All is quiet

Nothing to report. The house is unusually quiet; even though we have had several strong wind storms, some with rain. This seems a bit early in the season for the house to go quiet. But no strange noises, explosions, footsteps or murmerings. Whatever causes our occassional bouts of strange seem to be hibernating. Its so quiet of an evening that its hard to read without going to sleep. Thats one habit I do not care to get into unless I'm in bed.

Another Explosive event

My wife was working with the computer in the library, I was reading in the den which is next to the library. Our dogs were sacked out, one at the foot of my wife's chair and the other in front of the TV in the den. A crash sounded, it shook the house. It sounded like something had come through the roof. It got our attention quick enough and both dogs ran barking to the kitchen. It was misty, icy, and wet outside. I didn't check outside. Frankly it sounded like something had fell through the roof. I checked all rooms on the first and second floor and in the attic. Everything was fine. Today, I checked outside and there was no sign of anything on the roof or near the house. No ice was built up on the roof. I'm happy I can't find damage; but what on earth are we hearing that leaves no trace.

All films back...Artifacts evident on six

All of the films I shot over Christmas are back. Three different cameras were used. Two of the Cameras were point and shoot (Ansco and Kodak) and my digitile Canon. Four shots , two and two, recorded the strange transparent disks; plus 2 on the digitile. This time all the disks were located on the front hall and stairs and in the parlour. Christmas and Halloween appear to be the prime times to get these artifacts in the photos. As to what they are? I have no idea. One day, it was flurrieing very lightly outside so I took the digitile camera out and shot some pictures. I got white spots that were round; but they were white not transparent. They looked nothing like the clear transparent disks I seem to pick up in the house. A local ghost hunter called them "spirit disks", but, really, why would a spirit appear as a transparent disk? Anyone with a logical explaination is welcome to tell us. Heck even an illogical explaination would be worth a look. I just happenerd to remember I may have a few shots on my Zenit. Couldn't be very many. If anything would show up on the Zenit. I'll report it, but that may be a while.

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.