Christmas photos

I printed many of the photos I took during Christmas. I detected no orbs or whatever those artifacts are. I also took many pictures of my neiece's house which was decorated to the nines. Her house is also very old being only about 25 years newer than mine. She had every room decorated including a Christmas tree (even in the bathroom), no artifacts were evident in those pictures.If orbs be paranormal then it appears my spooks are far less active now. But as I have said before it may be because we aren't home as much as we use to be.

This is super weird

I will not say the following account is paranormal because it sounds too much like someone on a walky-talky or ham radio. It all started last week. I had a gentleman come to the door wanting to buy an old van of mine that sits in the back of our driveway. As I was explaing to him that I wasn't ready to sell yet, we both heard a short blast of a voice that seemingly came from the front staircase or hallway. As no one was even near I wondered what its source could be. The fellow I was conversiong with asked if I had a radio on? I said "No", but I would think a radio would continue playing; not just give a short blast that couldn't be understood. The fellow left and I walked the hallway looking and listening but nothing happened. Later in the week as I was working in the Parlour the "voice" was heard again and a few minutes later even again. There are no radios , walkie-talkies, or two way radios anywhere in the hallway or Parlor, nor outside between my house and the storage building next door. I was perplexed but figured it had to have a logical explaination. The voice , definitely male, is loud but you cannot makle out what is being said. So last night as I entered the masterbedroom with our two schnauzers the voice boomed forth again. Both dogs ran to the wall on the western side of the bedroom and started barking. This wall has a semicircular bulge in it where a dumbwaiter was once housed (It was closed off in the 1950's sometime). I opened the bedroom door to the upstairs hallway by the front stairs and the voice was very loud. It sounded like it was saying, "....AB here..." or something to that effect. I really started investigating the hallway at this point and the voice sounded several more times and I traced it down to approximately where that old dumbwaiter was. There is no opening to the dumbwaiter from the attic or basement or at any point on any floor. It was completely sealed off. What the heck is causing these short "radio?" messages to come booming forth from this wall? I heard this voice at least 7 times last night and the dogs immediately reacted to it each time. Ghost ? I really don't think so; but what on earth is causing it to come through a very old, sealed off, dumbwaiter shaft?

Dog has finally quit barking at the wall.

Well, at least, as far as we know, she has quit barking at the wall. We took the dogs for a drive today. They had their typical Christmas treats. The house has been very quiet, especially since the little black schnauser has quit barking at the wall. I wonder how long our reprieve will last this time. Generally speaking the house has been super quiet. No footsteps or mumbling or other weird effects. Nothing since the loud explosion. Maybe we just are not herre enough to pick up on these sounds. They generally happen in the evening and we have been here in the evenings. I haven't closely checked my Christmas photos for orbs or whatever. I may do some printing tonight. You never know what will show up; but here lately, not much of anything has.

Nothing is stirring, not even a mouse

Perhaps its because I haven't been home enough. With helping at my wife's shop, we hardly get home and eat then off to bed. The poor dogs are feeling much negected and I don't blame them. So I guess I cannot really say that nothing has happened this season because we haven't been here much to know. This is the first year in 74 that there hasn't been a Christmas tree standing in a prominent place in the house. I have attended church services and played Christmas music in the store; but I really miss not having a tree set up or any outside decorations. But as far as I know we haven't had the strange occurrances that tend to plague the season. The hall camera is still running (I hope) but the trail camera does not seem as sensitive as the spy camera was. As soon as I can find a new spy camera I intend to get one. The last weird thing to happen here was the loud unexplained explosion. We heard it, shook the house, but noone else did and I still haven't found anything that could have been its source. Merry Christma everyone and May God Bless.

Loud Explosion Again.

Night before last night, my wife was using the computer and I was just walking from the Den into the Library to show a magazine article to my wife. Before I coud say anything the who house shook with a loud explosion. My wife was certain there had been a horrendous wreck out front. I went out the front door and looked all around, the place looked deserted; there was no one anyplace. This occurred at about 10pm so there isn't a lot going on outside. But a crash such as we heard should have distured someone. I walked around to the rear of the house thinking perhaps an accident on the road that runs behind our house but it looked just as deserted. The neighbor on my right had no lights on so they were probably out. The neighbor across the road had lights but he was no where tbe seen. I have no close neighbors on the left. So, it seems sometime near or in the Christmas season we have these "explosions" once or twice. They shake the house; but nothing can be found to explain them. No one else in town ever hears anything. If I were the only person hearing the crash I'd think it was just me going bonkers but my wife has heard them too.Over the years I have learned that this town has collective deafness. They can't seem to hear loud noises. When I first moved here in 79' a fireworks factory exploded killing one worker. I heard that blast and so did my wife, but on asking our neighbors, they didn't hear anything. It made headlines in the local paper. When I pointed this out to these same people they "Reckoned it was just a backfire" Would have taken a mighty big truck to backfirwe that loud. I really do wonder what goes on around here in the shade. Small towns all have their secrets. Been here 34 years now and I'm still the outsider.

Very Bright Flash.

This just happened. Its 8:20 pm EST, Wednesday, November 27th. I am in the Library sitting at the computer. A very bright flash, almost blinding, just occurred out of the bookcase, immediately to my left and about 4 0r 5 foot from the floor. The day has been heavily overcast and it has been snowing ,off and on, all day. There are no windowds across from where the flash occurred. The only windows in the Library are two very tall, very slim, gothic type and they are directly behind me. When I looked in the direction of the flash, once it was over, there was nothing to see but books crowding the library shelves. There is nothing to be seen, out the two windows but evergreen trees and a couple of pear trees. View of the road in front of the house is blocked by two huge old evergreens and the angle is all wrong even if those trees were not there. What the heck was it? This is weird. The flash was just like someone had taken a flash pictuire of me sitting at the computer. No one was there and the book shelves in that area of the bookcase are tightly packed and there is a 17 inch solid brick wall behind the bookcase. Any suggestions?

Actually the house has been rather quiet this winter....at least we think it has. We haven't been home much until very recently. We had medical problems and business obligations that pretty much kept us going all day 24-7. Things are easing up a bit. The younger dog is still raising cane with the wall beside the library door. We've never discovered what her problem is. Whatever it is the older dog is totally unconcerned about it.Normally this is the season for loud unexplainable booms. footsteps on hardwood floors (that are now carpeted) and various other unexplained anomalies. The camera chip that had the strange pictures on it has disappeared. I may have mislaid it; but you'd think I'd have mislaid it in an obvious place; but it is gone.I still have hopes of finding it. Anyway its enough to make you think a quiet house is a boring house. Some of those episodes were quite invigorating. I kinda miss the mystery.

Darn spy camera still will not work.

The Spy Camera I was using on the front stairs that actually took several questionable pictures quit working. It still comes on but does not activate when someone or something walks in front of it. I suppose its worn out. So I have set up my trail camera in the same area I had the spy camera. Now we will see if anything unusual develops with it. I'll let it run another week and then check it out. I'll report if anything strange appears.

Halloween photos, again, no show

Once again, Halloween appears to be a bust. Once I can purchase a better machine to view my digitile pictures on that could change. But printing several shots that I took over the Halloween period, none came up with any "orbs". The weather was horrible on Trick or Treat night and although I planned for about 400 trick or treaters; only about 100 braved the weather. I even had this life sized skeleton dressed in a tuxedo standing by the door to greet everyone. He talked and his eyes flash and he scared the bejibbers out of the young goblins but not bad enough that they still didn't get their treats. One little girl, about 6 years old, got her treat and as she was walking away down the front stairs, turned and pointed her finger at the skeleton and said, "He's really scarey". Maybe he scared off the real ghosts? This is the third Halloween I've recorded no, I call them transparent disks, but others call them "orbs". But for three Halloweens prior to the last three I had several pictures with the strange orbs. I haven't sent the film cameras film awaay for printing as yet, but as I took most of the shots with the digitile and nothing appears to be evident; I have small hope that anything will appear on the film camera's film.The weather was so bad this year that I did very little decorating for Halloween. I had a line of jack-o-lanterns across the front of the downstairs balcony; two jack-lanterns on either side of the stairs to the front door, My skeleton butler on the left side of the front door, Elvira carrying a Jack-o-lantern on the right side. Guarding the treats were a demon with a green jack-o-lantern on a tray and Elvira as a traditional witch.As I give out toys, flashlights, and glow sticks for treats, I can save whats left for next Halloween. In fact, I probably have enough left to take care of next Halloween.

Small black dog back at it.

What on earth could a section of wall have about it that so excites my younger black schnauzer? That same section of wall beside the doorway out of the diningroom and into the library. She hadn't been interested in it for several weeks and now she's back at it. Barks furiously at the wall for several minutes at a time. I have it blocked off so she can't dig the wall now but that certainly does nothing to stop the barking.As I have reported before the wall is brick with an overlayer of plaster. It is about 17 inches thick. I have investigated the basement where this wall is built onto a solid granite foundation block. I see no holes, no points for entry. I have left out bait, it remains untouched. The older dog couldn't care less except he sometimes goes to the kitchen to get away from the younger dog's racket. If she keeps it up she's going to get a muzzle. We've about had it. I cannot understand what on earth only she can sense? Seems to me that if it was some creature in the wall the other dog would also be having a fit.

I, again, set up the spy camera and aimed it up our front stairs. It took over a hundred pictures. What set off the camera is beyond me. I have a few night=time shots of lights that really make no sense, but the final three shots kinda creeped me out. The first shot appears to be a transparant human, extremely tall, his legs very visible his waist is visible but starts to merge with the darkness on the stairs so the head and shoulders are not visible. The second shot shows just the "legs" about halfway up the stairs and the last picture shows what appears to the the bottoms of the legs at the extreme range of available light. At first I thought it must be me. I must have gone upstairs and the camera photographed me. But even at 6'2" I'm not that large and I'm anything but transparent. My wife wonders if the camera malfunctioned in some way; so I reset the camera and walked in front of it....the dang thing refuses to function. It came on. but it does not shoot. I'm going to have to see what the problem is. I still intend to reshoot that episode and see if I'm transparent; if maybe I got something else. Halloween is coming. I do want to be ready for that period when the Celts thought he vale between the living and dead is thinnest.I am very knowledgeable about film cameras because IO worked with them for years; even having use of a darkroom on many occasions. But I have to admit; I know very little about digitale cameras and their workings. Over Halloween I plan to use both kinds while I can still get my film processed. I haven't had a darkroom in years.

Possible ball lightning or ?

My wife's turn to experience the weird. This morning my wife and I went into town for a few groceries. We returned in the early afternoon as storm clouds rolled up on the horizon. Its Labor Day what more is expected. It began spluttering rain shortly after our arrival and it rained off and on for the rest of the afternoon. There were several peals of thunder and lightning but nothing intense. When we arrived at home my wife sat down at the kitchen table and announced she had paperwork she had to finish. So I took the hint and took the dogs with me into the Library with the computer. An hour or so later as I was catching up on some correspondence I heard my wife call me. I went to the kitchen but my wife said, "Forget it you're too late". "Too late for what?" I replied. She then explained that as she was working on her reports she noticed the overhead lights were flickering (directly over the kitchen table are two 1-00 watt equivilent coiled florescent bulbs (the kind our dimbulb government insists we use). My wife figured either they were about to go out, or the electricity was about to go off (Which it does,here,frequently). Looking up towards the overhead lights she saw a bright ball of light bouncing about 8 ft. high in front of the kitchen fireplace. It was passing east to west. She called me, but I was too slow getting there. The ball passed into the cupboards on the western wall. As she discribed the light, I immediately thought "Ball Lightning". I have read a good bit about ball lightning but I've only seen it once and that was around 50 or 60 years ago.The ball lightning I observed came swooping in a low curve out of the sky. It was about the size of a basketball and glowed with static electricity as it bounced across a neighbors backyard and across my parents backyard and fizzled out on a barbed wire fence seperating the backyard from another neighbors garden area. I think the ball lightning that I witnessed so long ago would have left scorch marks on wood. But this small lightball my wife witnessed passed into a wooden wallcupboard with not a trace of where it entered. So I'm not certain what she saw. I'm sinply reporting it as it was discribed to me. I wish I had seen it.

Strange white forms on photos

I have a spy camera that looks very much like an air freshner. One other time I used it and obtained one picture out of 170 plus shots that looked like smoke in a very dark hallway. That shot would not print out so I figured the heck with it. At some point in the past I set this air freshner camera in my parlour, aimed at the hall door that leads to the front door of my house. I do not remember when I did it. My wife wanted me to help put down some new rugs she purchased in the parlour as she was tired of two of them and the one near the front windows was badly faded. So we were working in the parlour the biggest part of the day and I saw the "airfreshner" and it suddenly struck me the thing was probably loaded. Getting it down from the showcase, I laid it aside until I got a break to check it out. Needless to say the batteries were totally dead. I removed the chip from the camera and ran it through a photo printer to see what, if anything that I got. Good thing the printer has a moniter so I could check it out. I certainly didn't need 640 pictures of my parlour door. However, there were a few shots of me coming or going through the door. But I have two shots out of that 640 that are unexplainable. Neither of them look like the transparent disks that I have gotten previously; especially at Halloween. They are difficult to explain. I'll try; I wish I knew how to post the actual print, but I don't. The first one is in the darkened doorway. You can vaguely see the front stairs and pictures on the wall going up the front stairs. It appears as a fuzzy ball, about the size of a dime on the print. That is, a dime would just about cover it. It is definitely in front, that is, between the stairs and the camera. To me it looks like an out of focus space picture of the planet Jupiter as seen through a telecope. It is lightly banded with one darker indistinct band toward the top. There is nothing that high in the hallway, that could be causing it.The doorway and pictures hanging on the wall in the parlour are sharp. The second picture shows an indistinct white patch with orange and blue tones.Actually what it looks like is creepy as heck. I'm going to have to show this to other people and see if they see what I see. Maybe my imagination is simply in overdrive. There was a scientist, a number of years ago that conjectured what dinosaurs would look like if the had continued to evolve over the past 65 million years or so. A kind of humanlike figure with a reptilian head, slightly modified. The white patch in this second picture looks like a reptilian or maybe birdlike head. Only the frontal part of the head is visible as it was located in that doorway and the hall behind it was very dark. What is highlighting this figure appears to be coming in from the front, where our front windows are located. Optical illusion or not, it is the creepiest photo I've gotten so far. This time it is on a digitale chip.

Halloween is coming

Nothing new to report on the house since the murmering episode. But in a recent trip into town I noticed that several stores and shops have started their Halloween merchandise. So Halloween is coming. This is the time of year when I sometimes get some interesting artifacts in my photographs. I had lousy luck last year and it seems the year before last wasn't especially good either. I am hoping to catch some disks or something unusual this year. Three, four, and five years ago I got several photos with the mysterious transparent orbs. I have no idea why I haven't anything for the last two Halloweens. I plan to do pretty much the same this year with both a film and digital cameras. Do any of you have any suggestions of things I might try to catch these strange artifacts on film or disk? Its always a good idea to plan ahead. We have approximately two months to come up with a plan.

Murmerings

We got a real charge last night. The dogs and I turned in around midnight. My wife had already turned in, in the guestroom as her leg pack is still operating. I had played with both dogs til we were all pooped. Then the murmering started. Both dogs went nuts and ran to the bedroom door barking. The murmering was loud enough to quickly get our attention but not loud enough to understand any of the mumbling. The dogs were so insistant that I figured perhaps I should check out the house so taking "The Judge" in hand I left the bedroom. First I checked with my wife but she said she hadn't heard anything and it probably was outside as the bedroom window was open. I said,"No way" the dogs are barking at the bedroom door not the window. My wife is getting hard of hearing and the guestroom is in a wing of the house. I told my wife I was going to release our dogs and see if they could track down the noise. I went back to the bedroom and opened the door for the dogs but by this time the murmering had stopped and the dogs were just milling around the hallway. Then the murmering resumed and the black younger dog took off toward the rear stairway barking like mad but the older dog went in the opposite direction toward the front stairway and there I stood, undecided. I finally followed the older dog and found him sniffing the air and going in circles in the front hallway. We couldn't hear the murmering anymore, but I could hear the younger dog barking so I thouight we should check her out. We went through the parlour and when we opened the door to the dining room we saw the younger dog barking at and pawing the wall beside the doorway into the Library. She has had barking fits at that wall from time to time for months. I got her quieted down. We waited to hear more murmering, we didn't. So we went back to bed. What the heck is it we are hearing? It sure drives the dogs crazy. I cannot figure it out.

Strange digging noises

I tried to post this a day or so ago but it wouldn't publish. I have no idea why not. So I'm trying again. Night before last we retired to bed about 10:30. Things have changed a little here as my wife has had a major problem with her leg. Because she has to wear a wound vac for a few weeks and she's afraid the dogs will get tangled in the hoses on it; she has moved into our guest room (known as the Noah room). The dogs and I remain in the master bedroom. We don't have airconditioning but do have a large ceiling fan over the foot of the bed and I suspect thats why both of our schnauzers are suddenly interested in sleeping at the foot of the bed, although the younger of the two will often move more toward the headboard before morning. Last night we had all settled in for a good nights sleep. I was pretty much sound asleep when all of a sudden I hear this frantic digging noise. Any of you who have dogs will know what I mean. Generally its said that they are making themselves a bed. They dig frantically for a while then turn around three times and flop down and go to sleep. Last night the digging just kept going, finally I yelled "Rowdy stop that". When I looked toward the foot of the bed Rowdy was curled up and looking at me bleary eyed. Well I suppose he was bleary eyed, I couldn't see him that clearly in darkened room. But the digging was still evident and he was only reacting to my voice. He wasn't digging anything. The other dog was up almost even with my head in the bed and she was asleep, or at least looked like she was. I can tell you I turned on the light at the side of the bed in a hurry. As soon as the light came on the digging stopped. It had sounded like it was coming from the area of the heat register where the older dog normally sleeps. There was nothing there. There was nothing in the bedroom but us three. Yet what ever was digging had to be as big or bigger than my dogs. Yet my dogs ignored the episode completely. Finally, just figuring this old house was at it again I turned off the light and went back to sleep. Another mystery of thos old house.

Extremely quiet summer so far

There have been no recent reports because there has been nothing to report. The TV episode I last reported must have been insignificant as, luckily, no major issues have come up. The TV has not turned itself on or off since that last reported episode. We have had the set on several times for the weather and everything acted as it should. We haven't been home a lot during the day and I suppose that could account for less experiencing of the strange, or perhaps not. Too bad we cannot ask the dogs if anything strange went on here while we were out. We had an abnormally dry spring this year but starting the last of May and through this week, we have had an abnormally wet summer. I had no garden to speak of this year. But from what my neighbors tell me that may not be a bad thing. They had so much watyer the tomatos and potatos, etx, are pretty much ruined by wet fungus and blight.

A strange occurance today.

A strange occurance today. We have two working TVs in this house. Neither is used very often nor very long at a time. The main TV is a 19 inch set in the Den. It gets watched for maybe an hour a day, usually in the late evening. The other set is a small digital (8") that we have on the mantle in the kitchen. This TV has to be physically turned on because the remote will not turn it on or off. We don't use the remote because this set is on one channel and it stays on that channel.  We generally only have it on for news and/or weather. We hadn't used this set for well over a week. At about 10 am today the set turned itself on much to everyones surprise and then about 15 minutes later it turned itself off. That was it. nobody even near it. The useless remote is in a drawer of the kitchen table. This set has never done that before. It worried my wife because the only other time such a thing occured was probably about 20 or so years ago. At that time we had a manual TV set that  required a viewer to walk over and manually turn it on and manually change the stations. That time, at approx 10 pm as we were watching a show, this TV changed stations. Something that required manually twisting a knob on the set to do. Noone was closer than 10 ft from the set. My wife and I both saw it happen. I immediately got up, walked over to the set, and changed the channel back to our program. The next day, we were informed that our next door neighbor, who was in the hospital, had passed away at approx 10pm. Coincidence ?  That TV set never misbehaved in such a fashion again. So a TV set turning its self on and then off; has her a little worried. Hopefully for no good reason.

Dog and that danged wall

I turned in around 11:30 pm last night. The older dog curled up on his pillow in front of the heat register and the younger dog took her place on the foot of the bed. Sometimes she's a nice footwarmer. We had all settled in for a good night's sleep. I was sound asleep when all of a sudden I was almost knocked out of the bed by the younger dog who suddenly jumped from the bed hitting the floor a good six or seven feet into the bedroom and ran screaming bloody murder down our upstairs hall. I heard her hit the rear stairs still screaming. Strangly the other dog only looked disturbed. Wondering if someone had broken in, I armed myself and went after the younger dog who I could hear screaming downstairs. Those of you who own dogs know what I mean when I say "screaming". They are not barking, they are screaming. I went cautiously down the stairs where I could hear her screaming and digging frantically at that section of wall, beside the door from the dining room to the library. Needless to say I couldn't hear much of anything; it would have had to be thounderously loud to be heard over the frantic dog screaming only a few feet away. But I saw nothing amiss with the wall, other than dog scratches. I finally got her settled down. The wall is just the wall. I have no idea what she thinks is there. The other dog could not care less what is there. He didn't even come down and give me moral support. I looked at the mantel clock which read 1:30 am. Its a good thing I can usually go back to sleep easily; unfortunately my wife has problems going back to sleep.If nothing else this moron dog is going to ruin that section of wall requiring replastering. I really do not need to be suddenly awakened between 1 and 3 am by a dog with a wall fetish. Anyone with ideas please comment.

Haunted cupboard?

Today, my wife and I were out and about. My wife wanted to visit the owner of a high end antique furniture store that is located in the same town her store is  located. She wanted to discus some matters with the store owner. When we arrived the store was heavily patronized and so we entertained ourselves looking at the beautiful furniture that had come in since we were last there. But customers tend to be like bananas, they come in bunches. Finally a pause occured and my wife and the store lady had a chance to catch up. After a bit, the store owner said, "Can a piece of furniture be haunted?" This may sound strange or funny for someone to ask; but the lady knows us well enough to know we will take the question seriously. She continued by sayng her husband had purchased  this antique, large, old kitchen cupboard for resale in their store. They brought it in and displayed it in the middle of the main showroom floor. I inspected it. It is a very solidly built piece of furniture. It has two large glassed-in doors. The glass in the doors is very secure. So what about it being "haunted". She says that since that piece of furniture was brought in she has experienced a loud tapping on glass. Like some one tapping the glass with a coin or fingernail. At first she thought someone was tapping on her front windows trying to get her attention. But there was no one there. This occured several times; more often than not when she is in another room of her store. Like she says," it can be very disconcerting when you think you are the only one there". Because the event occurs several times a day, she has narrowed down the source of the noise to this large old cupboard. I have read stories about "haunted furniture" but I have never experienced such. I would rather think the cause was something more mundane, but I haven't a clue what it could be. Anyone out there know how a piece of furnituire could make tapping noises?

Cat on the stairs

I thought I had posted this two weeks ago when it happened. The post must not have been completed. I will retell tell the event as best as I can remember it. It occured at the foot of the rear stairs, just off the downstairs bathroom and kitchen. The dog gate was up to keep our two schnauzers downstairs during the day. The weather was cloudy outside and cold.  The kitchen light was on which gives some reflected light to the bottom few stairs of the rear stairway. The rearstairs light was not on. As I walked from the diningroom toward the kitchen movement on the stairside of the dog gate caught my eye. I saw a black cat move across the bottom step, turn and go up the stairs fading in the darkened hallway. At first I thought a stray cat had somehow gotten into the house. Then I thought of my dogs who were totally unaware of it. A cat in the house would have had them going berserkl. But to be sure I opened the gate and went upstairs, seeing nothing in the way of a cat. Both dogs followed me and bounded on upstairs as they are wont to do. If there was a cat anywhere upstairs the dogs were not aware of it; which I find hard to believe. Checking out the upstairs is not that difficult in winter as we typically keep all doors off the main hall shut except the master bedroom and the bathroom. Even the hallway to the frontstairs is closed off. So any cat in the upstairs would be isolated to the hallway, bathroom and master bedroom. Quickly checking those out it was acertained that no cat existed there. Calling my dogs who were busy romping around the hall and rooms, we went back downstairs and I had to chalk up the incident to another strange sight in this old house.

Shadows

Twice today, I've had a really weird thing happen. Both occassions the event took place in the upstairs bathroom. The first time was this morning circa 8:30. I was moving some citrus trees around in the window so they could get maximum light. I had just walked over to the sink to run some water for a coffee tree that appeared dry. As I was turning with the pitcher of water a human shaped shadow so intense I could feel it pass, passed by me and vanished. This was one weird sensation but it occurred so rapidly I didn't have time to react to it except upon recall.The bathroom has two windows, one on the western wall and one on the eastern. There are no trees anymore that are outside those windows (We lost those trees in the tornado that ripped through here last June.) Besides the shadow started before it was in front of the window. I never felt a shadow before, it was hard to discribe, kinda like very soft, very black velvet.. This is a totally new experience. The second time it happened was in the same room, just before lunch, as I put away towells and washcloths my wife had me bring upstairs. I was about midway in the room, passing from the sink area to the glassed in shelves on the south wall. Again a dark shasdow with a roughly human shape passed me, but more on the eastern side of the room, and then disappeared. I did not feel the darkness this time and the window definitely shone through the apparition. Two weird happenings in one day in the same general area of the house. The skies outside were heavily overcast so I feel any sort of shadow from the window is out of the question. I just don't know what to make of it. The first one really threw me on reflection because I saw it and felt it. The second one surprised me but I had a better chance of actually seeing the thing but I still do not know what is was.

Footsteps again

Christmas and New Years is, once again, over but with all the snow and ice we've accumulated since the day after Christmas the decorations remain up. I may take the christmas tree down this coming week but I think the outside decorations will have to wait until most of the snow is gone.                                                Yesterday, January 5th, my wife and I went to Columbus so she could restock items in her store from a wholesaler. We were gone most of the day, getting back about 6 pm. The day was semi-cloudy with a very bright sun shinning, through, part of the time. The temperature was low 40s. I was in the upstairs bathroom and my wife was in the one downstairs, the two dogs were in either the dinningroom or the kitchen, as the downstairs gate was up. I was tending a few plants that I keep in the bathroom windows when I distinctly heard someone ascending the stairs. There are a few items sitting at the top of those stairs awaiting my removal into the attic storage. I heard someone brush by these items. I really thought it was my wife coming upstairs on some errand. I stepped out to the head of the stairs to see if she needed something. There was no one there. The sounds stopped when I stepped out of the bathroom. Looking around the bend in the stairs there was no one there either and the gate was still up and my older dog was sitting at the foot of the stairs looking up at me. So what did I hear? Seems footsteps are becoming more common once again.