A long loud moan

  First weird sound in a while and where was my recorder? Upstairs in the green room of course. My dog and I have the house all to ourselves this week. Well, not quite, we do have workmen remodeling the downstairs bath, but they leave anywhere between 2:30 and 4:30. So tonight, about 5 minutes before 9:00 pm, I'm reading at the computer and my dog is lying not three feet from me. From the diningroom comes a long low moan; startles me, the pup looks up toward the diningroom then lies his head back down in a nonchalant manner. Of course I have the recorder set up in the upstairs green room unstead of the diningroom. Tonight...I'm going to try the diningroom again; I'll set it just before I retire for the night.

Recordings

So far no unexplained noises have shown up on the recorder. The wife went to see friends this week. Now I can record with noone but me and the dog. I'm going to try the green room first; then the front hall and stairs. Actually the house has been very quiet since I tried recording. Timid ghosts?

Recorded sounds

     So far the recorder I purchased is sensitive enough to pick up the sound of my walking to it. It also picked up the firetruck siren and two loud mufflers. Thats all so far. So unless I get something worth talking about; I won't. I will continue trying the recorder in different parts of the house; but unless I get results that are not readily explained I'll not discus it further.

Tape recorder

    Well running the old Wecor reel to reel tape recorder didn't record anything that wasn't easily explained and the hours of just sitting and listening for something is downright boring. So today, I purchased a General Electric tape recorder with automatic activation and a seperate microphone. It has volume control and sensitivity control. I set it up in our Livingroom, on the table, with the external mike dangling about a foot above the floor. I have the volume on maximum and the sensitivity set at maximum. Now well see what transpires if anything. I chose the livingroom over the dininroom primarily because the livingroom can be closed off from outside sounds. My wife has the livingroom set up in total victorian fashion, so its rarely used unless we have company and once those massive oak doors are closed, very little sound is heard from the outside. The fire siren, and a very loud muffler can be heard but talking or even shouting from outside doesn't penetrate. If I get no satisfaction in the livingroom I will move the recorder to the diningroom ; but will have to activate it after dark because the diningroom is the hub of the house and we are constantly moving through it to go to other rooms such as the kitchen, library, or Den. There are two other areas I might try later on; the Green room and the Frontstairs and upstairs hall. The attic was mentioned when I was still trying to use the old Webcore, but I'm not sure how sound isolated it might be. Still a possibility ,as is the basement.

A neighbors experience

     Our neighbors across the street moved into their 1830s brick residence just a few years ago. They are relatively new to the village but not to the area. He is a professional photographer and his wife teaches school here. The couple have one child, a son, and another on the way. They told us today about their strange experiences in their house. His wife admitted that when they first moved in they had heard the stories about my house and thought we were "putting people on", or were very superstitious. They also confessed they had totally changed their minds. For the past year, they said, it had become a joke between them, that some one; they both pointed fingers at each other, was moving the chair at the foot of the stairs that led to the front door. The chair was always placed backing onto the stairs and against the wall. Every morning it would be sitting facing the front door. Every day they moved it back into its original spot. They even got to the point of thinking their son (3 years old) was in some way responsible; but really a three year old isn't too likely to continually pull such a stunt over and over? But this past week climaxed the whole affair and they are now solidly in our camp...wondering whats going on. Junior went to spend three days with gramma and grandpa. The very first day he was gone they were awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of a child running up the stairs and through the hall. They were both outta their bed, hearts pounding, wondering what on earth happened that the grandparents would bring their grandchild back so soon, and so very early in the morning before the sun was even up. A search of the house revealed no child but the chair again faced the front door. A call to gramma revealed the child was still in bed asleep. The same thing happened the third night the child was gone, but not since he returned. But the chair is still found facing the door of a morning. Keep in mind these are people who thought such weird activities was bosch or hoaxters. I suspect other places in town have stories to tell; but most locals only tell them to each other; never to an outsider who might think them crazy.

Voice

     Again a voice out of nowhere. I was at the computer in the library and my dog was lying on a rug between the library doorway into the diningroom and the library doorway into the den. My wife had taken some items into her shop in town several miles away. Other than my neighbor mowing his lawn, the area was very quiet. Had I wanted total quiet, I'd only needed to close the den window. Both the dog and I heard my name called, once, in a normal tone, coming from the diningroom. Thinking my wife had arrived home and was telling me as much, I answered. The dog immediately reacted to the "voice", his head coming up and looking into the diningroom. I got no answer, so I got up and followed my dog into the diningroom. There was no one there. My wife's car was not in the driveway. We both heard the "voice" and we both reacted to it. But what was it?

Oppression and chill

   As related to me by my wife, this morning. She told me that she could not sleep last night so she got up and went downstairs to the library to read, and perhaps get sleepy. I knew she had gotten up but supposed it was a bathroom trip. I was quickly back asleep. She said she entered the library and picked up on a book she had started earlier. As she sat there the room got stuffier and more humid. The night temperature was about 70 here last night which is a bit warm for sleeping. We had the window fan going but that is most effective in the upstairs. Then rather rapidly the room grew cool, then cold.  At first she thought perhaps a storm was brewing and caused the sudden influx of cold air but rather than feeling relieved by the coldness she began to feel horribly depressed. The depression grew until she got up and left the room. Going to the kitchen, she said she sat at the table for a time reading, the depression had not followed her, nor the cold clammy feeling. Feeling drouzy, she came back up to bed. She has experienced this coldness once before, many years ago, as noted in an earlier entry in this journal; but the depression was new and she said it was so tangible you could almost see it. But as soon as she left the library, it was gone.