Burglar Alarm a Bust

A week or so ago, I placed a burglar alarm in the alcove at the turn in our front stairs. I did it as an experiment. The front stairs is one of the main points where the weird in this house occurs. This is also the area where we most often pick up those photographic, transparent, disks that occur on photos shot during certain times of the year (Halloween, shortest day, Christmas, and on one occassion in mid-december). One day this week (Wednesday) I was working in the upstairs bedroom. We have a lot of extra furniture there that needed to go to the attic. I was in the process of transporting it the attic. The bedroom door to the hall stairs was closed but the door to the mainhall was open to the attic stairs. As I was working I heard a squeeking or grinding like noise, like something electrical that wasn't running quite right. I couldn't figure what it could be because we have very few things in the upstairs that run on an axis. I checked the bedroom and found nothing, I then opened the door from the bedroom to the hall to the top of the stairs and was blasted by that alarm. Ears ringing I made my way over to the alarm and hit the shut-off code. I then went downstairs through the open parlour door, through the parlour and opened the door into the diningroom where both my dogs greeted me. I went through the diningroom and into the kitchen where my wife was working on a project. I ask her if she heard the alarm; she said "No, and obviously neither had the dogs." She felt the alarm was no good because it was not heard all over the house. Thats a good point, but I'm not certain where I can find an Air Raid Siren to replace it with. And that still doesn't answer the question as to what set the alarm off in the first place. I suppose it could have malfunctioned or ..............?

A third dog wants to play

As I have mentioned before, this house is almost soundproof to noises outside unless they are very loud. The interior walls are also brick and the walls are thick 3 to 4 bricks thick and then they are plastered over by a near cement plaster used by builders in the mid-eighteen hundreds. So sounds do not carry well between rooms. Last night, before turning in the the evening, my wife and I spent half an hour or so playing with our two dogs. Its a nightly ritual they have come to expect. We had just finished playing with them and were preparing to turn off the lights when we heard a loud, very distinctive play growl come from somewhere in the house. It got all of our attention. The Dogs sat bolt upright and peered down the upstairs hall that runs from the master bedroom to the bathroom on the opposite side of the house. My wife exclaimed "What was that?" and our older dog jumped off the bed and ran down the hall to investigate. He came back fairly fast looking puzzled. The younger dog continued to look down the hall. Nothing more occurred and the elder dog went to his bed next to the heat register and laid down. The younger dog continued to peer down the darkened hallway and was doing so when I finally turned off the light. The sound was loud. We ALL heard it. It was a playful growl like both dogs do when we wrestle. We do not have a third dog. I have no logical explaination for it.

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.