Sorry about the long absence.

The wife's store has totally taken up my time. We drag home, get supper, and turn in. I have been experiencing an odd factor. This is my first chance to discuss it. This phenomena only occurs in our rather large upstairs bathroom. The room is large because it use to be a bedroom over the kitchen.
   Lately I have experienced shadows coming through the doorway that leads to the upstairs hall. The shadows are generally vague but appear to have legs, like a black dog. I see them out of the corner of my eye and when I look toward them they disappear. This has occurred several times over the past month or so. Yes, I have a black dog but her legs are not long and slim , like the shadows, but shorter and fuzzy (she is a schnauzer). She has been in the bathroom with me when these shadows occur. She does not react to them. So maybe I'm seeing things.T he last time this occurred I had the foresight to not look toward the movement. As a result the shadow did not disappear until it went behind a short wall just inside the doorway to the bath. The shadow originated from a wall of shelves on the southern wall, it came pretty much straight tward me, passed me and disappeared behind the wall. This time I had the sense to not turn my eyes toward it. The shadows legs were quite clear (long, short hair, black) the body was indistinct but where the head should have been pointy ears (like a German Shepherd) appeared. If I'm cracking up why is this only occuring in the lavatory and why a black dog?

I'm Brig's wife and want to share one of my experiences in the small store we own and operate.  Earlier Brig gave background on the store, noting it's an older commercial building.  Inside in the main showroom there's a deep ledge about 7 feet from the floor and running from front to back on the sides. I use that to display over-sized or large and fragile items.
     I have a friend who helps out at the store and sometimes brings in an unusual thing to sell.  She had worked for me the previous day and had positioned two vintage stuffed fabric dolls of hers on the ledge.  Both were 3 feet tall, but with floppy arms and leg,s they couldn't stand.  One was a girl wearing a calico print dress, yellow hair and gigantic googly eyes while the other was a boy dressed in blue pants and with a blue cap perched on his Dutch boy styled hair.  Both were facing forward with arms hanging loosely and feet dangling over the ledge.  Cute and a bit unusual, so I knew they'd attract attention.
     As I went through the opening duties, I felt like someone was watching me and checked the door to see if someone was waiting for me to unlock and let them in.  No one was there. With all the lights on and everything ready, I opened for business.  When I went behind the counter, I glanced over at those dolls and was surprised to see the girl doll turned to the side with one leg stretched out ON the ledge. I certainly hadn't touched her, and I was the only person in the building. I walked over, reached up with a yardstick and knocked her leg off the ledge which more or less straightened her up.  I was not going to be spooked by any doll!
     That day, two women customers at different times commented on feeling uneasy and as if someone was looking at them.  Then I got really busy which lasted past closing time, so I forgot about the dolls.  The next morning when I arrived, there were 6 black taper candles lying perfectly aligned on the floor under those dolls.  There were no black candles of any kind in the store.  I called my helper friend and asked if she'd brought in any black candles.  No she hadn't,  I put them in a bag and set them aside as the day became quite busy.  Late in the afternoon I noticed the girl doll was once again sitting with one leg stretched out on the ledge,  But a customer very well could have moved her.
     All was quiet with the dolls the following day, and I put them out of my mind,  However, when I opened the store on the third day, I found broken glass on the floor under the dolls.  The pieces were so fine I couldn't determine what had been broken,  Nothing was missing.  As I swept up the glass, the girl doll toppled from the ledge and somehow landed face up on my foot.  By then I didn't want to touch her, but had to get her back on the ledge.  I made sure she was sitting well back from the edge with her arms folded in her lap.  Then I went to the backroom to get a box to sweep the broken glass into before putting it in the trash.  When I returned, the girl doll's arms were well off to each side and not in her lap.  Did they flop there on their own?  I was doubting it.  They were soft, floppy and had no resistance to being posed.
     Day 4 was quiet with the dolls, and nothing was wrong, broken or out of place.  My imagination was running a little wild   was my thought.  An order of towels arrived and I had to set aside two for a customer who would be in just before closing.  I displayed the other towels on a folding rack under the dolls.  When the customer arrived, she wanted a total of 4 towels, so we walked together to get them.  The rack was completely bare!  Now how do you even begin to explain that to someone?  We both searched that area for towels.  We moved everything.  I checked the counter area and the box the towels had shipped in.  No towels.  I assured the customer they'd turn up and when they did, I'd hold two and call her.
     I was again moving everything in the space under the dolls when Brig came in.  He looked askance at me, but did help search.  In fact, we went thoroughly through the entire store.  I had the box and the invoice that proved there had been towels, but where were they?  Not having any answer for the situation, Brig went to his work area in the backroom,  I walked past the dolls, stopped, backed up and shook my finger at them.  The girl doll suddenly fell completely over onto her side on the ledge.  Exasperated, I left her there, but did say their tenure in my store was coming to an end.
      I called my helper and told her it sounded crazy, but I wanted her to please remove those dolls from the store.  She agreed to pick them up the next afternoon.  I hung up the phone, turned around and the girl doll was sitting upright. Poor Brig!  I yelled, blaming him for moving that doll.  He said he hadn't touched either of them.
     Okay, time to go home.  I started turning off lights, making a loop from back to front.  When I turned the corner and could clearly see the wall area where the dolls were, the missing towels were hanging neatly on the rack. Unbelievable!  I yelled for Brig to come look.  "Impossible" was his retort, but there they were.  I grabbed two for my customer just in case the towels went missing again.
     Right after opening the store on the 5th day, I noted that the dolls were no longer sitting side-by-side with arms touching.  There was about a foot between them.  I muttered that they were going home to live in a dark trunk in an attic.  When the first customer of the day came through the door, her eyes went instantly to those dolls.  She said they'd been prizes at some carnival-style game at Euclid Beach Park in Cleveland, and she had to have them.  Needless to say, she got them although I did wonder if she'd end up experiencing odd little events when they were around.
     So in the end, things returned to what passes for normal in the store.  We never discovered where the black candles came from or what glass item was broken,  While some of the doll's movements might be explained as shaking of an old building or precarious placement, there's still no answer for her sitting up straight from a prone position or for her leg moving upward to rest on the ledge.

Loud female voice

A couple days ago, I was home with just my dog "Shadow". I had managed to sprain, strain or otherwise compromise my back between the shoulder blades and was taking it easy lying on the bed in the master bedroom with my dog beside me. I was reading a book and the house was very quiet. Suddenly with no forewarning a voice was very clearly heard coming from the rear stairs. It was loud, definitely feminine voice that said, "Yaup?" that's slang for "are you up?" I replied that I was and expected to see my wife appear. She didn't. Shadow heard it too as her ears went up and she was alert. I called back down the hall several times that I was "up" (even though I was lying down). Still no result. Very gingerly I did get up and make my way down the hall. No one anywhere. The back door was locked as my wife always locks up when leaving the house ( so do I, it's just a habit.) I called my wife who was down at her store and she simply stated it must be one of the "staff" checking up on me. This house was a rest home for many years before I bought it. Another strange thing is that my dog, though she seemed to hear the voice, did not react in her usual noisy manner. Only two females have a key to this house, my wife and my god daughter. My god daughter was in Virginia at the time and my wife was running her store roughly 10 miles from here (As the crow flies.) Old houses can be very interesting if they don't drive you nuts.

A sstrange thing

Last night we turned in early. It was snowing and I figured I'd have to clean a path to my car and clean the snow and possibly ice off the car. Around about 3:30 am I was awakened by a movement on the bed; kind of like someone sitting down on the mattress and getting up again. This occurred at least three times, maybe more for it to awaken me. My first thought was that it was my schnauzer, Shadow, who usually sleeps the foot of the bed. I thought she had gotten a drink and was trying to jump back into the bed. But by this point I was awake enough to realize Shadow was just inches from my head and sleeping soundly. Of course, when I sat up to see what was going on there was nothing there and the movement ended. My ever vigilant Shadow was quite zonked through it all. At my age, when you wake up in the middle of the night you have to make a bathroom run. Even going to the jon and returning did not awaken sleeping beauty. I don't have any idea what was going on. Just more of the strange in this place.

2017 ends to night

This has been my least eventful year. So I thought I should write something as a year ender. More than likely the reason there have been fewer strange events this year is simply because my wife and I haven't been home much except to feed our dog (Shadow), let her out and hit the sack; usually by 8 pm. If strange events occur during the day only the Shadow knows and she isn't talking. As my wife's health improves she will take over more and more of the duties at the store. I have a tremendous amount of work built up here at the house over the past two years that really needs my attention. Because we have been here so little during the day we have probably missed events the house seems intent on doing. With the new year, my wife continues to improve and takes over more and more duties at the store, hopefully freeing me up to work at the house during the daylight hours. So I might be privy to house antics. Anything strange will be reported. Sorry last year was so sparse.

Another Halloween has come and gone

Another Halloween has made its debut. I had a light turn out this year for "Trick or Treat"; only about 150 so I have lots of treats for next year, No I don't intend to pass out stale candy. I don't pass out candy. I haven't passed out edibles for Halloween since the big hoax scare a few years back. I gather up deals on toys during the year and pass them out instead. For a change I had only two trick or treaters who looked to be older than 12. I took a few photos but none came through with any orbs or such like. This just adds mystery to the fact that just three or four years ago I was getting numerous "orbs". I have been extremely busy this past year to set up elaborate camera shots or recorders. The lack of goblins this year was probably due to several factors; One. Trick or Treat in the village was not posted in the local paper. I'm sure the city fathers just "forgot", even though other towns and villages posted theirs at least twice. Trick or treat was the same night and time in most of the other locations so the surrounding area kids took a chance here. Secondly the weather, which was fine during the trick or treat period; however, it rained early in the day and looked stormy in the evening. Thirdly a lot of cheap skates do not treat here. The fire department came through with their after trick or treat party, so I'm sure the kids who showed up did have a good time. Maybe I'll be better prepared next year.

Disappearing and reappearing pen

This happened at the store we own and operate in a building that was built in the 1840's in a very small Ohio town. The building was built as a General Merchantile but fairly quickly became a hardware store and served as such until the 1980's when it sat empty for a while and then served several owners of miscellaneous shops until the turn of the 21st century. We took over the store and its present business (home décor and notions)around 2011. Today, my wife was working on store papers in the main show room, she was using a bright green pen. This was early and no customers had, as yet, arrived. The table sits about midway in the main show room. My wife is confined to a wheel chair with minimum walking with a walker. She hadn't been out of the wheel chair all morning. I was working at the cash register on the far side of the store next to the entrance. My wife had just finished a report and laid the pen on the table while she proof read her report. She finished reading and went to pick up the pen, but it wasn't there. It hadn't fallen into her lap. It was not on the floor. Had it rolled anywhere on that table it would really stand out. So I brought her another pen (also bright green) from our desk behind the cash register. She continued making her corrections to the report and making checks out to the utilities. Probably close to a half hour later she let out a surprise cry, and said, "Look here!" That first bright green pen had suddenly reappeared on the table. There is absolutely no was the two of us could have missed it when we searched for it. This is the kind of thing that makes you think, "Perhaps I have a ghost". Other explanations are more than welcome.