Footsteps and door slamming back with a vengeance

There had been very little of the ghostly footsteps and the door slamming hadn't occurred in a long time. A couple days ago this all changed. I was working in the attic putting away left over christmas decorations and such that I couldn't fit into our Christmas room (a room over the front door that was used as a chest or storage room in the 1800s). I had just finished that chore and returned downstairs. I should note here that when you are in our attic you are totally cut-off soundwise from the first floor. Upon arrival in our kitchen which is on the first floor, I was greeted with, "Who was at the door?" by an angry wife. "How would I know, I responded, I was in the attic." No you weren't , she replied, fire in her eyes, You came stomping down the stairs, stomped your way through the diningroom and slammed the dinningroong door on your way there" (front door). " Just finished taking that stuff up to the attic and putting it away," I replied. "I wasn't aware there was anybody at the front door." "Well the dogs were making a**es of themselves and you didn't hear it?" she said. "No I didn't". I then went through the dining room opened the door then proceeded through the Parlour to the front door. Nothing was amiss; the front door was locked and barred from the inside. Anyone going out the front door would have left the door unlocked and unbarred. But everything was as it should be. I have no idea what my wife heard stomping down our rear stairs and slamming through the house. We're the only ones here except our two two miniature schnauzers and I'm sure they can't stomp very loud nor open and slam doors. There are two other doors, one leading out of the diningroom to the lower section of a double porch; but that door hasn't been used in years, is locked and barred and my wife has furniture in front of it. The only other door leads off the end of the downstairs hallway and onto the same porch. But hereagain, the door is locked and barred, has plastic sheeting over it (It tended to let in a good bit of cold air) plus there is a rocking chair and ladder in front if it. So whatever went stomping to the front door must still be in there because there is no way for it to exit except by sliding a bolt and unlocking a door which, obviously, never happened. So what did my wife hear? I caught the blame; but I was in the attic. We've had footsteps frequently over the years. We have even heard stomping on a couple of occassions usually in regard to the attic. Doors opening by themselves is fairly common even locked doors have been found open. This is the first time the steps were stomping from the rear stairs through the house along with a door slam. It apparently had the dogs upset as well. And here I had just posted, a few days ago, how quiet the house has been this winter.

Not so quiet.

I think I mentioned in my last post that the house was strangely quiet for this time of year. We had two events just days apart the ended the quiet. One occurred around 4 pm , still in the old year. A house shakingly loud crash that had the wife and I both thinking a ceiling had caved in. A thorough search of the house disclosed nothing amiss. A thorough search outside and around the house also disclosed nothing amiss. Our neigbors heard nothing though they were at home at the time. This isn't really surprising, I guess, as noone in this town ever hears anything but gossip. When we moved here in 1979, we hadn't been in town but a few weeks when the local fireworks factory exploded killing at least one worker. The explosion shook the house and rattled the windows. When I tried to find out what happened, no one heard a thing. Headlines in the local newspaper the next day had them all wondering why they hadn't heard it. We were just turning in one night, between midnight and 1 am when a second thunderous crash occurred. It shook the house, the dogs were going nuts. Again I checked the house from stem to stern and found nothing amiss. The next day I checked outside and found everything ok. A neighbor suggested that a piece of ice must have fallen off the roof. I don't think so. In the first place we had had very little precipation. A thin snowfall gave us a more or less white Christmas and then it turned unseasonably warm. I had a new steel roof put on the house this past summer and ice off the upper roof landing on the lower roof would make a lot a racket, however nothing sticks to this new roof, its slicker than ice even in dry weather. Theres no place for ice to build up. There was no sign of ice on any roof nor on the ground. As you can see, asking my neighbors if they heard anything is a waste of time. They are all deaf to loud noises. There is no obvious explaination and will probably remain so. Old houses in old towns are such a mystery.

Christmas time very quiet.

Due to a senior moment I haven't gotten the pictures back as yet. Seems I forgot to include payment. In the meantime I shot two more rolls of film of general Christmas activities with the 35 MM cameras. Those two films have been sent (Yes, I remembered the payment this time). I'll be checking over those shots for artifacts as well. I took a few with the digitile as well and as I just recently recieved the ink for my printer, I haven't gotten to printing any of them as yet. As far as the house is concerned it has been unusually quiet. Nary a Marley nor a Christmas past has spooked the place. Sometimes I think the "spooks" have gotten too comfortable with us over the years. The familiar footsteps are rare now and except for the basement, the lights are "on" when they are supposed to be and "off" when they are suppose to be. The murmurring was last heard several weeks ago. The pounding hasn't been heard in months. Its so quiet its scarey. Maybe they're building up to something.

Photos with circular artifacts

Tis the season to decorate. I've been putting up the tree off and on for the past week. Decided today to decorate outside instead. Its really cold so I should've stayed inside but I didn't. After I got the outside done I thought I'd take a few shots with an old Yashica that I picked up at an auction. It seems to work but until I get a processed film back I won't know for sure. So I won't trust Christmas pictures to it. I had a film in the camera so the number of shots left was limited. I used the rest of the roll taking pictures of what I'd accomplished or messed up outside (depends on your worldview, I suppose). However I decided to take just a few with the digitile camera. That camera was upstairs in our house so I retrieved it and as I was going down the back stairs I took a shot down the stairs and again when I reached bottom, I shot back up the stairs. It was getting dark outside when I shot the outdoors decorations. The digitile seems to be a lot more light sensitive than the films I use. Anyway, when reviewing the digitile photos I quickly realized that the pictures I took of the stairs in the house BOTH have the strange artifacts and they are rather clear and easily spotted on the tiny monitor. I printed both and discovered my printer is out of all but blue ink; none the less, the artifacts show up clearly. Two in each photograph. Is there anything special about December 9th?So far these circular features have only shown up at Halloween and December 21st (shortest day) until now on December 9th. I will not know whether the film cameras show anything until the film is processed. I haven't checked the outside shots I made with the digitile in any detail as yet but, unlike the interior shots, I didn't notice anything on the monitor. Once I get a new ink cartridge I can check the outside shots better.

Somethings playing with my wall clock.

Its that time of the year when we start dragging out the Christmas tree and all the trimmings. These sundry items for the holidays generally are situated in the formal parlour. The formal parlour is where we generally greet guests. Since Halloween we've only had one guest and she is not the type to play with clocks. In the parlour we have a wind-up type wall clock (could be a shelf clock but we use it on the wall) that needs wound once a week and it keeps remarkably good time. This clock has a door on the front that we keep closed except when winding the clock. Today as I was starting to set up the Christmas tree in the middle of the floor in the parlour, I noticed the clocks door was open. I also saw that the clock was still running (penulum was swinging) and the time was way wrong. I asked my wife if she had been cleaning around the clock and she assured me she had not, "You know I know nothing about those things". Meaning she didn't try to set or wind it. Like most of todays women she prefers the electronic clocks. She likes the look of the old fashion ones but she knows little about setting or maintaining one. No one has access to that room but my wife and I unless we have visitors. So the wife has no idea how the door opened on the clock nor why it was four hours off. Even though it was a day early, I went ahead and wound it and set it and closed the door. The door, is firmly shut so it takes some force to open it .when you hear a loud "snap", it also closes with an audible "snap"So we have another mystery in this old house.

Processed film has several anomalies

The digital camera recorded nothing unusual on Oct.31st so I feared there would be nothing unusual on the film cameras as well. Film shot on Oct.30th had nothing unusual on it. I still have not sent away the film shot Nov.1st. Pictures returned for the film cameras did show the strange round transparant anomalies. They are not as obvious as they were in the past but I blame that on the film. In 08 and o9 I used 400 speed film, this year I used the more common 200 speed. A note for next year, "Use 400 or 800 speed film" if you can find any. Anyway, back to the anomalies. They all showed up in the Front Parlour this time. Last year they were evident in the Parlour, Green room, and front stairs. This year they were found only in the Parlour. The anomalies appear on four shots. Only one is large and grabs your immediate attention. The big one appears on the parlour floor. There are four on the ceiling of the parlour in one shot; there is one on the front wall between the front windows; there are two in the upper corner of a window on the eastern wall. These two anomalies are just off the wooden framework at the top side of the window, but on the wall. I have no idea what causes these anomalies, but I find it quite strange that they only appear on certain dates of the year and primarily on Halloween. These anomalies do not look like the classic "spirit lights or disks" that are shown in paranormal publications. They are round, they have a definite ring around them but they can be seen through and the otherside side is there just a tad lighter. Professional photographers tell be they have no idea how they come about and the processing company assures me the immage is in the negative so it has to be something the camera has taken. I am curious to see if anything appears on the Nov. 1st photos.

Shot photos

Even after all of the plans were laid for the Halloween photo shoot; I didn't do all that I had planned. I did take film shots on Oct.30th; I shot both film and digitile shots on the 31st and film only again on Nov.1st. The Oct 30th and 31st films have been sent away for processing but pictures taken on Nov. 1st are still in the camera. I only shot digitile on Oct. 31st and they were a big disappointment as nothing unusual resulted. For the past two Halloweens I've gotten the strange transparant disks in the photos on digitile as well as film. So I worry that if I got nothing on digitile this year will the films do the same? We'll have to wait and see. I shot in the same areas at about the same time (midnight) that I shot in before. The house has been uncommonly quiet from a few days before Halloween up to and including today. This is normally the period the house becomes active, but not so far. The past two days have been cold but the weather man is predicting a five day indian summer. We had snow flurries last night. If we have any action from the house I will post it.