts. One large one going up the wall (or appearing to) on the right side of the front hall staircase. The picture down the front hall did not show anything unusual. The picture in the Parlour shows a slightly smaller disk in the back wall; smaller but quite evident. I almost missed the disk shape in the Greenroom, but it is definitely there over the headboard of the bed. Smaller and fainter than the other two, but definitely there. The film processor said the disks are on the film . The film is not flawed nor are they the result of development bubbles. The professional photographer who lives across the street had no explaination for them; he'd never seen anything like them. I was a semi-professional photographer in my younger years and processed my own film, but I had never encountered anything quite like them. They are very difficult to discribe. Many of you have possibly seen photos with white globs floating in them. Some people call them "spirit balls", they do not look like them. These disks are perfectly round, they are well defined even though the background shows right through them. I had several shots of both the inside and outside of this house on that roll of film, but the disks are only seen on three of the four shots I made at midnight on Halloween. If I ever learn how to post photos, I will. At the present time there are only four worth considering. These three plus the one I took some months ago that has a "smear, or discoloration, or something" that is about head high on the front stairs. To me it looks like a womans head. My wife does not see a womans head just a discolored spot. Two other neighbors say they can see a head but not sure of the sex, a nephew says it looks like a portrait of a woman to him. It may only be a smear or blotch; I really don't know. I'm quite aware that flying debrie and dust motes can come through as a glowing spot, but these do not look like them at all. Any of you with a logical explaination would be most welcome.

It took a while

It took a while but I've finally learned how to post this google blog. Even though this is the time of year that this old house becomes active; it has been relatively quiet so far this season. During the period between transfering the blog from AOL to Google, we did have one strange occurance. It occured during the cool autumn, I don't recall the exact date. My wife and I we're taking the dogs for their nightly walk. My wife had the older grey Schnauzer as he is better behaved than the fiesty little black Schnauzer that I was walking. As we crossed the front lawn , Shadow, the younger dog, started running in circles and jerking in the leash. I knew almost immediately what had happened, She had been bee stung. Rushing her inside, I found the bee still on her foot. Anyone who has an inside pet dog knows how big a baby they can be when hurt. We tried everything we could think of to take the hurt out of the sting but the dog was still making a big thing of it. My wife was worried because she was scheduled to work the next day. I told her to go to bed in one of our other bedrooms and I'd take care of Shadow until she settled down. She did finally settle down and went to sleep with the hurt paw stretched out beside her like a little furry school patrolboy. It was about 2 am at this point. Probably around 4 am my wife partially awakened me coming back to bed. I vaguely remember her saying "I'll tell you about it in the morning". The next morning the pup was fine and wanting to play. My wife had an interesting tale to tell. She had gone to bed in the Greenroom. I have no idea why. The greenroom has had various strange happenings over the years. I really thought she'd choose the Noah room as it has the larger, more comfortable, bed and has had very few (only two) strange episodes. Nonetheless she bedded down in the Greenroom and had gone to sleep when someone got in bed with her and , thinking it was me, asked how Shadow was? No answer, so she turned toward the visitor, there was no one there but that side of the bed was slumped, like somebody was there. She ran her hand across the bed and felt the dip, no one was there. Then she said the slump righted its self like some one had gotten up. There is a window across from the bed. She said she saw nothing, nothing moved in front of the window. She decided maybe Shadow was settled and she better come back to the masterbedroom. In her shoes, I probably would have made the same decision. Strange and I have no explaination. However I did mention this episode on a different forum so I can go back and get the date. I will add it in.

Update on Aug.24th event

  The case of the haunted doll house has not been explained. The broken doll house chair never did reappear. The children still insist the chair was not there when they put the doll house furniture back into the dollhouse and that they did not break it. Grandma believes they did not break it as it was not a piece of furniture that was ever in that dollhouse before. Grandma, once a confirmed skeptic, is not so certain anymore that strange, unexplained events can't happen in old houses. Whatever the cause.

Wifes strange encounter

Thursday night my wife had an unusual experience. But I had best begin around 11:30pm when we took our two schnauzers out for their nightly walk. I had the younger dog because she is the most rambuncious and doesn't lead well. My wife takes the older more mannered salt and pepper male. I was walking Shadow across the front lawn when she suddenly started running in circles and jerking the leash. She had gotten stung by a honeybee, obviously, in the grass. It was definitely a honeybee because it was still on her when I got her back inside. Any of you who have a house dog would know what a "baby" they can be when hurt. We used everything we could think of on her paw to take out the sting but she was being super pathetic. She was carrying-on pretty bad and my wife has a very part-time job and was going to work the next day and was lamenting that she wouldn't get any sleep. I suggested she go to one of the guest rooms and I would try to settle down out stricken pup. Actually, Shadow, did settle down and went to sleep about 2:30am with the afflicted paw stretched out like a school crossing guard. Around 5:00am my wife aroused me by coming back to our bedroom.  Half asleep, I heard her say, "I'll tell you in the morning", and I went back to sleep. So morning came and our severely wounded dog was up and wanting to play, no sign of  last nights tragic events. That was good, of course, but at breakfast my wife related a most interesting tale. In the first place I never dreamed she would choose the Green Room for her nights rest. That room has always had a bit of a reputation for the weird. I really thought she would choose the the more benign Noah room. Anyway sometime during the night my wife felt someone get into bed. Thinking it was me she said,"Hows Shadow?" She got no answer so she rolled over facing the "occupied?" side of the bed. Light from a large nearby window revealed no one there. So she ran her hand across the side of the bed and felt the slump, but nothing else. Then the bed suddenly returned to normal as if something had just got up. She decided it was expedient to return to the master bedroom and hope the pup had settled down. At lest twice in my life I have experienced that same thing, both times were a long time ago in different houses and times. I still have no idea what causes this weird phenomena.

Here we go again

   Things in this house disappear and often reappear. Sometimes they never reappear and sometimes they reappear in totally unethical places. This morning I needed to take some medicine and vitamins. I keep them in a large circular pill box that divides the doses into daily allotments for a week. This is no small pill box, it measures about 8 inches in diameter. The pill box is normally on the kitchen table. If I fill it and forget to put it on the table then it should be with the vitamins on the kitchen work area beside the sink. This morning I looked the table over, no pill box. Really, other than salt and pepper, a jar for straws, and a caddy for outgoing mail and a bottle of honey, thats about it.  Certainly no way to hide a large pill box. So I checked the kitchen counter. The bottles of herbals and vitamins were there but no pill box. Makes no sense, I know that no one has taken that pill box out of the kitchen so I go over the whole kitchen even to looking inside the cabinets. Keep in mind I'm home alone unless you count two schnauzers, but they can't really reach the table and what would they want with a pillbox full of nasty tasting pills? So I came to the original male conclusion that my wife must have put them some place else. I went into the library with the intent of calling her and asking. Her place of business phone was busy. Figuring I'd have to wait til she got home to ask, I gave up on the quest and returned to the kitchen for a bit of lunch. There on the table, about where I would put my dinner plate was the missing pill box. There is no way that that pill box was there when I was going nuts trying to find it. Thats a bit too obvious for even the most irresponsible of males to overlook. That box was not there, then it was, period. This has happened before, but it has been a while. The candelabra bulbs are still missing.

A possible haunting

    A local aquaintance of ours who was always polite but obviously  would have nothing to do with "ghosts" or anything paranormal; has had an episode that calls her beliefs into question. I guess the fact that we do not openly buy into the ghost theory of the strange, she felt she could ask us about something she and her granddaughters experienced this past week. It seems she has had, since her days of youth, a doll house which she admits she tends to rearrange the furniture in from time to time, so she is very familiar with all the furniture and things in that house. Her own residence, while not in this town, is in the same county. It is an old farmhouse, built in the late 1800s and sits pretty much to itself. In the ten years she has lived there she has not had any sort of paranormal experience until now. Her story is thus: My granddaughters came to visit with their mother last week. The girls saw the old doll house of mine and asked if they could play with it. Knowing these girls to be quite responsible for their ages (6 and 10) she said they certainly could so long as they put anything taken out of the doll house back in it when they were finished playing with it. She said the girls amused themselves with it for quite some time, but came bedtime they placed all of the pieces back into the doll house and went to bed. The next day one of the girls came to her and said, "Honest Grandma we didn't break it", "Break what?" "The little chair in the dollhouse", the child replied. The older grand daughter entered the kitchen at this time saying, "Honest, she's telling the truth, We really didn't". Well I said lets go see what you are talking about and we went into the room with the doll house. Lying in the corner of the dollhouse parlour was a small wooden chair; retriving it, I immediately knew it was not out of my dollhouse where almost all of the furniture is plastic except  a bureau and china closet which are wood. The little chair was wood. Two rear legs were broken so the chair would not sit up right. But this chair had to have been one expensive piece when it was new, it had intricate ingraving up the existing legs and across the back. I assured the girls that I believed them and wondered where on earth this little broken chair came from. We were discussing this whole business at the breakfast table when the younger child said, Maybe it was the little girl's that Sherrie saw last night. The mother gave the younger child a hard look, like "Shut up". "OK that did it, I said I wanted to know what was going on". The mother, who is the lady in questions own daughter, said, "Oh nothing Mother". Well we all know you don't say Oh nothing to any Mother and live to hear the end of it. So the daughter had to reveal all. "Last night, Sherrie thought she saw a little girl in the upstairs hall, you know how kids are, they have a very intense imagination." Then the younger child piped up with, "Then why did you make us sleep with the lights on last night?" Grandma thought that was funny. "OK, OK, the daughter admitted, it unnerved me, so shoot me." Grandma asked what the little girl looked like. Sherrie said "She was a little smaller than me but bigger than my sister. She was wearing a long flowered dress that almost went clear to the floor. She ran down the upstairs hall." "I still think it was her imagination", replied a slightly red face mother. Grandma took the little broken chair and laid it upon a bureau, thinking she could get a friend of hers , who was an expert in old childrens toys to look at it. The girls and their mother left for home. Grandma looked at the tiny chair again before going to bed. The next day she planned to run some errands so she figured she'd stop off at the toy mans shop with the broken chair and get his opinion. She went to retrive the chair....it wasn't there. She looked all over, it was not there. So she said, "What do you think?" There are some very remote possibilities, but I really didn't feel they were grounded enough to suggest; none of them covered all aspects of this episode anyway. What do YOU think?

Update on Thunderous blast

     I finally found another individual who heard that thunderous blast that shook the windows and the ground I was standing on. A villager who lives about a quarter of a mile from us told me it shook the windows of her house and about scared her to death. Then she said in a very discusted tone; my husband was in the livingroom and when I asked him about the blast he said, "What blast?" He didn't hear anything, so he said, and he is not hard of hearing. She was relieved that someone besides herself  had heard it. We still have no idea what it was or why the majority of people in town have no idea what we are talking about. I'm not kidding when I said the ground shook and my ears rang. My wife said the windows rattled and so did the lady up the street; but nobody but us three heard it. Selective hearing?

Thunderous blast

First of all, keep in mind this town is rather small. Most of the towns residents live on Mainstreet which is less than a mile long and is a part of the Old National Road. The town only has four roads running east and west, but there are many alleys and side streets. In short the village is pretty  much clustered in a small area. Last Saturday night as I was working in my garden, just as the final rays of light were passing into the evening shadows, I heard the first of several volunteer firemen come down the street and hurry into the fire station. Within less than a minute the firetruck, siren blazing, had headed out of the station and west on mainstreet toward the Interstate. The firetruck had had about enough time to leave the village limits when a thunderous blast was heard that was so loud the ground shook where I stood. I wondered if the Firetruck had hit something. My wife came out the backdoor of our house which faces our garage and garden, asking what on earth happened.  I assured her I did not know. Strangely, I did not see another neighbor anywhere. The blast was loud enough to (my wife said) rattle the windows in our house; surely others were curious....wouldn't you think? My wife got into our car and drove around town looking for the source of the explosion. She came back, shaking her head. "I saw absolutely no one" she said. "Nobody in their yard or along the street to ask, nobody." This is strange, the town is small, but usually busy on a week end. Today, I asked around at church and the neighbors.....strangest thing.....none of them heard a thing. You tell me.

An update

We have entered the period that is normally quiet in this house. That is not to say the strange doesn't happen in summer and early fall, but it seems to be far less frequent. To bring you up to date on past events. The "Thumping" sound that plagued us for months, occuring only in the Library until the last month that we heard it (that month it was heard only in the kitchen), it suddenly stopped and has not been heard since. The lightbulbs that suddenly went missing in the diningroom have never, as yet, reappeared. Perhaps the "haunts" have grown tired; we haven't experienced as many episodes this past year that we normally do. But if things occur, I will report it here.

Local "Witch"

     When we first moved here in 79, we heard the story about the local witch. As that was several years before I started this blog, I had pretty much forgotten about it until reading a story about witchs bottles in an old issue of National Geographic brought it to mind. The county history does not mention her. The story is second hand from older residents who supposedly were in on the demolition of the witches house in the mid-1940s, just after World War Two. The "Witch" was a recluse; though she lived near the center of town her house was an old ramshackled log construction and stood by itself in the center of three lots. According to the story everyone in town was afraid of her and she wasn't overly friendly with anyone in town; just staying to herself. Needless top say, anytime disaster struck anyone in town the whispering started that the old witch was probably behind it. Whoever she was, her time in the village took up the later part of the 1800s. Not date of death is remembered, but everyone who knew of her insists it was from natural causes.  Her old house sat, primarily empty, after her death. It was thought that a relative, in a neighboring state, inherited the property and pretty much forgot about it; though they must have kept up with any taxes. Sometime just after WW2, someone new bought the lots and what was left of the log house. The new owner decided to build a new house on the center lot where the log house stood. This necessitated tearing down the old house which was in really sorry condition. Right off the bat, when distruction started, the whole place caved in, almost getting some of the workmen who, luckily, saw it coming and got out of the way. It was just a matter of cleaning up the rotten logs and getting them disposed of. Much of the house had fallen into the basement. One wall that fell into the basement was found to be a falsewall. The wall behind it (they had collapsed together) was found to be covered with horse shoes in different configerations. While clearing out the basement they found sealed jars with nails and human hair in them. That got tongues a wagging. Other sealed jars appeared to have pieces of cloth, needles, and nail parings in them. All of this weird stuff was gathered up and burned or buried. I'm told no one opened any of the jars. I suspect the old girl was just alone so long, she was crazy. But older residents in this village think, even yet, that she was a witch. Think what you like, the time of "The Witch" was over a hundred years ago, even if there are still people around who remember the distruction of the house and what their elders told them about the old "witch" that lived there.

Glass broken inside in middle of the night.

   Our neighbors, not those next door but still in the village, experienced a strange phenomena last night and again early this morning. They live in a house that is modern in design, all on one floor; no basement, no attic. The house rambles a bit; you enter through a large sun room which opens into a roomy sitting room which opens into a small kitchen. From the kitchen is a hallway that leads to a Great Room on the right and the hall continues past the Great Room and leads to the Bath and three normal sized bedrooms. From the middle bedroom the hall continues to a pantry and then a utility room and the back door. From the hallway into the Great Room are French Doors. These doors contain of several panes of glass. These doors have been here better than 15 years. The doors open and close easily. The interior temperature of the house is controlled by either air conditioning or a furnace. The temperature range from summer to winter is between 60 and 75 degrees. There are two dehumidifiers that keep the humidity in the house close to normal. Last night, around 3 am a terrific crash of glass brought both owners out of bed with expectations of someone breaking in. A through search of the house revealed only that a pane of glass was broken out of those interior French doors. An inspection of the doors revealed that the other panes of glass were solidly in place and uneffected. Nerves shattered the owners retreated back to bed, the male of the household trying to convince himself the glass breaking was the result of changing temperatures. This morning when the pair got up, half convinced the broken glass was a fluke, they again went to the Great Room to look over the door in broad daylight. Again they inspected each pane of glass for evidence of why one would suddenly break. Everything was firm and fine. The couple had breakfast and as the lady of the house was going to the bathroom she again passed the French Doors and something didn't look right. Going over to the door she noticed the pane above the broken one was full if fine cracks. Considering the fact they had just checked each of these panes less than an hour prior, this was a surprise or maybe shock would be a better word. Running her finger over the crazed pane, the glass fell out of the center but remained around the edges. They now have two panes of glass to replace, But what could possibly cause such an unusual chain of events?  I know this entire area experiences the weird. I doubt that I hear even a fraction of what goes on in the area of strange occurances. These people are very close friends. I saw the result of this particular weirdness as they had not, as yet, replaced the glass. Anyone out there care to hazard a good guess how such a thing can happen?

A loud click or snapping noise

     Since we moved into this house,  in the summer of 1979,  we have experienced an unusual loud noise in the master bedroom. I cannot say for certain that it occurs every night because we often turn in after 11:30  and the sound usually occurs sometime after 11 but before 11:30. It sounds like a loud snap  which usually repeats, slightly less loudly, a few minutes later. The sound appears to come from the southwesternmost corner of the room where a dumbwaiter used to be located. The dumbwaiter was taken out of service and walled off sometime in the late 1940s. But if we chance to turn in a bit early, we about always hear this snap or click. The dogs do not appear to take notice of it. I tend to think it has something to do with temperature change in the old sealed dumbwaiter shaft. But precisely what????? I have no idea. Nor why the noise is always in that short time window.

Snatched Book?

 It happened a couple of days ago. I've mulled it over and tried some experimentation before deciding to include it here. Monday night, my wife and I turned in early as we were tired and we both had books we wanted to read. Once the dogs settled in, one at the foot of the bed and the other in his bed on the floor, all was peaceful. I read in bed, lying on my back but the wife prefers a side position. I had only read a few sentences when my wife exclaimed,"What?" My response."Whats the matter?" "Something jerked my book out of my hand". "You just dozed and dropped it," I replied. "No, she protested, I was in the middle of reading a sentence". Then bending over the side of the bed she said,"Where is it?" Playing dumb, I asked,"Wheres what?" "Wheres my book, I don't see it?" My suggestion was "Run your hand just under the bed it probably landed on end and flipped under the bed". "No, it didn't,"she replied as she slid out of bed and was looking under it. Then crawling half under the bed she says, "Its here, halfway under the bed." So how did it get halfway under the bed? She says, "I told you, it was jerked out of my hands." I did not persue the matter. But what??? jerked it out of her hands? Why was it jerked out of her hands? And....What was the point of taking it halfway under the bed? Yesterday afternoon, trying to figure out how in blazes that book got halfway under the bed; I went upstairs and laid on her side of the bed, opened the book and dropped it several times. changing position several times as I did so. That book landed in plain sight every time. So, as I think this is a bit strange, I have included it on this journal.

Mysterious broken pitcher

   My wife collects those old potbellied white clay pitchers that are so commonly seen in Victorian pictures and even older representations. The pitchers are definitely bottom heavy. As they are a favorite of my wife's. it would be most unlikely that she would place one where it would be in danger of being broken. Our kitchen has a doorway that opens into a short hall (no door) off to the left are the rear stairs to the upstairs, straight ahead brings you through another doorway into the diningroom and off to the right takes you through a doorway (with door) into the downstairs bathroom. A wide shelf, well secured to the wall and top of the door, runs across the top of the doorway out  of the kitchen. That shelf is solidly anchored on both ends as well with heavy brackets. On that shelf my wife has placed one of her pot bellied pitcher plus two other pitchers and a couple of chicken figures. I was working upstairs in the front bedroom doing nothing heavy, I might mention, and my wife was painting details on the bathroom wall. Both dogs were sacked out in the dining room. Suddenly a loud crash was heard, bringing us all from different directions. The white pitcher was in pieces on the kitchen floor . Nothing else on that shelf was even moved and the shelf is still very solidly fixed. Only that pitcher which was bottom heavy (surely too bottom heavy to tip) was off the shelf and broken. There appears to be no explaination for this. So what happened?

Strange occurance

   Though the house has been quieter than normal, we did have a strange experience last night. It was about 9:30pm, My younger dog and I were in the kitchen finishing up some leftovers. My wife with our older dog at her feet, was working on the computer. As the house is rather large, I had left the lights on in the diningroom, I knew I'd be coming back through that way. The kitchen lights were on, a couple of lights burn in the kitchen 24/7. The Library has a small lamp that is also always on. When I had cleared up the mess in the kitchen, my dog and I started back though the doorway to the short hall that leads to the diningroom. Before I reached the diningroom, the lights went off in the diningroom. Thinking my wife had quit on the computer and was coming through to the kitchen, I said something to that effect. My wife answered me from the Library. So what happened to the lights in the diningroom? My first thought was I'd have to trek down into our dungeon of a cellar and see which breaker blew. But turning I saw the lights that I had left on in the kitchen were still on. Part of the kitchens lights are on the same circuit as those in the diningroom. So I figured we must have a malfunctioning lightswitch. Going over to the wall switch I found it in the "OFF" position. Who turned off my lights before I entered the room? My wife was in a different room and my dogs are too short to reach the switch. This is the second such episode this season. A few weeks back the lamp timer was changed, but not by us. We have experienced less of the walking noises this year, but did we trade it for a poltergist? Ideas anyone?

Candleabra bulbs

   The missing bag of lightbulbs is still missing. I had to buy new ones. Its very frustrating.

Intruder

 This occurred last Thursday. I debated whether or not to include it here. I'm fairly certain it was no paranormal experience. On thurday, in the morning, I went up to the local post office , only about 3 blocks from my house, not a long walk. My wife was preparing to go into town. My wife stopped at the post office on her way into town to ask me if I had come back into the house after I left for the post office, I told her I hadn't. She said that after I had left she heard the back door open and supposed it was me. She said, "Wasn't Larry at the post office today?" At that time the dogs went berserk and she knew it wasn't me. Then she heard the door slam. I went back down to the house from the post office. Our intruder had something white on his shoes and he had tracked it nearly across the kitchen carpet. Whatever it was it was difficult to sweep up because it just smeared into the carpet. Whoever it was wore a size 6 or 7 shoe. The prints were small. Nothing was taken; apparently the dogs scared whomever away. This is a small community; almost no one ever locks a door in the daytime and some never lock their doors ever. In the past 3 years or so there have been a few burgled businesses and possibly one private home entered. It only takes one rotten egg to spoil a community. At lest I now know my burgler alarm works.

Lightbulbs no show

   The missing bag of candleabra lightbulbs has not resurfaced. Again, how does a sack containing 4 or five new 60 watt candleabra bulbs just disappear? If you have read the previous post; you would know there really isn't anyplace for them to be concealed. The diningroom table sits in the center of the diningroom. It is surrounded with six chairs; one on each end and two on the sides. The chairs, the floor, as well as the table were checked for those bulbs. They may not reappear for 6 months or longer; or we might find them almost anyplace, tomorrow. Creepy isn't it.

Mischief is at it again

  My wife, today, was working on a centerpiece in the diningroom. I was working on our taxes in the parlour.  Suddenly I get a shout from her, "Your blasted grimlin is at it again." Moving into the diningroom I respond,"What are you talking about?" She explains, "I have not moved from where I am right now". "OK" I reply. " I was changing the bulb in the candle of this centerpiece", she continued, "I had the sack of bulbs in my hand but I needed both hands to unscrew the bulb; so I set the sack of bulbs, right here." she indicated the corner of the diningroom table, nearest to her. "I got the bulb out and turned to get the sack with the new bulbs and they are gone". I asked if she had checked the floor and got an, of course Dummy, look. I walked over to where she was working; there was nothing that even looked like the bag that carries those candlelabra bulbs. "Ah," I said, " I bet you only thought you got the bulbs; they're probably still in the closet." With an all knowing look that only wives can get she replied,"Then you go get them". Needless to say the bulbs were not in the closet where we keep all of our lighting together. "I told you  I know I had the bag of bulbs because I had to set them down in order to get ahold of this bulb and unscrew it." Actually this type of event is not that uncommon, although it has been months since the last episode and it usually happens to me. "As you know, I replied, They'll probably show up in some weird place." "Well they don't always show up at all". True, but only a roast and an address book have remained missing, other stuff reappears in some totally illogical place, usually in a few days. She continued, "I wanted to finish this centerpiece and take it into the store Friday; I need a bulb".  Be interesting to see if that sack of bulbs turns up before she leaves for the store, in town, on Friday. Today is only Wednesday.

Very quiet again

    Its still snowing. Its been snowing for three days. The snow is 6 inches deep and still it snows. The weatherman predicts another 2 to four inches. We are essentially snowed in. This tiny berg makes only half-hearted attempts at keeping the road open. I suppose, if I had to, I could get to the Interstate; but I was told at the post office today that even it is only open on one lane because the state is experiencing a salt shortage. One lane usually means very slow traveling as one wreck can really tie up traffic. So I doubt I'll be traveling for a couple of days. Even our next town, which is a bit larger, has closed up, so theres nothing open anyway but a couple of service stations. Talk about quiet. If there were anything the lest strange going on, I'd certainly hear it. I even hear the furnace turn on and occassional clicks in the hot water pipes. Even the dogs are sacked out in the floor asleep. At the moment the house is remarkably quiet.

A Strange Trill

     It has been snowing and sleeting for three days. The snow really came down yesterday and today. We have about 4 inches of snow on the ground. Activity in this miniberg has come almost to a stop. When I've had the dogs out our tracks are plainly visible in the snow. This morning I saw one set of tracks (not ours) in the front sidewalk. I knew who it was because the lady who made those tracks was on her way to the post office accompanied by her dog "Lucky". There were no other tracks in the snow anyplace around my house. My dogs and I cut through fresh, undesturbed, snow all around the house. Last night, about 8 pm, I was taking care of some plants in our upstairs bathroom which is located in the rear of the house. I could distinctly hear a trilling whistle. I have only known two people in my lifetime that could whistle a trill. Both belonged to a time in the past and many miles away. I could not determine the direction of the sound which lasted less than 30 seconds. My wife was downstairs completing an oil painting for a client and both dogs, she told me, were in the kitchen with her. The TV was not on; but even if it had been, it would have had to be full blast to be heard upstairs. The sound was so characteristic, a trill is the only way I can discribe it. It raised and lowered a couple of times, kind of like it was part of some sort of melody, but was neither loud enough or long enough for me to get a fix on it. Seems strange to me. But the explaination escapes me.

Dogs Panic

     Our two dogs rarely react to the goings on that sometimes accur in the house. We had the growling fit of the younster a few weeks ago; but last night was quite different. The younger dog sleeps on the foot of the bed, whereas the older dog has a pillowed nest next to the heat register. I'm aware of the fact that both dogs will usually, some time during the night, go downstairs and get a drink. They rarely disturb us as they come and go. Last night the younster apparently got thirsty and went downstairs. My wife, a light sleeper, thought she could hear a dog barking but half asleep consigned it to our neighbors dog across the street. Keep in mind, this house is almost sound proof and a dog barking in the kitchen is only slightly noticeable in our bedroom. If the bedroom door would happen to be shut they would not be heard at all. Finally, my wife decided it was our younger dog and awakened me. "Somethings got Shadow upset", she said. I could vaguely hear barking coming from someplace. The barking got hysterical and our older dog went growling down the hall at a lope. Figuring something must be amiss, I got up, intending on going to see what the commotion was about. Before I got beyond the bed our older dog came dashing back and ran under the bed. Figuring that was not a good sign, I moved quickly down he hall to the rear stairs that lead down to the kitchen. As I went the barks sounded louder and hysterical, almost a scream. I hit the lights at the top of the stairs and started down, I didn't make it to the bottom of the stairs before my younger dog came careening around the corner out of the kitchen and up the stairs, past me and on, I assume back to the bedroom. Having no idea what was going on I continued on down and into the kitchen where I turned the overhead light on. The first thing I noticed was the wall clock showing a few minutes after 3 am. I checked the whole downstairs. I checked the doors, nothing was out of place. I went back upstairs where, of course, my wife wanted to know what was going on. Needless to say, I had absolutely no idea. What would scare a dog, well actually both dogs, that much? I can't see how it could have been anything bigger than a mouse. The dogs chase mice when they see them. But I haven't seen any recently since I put out mouse bait. The older dog might have gotten downstairs before he hightailed it back, but he certainly didn't stay down long. Did the younger one panic the older one? Whaton earth did she see or think she saw? Unfortunately dogs cannot tell you. A good episode to get the blood running and wreck a night sleep. But as to what caused it; I haven't the slightest idea.

Something changed the timers

     We have two lamps that sit in the two front windows. They are set to come on about dark and go off about dawn. The same timer operates both lamps. The timer has tiny pin like projections, each representing about 30 minutes of time. Fot the lamps to come on all of the pins between  7:00pm until 7:00am are pushed in. These pins are small and require some force to push them in. The lights have worked the way they are supposed to for several years now. Yesterday, my wife noticed the lights in the windows were on in the middle of the afternoon. Thinking an electrical blackout may have occurred in the night; she just figured she'd have to reset the timer; but as she was busy at the time she put it off until later. Later while doing something in the Diningroom she noticed the Parlour window light go off.  So she figured she'd better reset the timer. Upon inspection she first noticed that the timer was at the correct time. Further inspection indicated that two of the pins in the afternoon section of the timer were pushed in. She certainly hadn't pushed them in, I didn't push them in' The dogs hadn't even been in the parlour for days (how would they push in two tiny pins anyway)? The timers are well off the floor. There probably is a mundane answer for this; but I haven't discovered it yet.

Dogs spooky reaction

     Last night, our youngest dog, who sleeps at the foot of our bed; she's a good foot warmer, really spooked us. What she heard or thought she heard, I have no idea. My wife and I had turned in about midnight. I was awakened by the low gutteral growls of this youngster. My wife was already awake and motioned me to keep silent. The growls continued for a while and as the dog is coal black I had a hard time seeing her even though she was only a few feet from my nose. The elder dog is grey and sleeps next to the heat register. His bed is light colored and I could see that he was not awake, but curled up in a ball. Our black dog stood up and leaned out away from the bed as far as she could without falling out of the bed. She was trying to see down the dark upstairs hall. I looked at our clock which read 4:15. The growling continued, low, like a warning growl. Finally, my curiosity got the best of me and I got up and walked down that hall to the bathroom which is on the opposite end. I saw nothing, I heard nothing. Just to be sure, I walked downstairs and checked the rear door which was solidly locked. I still heard nothing but the ticking of a clock. So I went back upstairs and back to bed. Our little black schnauzer was still sitting up at the foot of the bed. When I got back in bed, she settled back down and I suppose she then went to sleep. Did she sense something? Did she hear a mouse? I have no idea, but until you experience something like that, you have no idea how creepy it can be.

Strange thumping sounds

     Those of you who have followed this journal for some time will remember the thumping sounds that about drove the wife and me bonkers because it was only heard in the library and no place else in the house. Those sounds stopped in July of this year and haven't been heard since. We had had short intervals of quiet before but none that lasted more than a couple of weeks. Its been months now. What ever the cause was; doesn't seem to be with us any longer. The house has been so quiet since Thanksgiving that its been rather boring. Most unusual for this time of year.

House still quiet. E mail asks if this is my only experience with the paranormal.

   The house has been the quietest I have experienced since we moved here about 30 years ago. I recently got an E-mail asking if this house is the only one where I experienced the paranormal. My wife and I have lived in 6 different locations since we married 40 years ago. The first three we rented, two we bought and sold and the last is where we are presently. Nothing of note happened in most of the other houses. Only the last house that we rented was the start of our experiencing the paranormal. We owned one other old house in the early 70s that was as old as the one we presently reside in; but it was a nice quiet house even though it was located in almost the downtown section of Canton, Ohio. That final rental, which I refered to earlier, was located in the backwoods section of West Virginia, on the banks of the Tygart River was something else. Thats one place I'd never return to. If I relate our experiences at that location, you will have to bear in mind that the events took place over 30 years ago. I would try to keep it as factual as possible but the years could dim parts of it. Should I attempt to record those years (1972-73) here?

House has been quiet

    I haven't posted this site for some weeks now. I said at the first that I would only post when something strange occurred. The house has been quiet since my last post on November 29. This is most unusual. A lot of photos were taken during the Christmas season, though not all are back yet, the ones that I have recieved so far are clear and show nothing unusual, Just the typical Christmas decorations, etc. that everyone takes.This is the quietest Christmas season I can remember in this house. So, until some new strange and/or weird thing happens, there is nothing to write.