so I've discovered I have two more followers: Miguel and Bruce - thanks Miguel! Bruce kind of had no choice. Hey - and Marilyn! Welcome to this most exclusive club!
...and welcome back to my anomalies...
The first incident where we realized something wasn't normal was the "lost glasses". My Honey lost his glasses. Every night, since he didn't need his old prescription glasses to read, he'd pick up his book, take his glasses off, and put them on the arm of the couch. One night, he picked up his book, put his glasses down as usual, and when he was done reading and going to bed, went to pick them back up, they were gone. We could not find them to save our lives. No where, no how. Now those of you who have ever visited me, mostly the 'rentals these days, know that my house is hardly organized or clutter-free on any given day. I'm busy doing stuff like, hey, typing all this stuff. But we pulled things apart, and looked EVERYWHERE. No stone left unturned. The night his glasses went missing, the entire population consisted of: PiC (Partner in Crime, aka Significant Other or SO or My Honey or MH), me, Doo-boy sleeping on the couch next to me, and two sleeping dogs. These things have disappeared into some black hole. Then about 3 months later, we are in the living room, PiC in his spot with his new glasses ON (he says they're "progressive lenses" but I don't care they're bifocals) which he doesn't need to take off to read, I'm in my spot crocheting, baby and dogs sleeping. And what to my wondering eyes should appear but Oh My God, the glasses, right were he left them, on the arm of the couch. Needless to say we both just stared for a solid 20 seconds (sounds like nothing but just time 20 seconds to yourself and see how long that is when you're just staring at something), and then laughed. One of those uncomfortable, heh heh?, kind of laughs. And then just let it go as something weird, figuring the kids fooled us somehow.
A few months after that, my birthday, I sat in my big armchair and opened a few little gifts from my parents and the kids. My mom gave me some stuff in a little pink bag, and I set it on miniature set of movie theatre doll seats next to the chair I was in. The kids were playing in the middle of the room, and I went to stand up and pick up the bag and it wasn't there. Huh? I looked everywhere in and around this chair, and the all over the rest of the house. I did this for weeks and gave up. And then one day about 2 months later, I went to clean that area around the chair, and there, sitting right where I left it, the same way I left it, was that bag. With all its contents and tissue paper, etc. I just stood there looking at it, showed it to PiC/SO/MH and we just laughed. Maybe it was the kids? Don't know. But read on....
Puddin' was making Xmas presents (and heck she still is) and so we had (have) yards and yards of fleece to cut to length and width, and to do that I used a Sharpie, to mark where I needed to make the cuts. (God I hope I'm not supposed to use some fake name because I don't have rights to say Sharpie - shit I did it again! It's a Charpie, ok?!) In the kitchen there's me, Doodley-bug and Puddin', and I measure the next piece, go to make my mark and....PiC comes upstairs and standing in basement doorway, says something to me, I look up at him, look back down, and in all of 1 second, marker/Charpie (ha! not using the brand-name) is gone. Literally just gone from on top of the piece of fabric. I was a foot away, and the girls were not in reach, and PiC was easily 10 feet away. The girls looked under the table, and I was spreading my hands all over the fabric trying to feel the marker, surely underneath, unfolding the layers, absolutely everything to find it. PiC says "what are you doing?" I said "looking for my marker I left right here!" and I pointed to the spot...and there it was, on top of the fabric, in the exact position left it...as if it never moved. Puddin' actually pointed and gasped "Oh my God!". Doodle and I just stood there and stared. PiC walked over, and looked at me, and I started laughing. What the???? And there's more...
As I was saying, it's Christmas, and I'm in the room with the tree, about 2 feet away from it, facing sort of kitty-corner; I can see it pretty well in my peripheral vision. Kids are no where near and PiC sitting at kitchen table about 6 feet away from me, and I can see him the whole time. If someone or even the dog wanted to walk between me and the tree, they'd either have to ask me to move, brush up against me to get by, or walk into the tree. And then I see it: the bottom branch spring up, like a recoil from being pushed down. The ornament that was hanging there had a bell on it and started ringing. The dogs are in the other room and are too big to go past there without being seen. The cats "live" upstairs and never come down. If one of them had, a barking dog or two would have chased them. I stood there again and just looked. I asked PiC, "did you see that?". Response: "yep". And watched as the branch continued to stop bouncing. This was the first sort of visual interaction we had seen. I didn't laugh this time, but it sure made us think. And sure, there's still more...
PiC sitting at one end of the kitchen table, I'm at the other end. There's a small sliver of wood about 3-4" long, on the floor next to him, probably carried over by the dogs, from us bringing in firewood and kindling. He leans over and picks it up, puts in on the table in front of him to toss out when he gets up. And while he's sitting there, right while he's sitting there, this piece of wood moves, right while he's looking, from his left over to his right. He saw it. He saw it up and move, and couldn't stop talking about it. Couldn't believe what he saw. And I just giggled. I mean, really, what is going on?! And once again, more....
Only PiC and I are in the house (which doesn't happen very often, really not). I'm in the kitchen, again, standing at the kitchen table. I'm going through my purse, and in the process take my huge set of keys, mostly huge not due to keys but keychains, and I put in on the corner of the table right at my right hand, not 3 inches away. This time he's about 12' away at the living room, and I say I'll go get the kids. I turn to pick up my keys... not there... Now I'm mad. What the hell happened to my keys?! He doesn't move. I turn around and say to him "where the heck are my keys?! I left them right he..." When I turn and point back at the corner of the table, there they are. Right where I left them. I never moved from the spot I was in, and neither did he.
Next witness, the X. Puddin' was pretty sick with a stomach virus. Really, terribly sick, poor thing. He took a half-day from work, and it was really too late for me to head in to work, so he hung around with me, taking care of Pud', and playing on the computer. Puddin' was feeling a bit better in the afternoon so X said he'd take her home to his place and stay home with her the next day. All of a sudden he said "hey- you should have a little baggie with some black ear buds" and I said yeah right here on the counter "I took them out and put the on the edge, and he went in the living room to get the Puddin' and we both got distracted packing up her medecine and what not. So as he was opening the basement door, he said "oh, those ear buds"... I said "oh yeah" and went to the counter to get them. Nope, not there. I turned and said "are you sure you didn't grab them?" reply: "nope, no way". Once again, turning back "I swear they were right here..." and there they were in the exact spot I left them. I said "did you see that?" His reply "yep". I said "Was that weird or what? This keeps happening." He just stood there and said "I dunno...no clue..." shaking his head. So now I can't be nuts, right? People are seeing this and in the case of my daughter and my X, they had never heard me talk about it.
I think there were a couple of other incidents but at this point I don't remember because they had been frequent enough that they would really make me laugh. Like seriously laugh - it was just funny. Not once was I afraid of whatever this was playing games with us.
After winter was over these things seemed to subside. As if whatever this was had had enough of being indoors and thought they'd get out now and again. Except for something I've kind of always seen but never paid any attention to, but now, hmmm ... maybe I should...
Mostly every night I'm sitting on our loveseat, crocheting, watching TV with PiC, peripheral view right through the hall, to the now begone library of my dreams, to coverted playroom - site of the Christmas tree incident. I should say that all these things mischievous things seem to happen downstairs, never up. Upstairs my only experience was the comforting presence when the kids were infants. For a very very long time, ever since that was MY seat, I've seen out of the corner of my eye a shadow about 5' high dash across the doorway. It's obvious enough to make me turn my head and look. I never have ever thought anything of it. Now I wonder. Lately what happends a LOT is this very obvious "something" peeking around the corner of the wall at the staircase, around 2 stair steps or so up, and then when I look, boom - sneaks back. For a long time I though it was one of the girls, only to get up and find that they're sleeping very soundly in their beds, with no way to get up the stairs that fast, and definitely not without being heard. Lately, it has sort of had a goldish tint, and I'm positive it's one of the girls sneaking down, except I hear nothing. One of the stairs has a very distinctive creak, and whenever they do sneak down, as quiet as they try to be, I hear them every time. This is not away in my peripheral vision, it's diagonal to my line of sight and it's not less than 4-5' away. A couple of times I've mentioned out loud that I see movement in that direction and the doorway across the hall. One time I got a look like "Boy...ok that's weird..." but no other reaction really. I don't do the stereotypical girl thing with the dreamy eyed "what are you thinking?" so I just let it go, and don't really want to know what dearie is thinking. He's probably just thinking about Ice Road Truckers, frankly. But again - it doesn't scare me.
I should say I am NOT inviting this thing to scare me, I'm not talking to it, not engaging it, not trying to do EVPs or night time ghost hunts. I have a feeling that this thing is so sneaky that if you tried to get evidence of it on purpose, it wouldn't play your game. I am curious sometimes to do the flashlight trick made popular by our own local TAPS, but I'm not that confident. I'd rather have my favorite medium Chip Coffey come over and see what he finds, and then I'd like to be his best friend, not just because I think he's cool, but also because I haven't had a good Gay friend in my life in a long time, and sometimes they're better to have then girlfriends, but that's a different post entirely. But Chip doesn't have time for me. I will make my attempt to endear him when I meet him and do a tour of a haunted hotel in October. Although I am his friend on FB.
So that's my tale of the strange and unusual, my own private Twilight Zone without the surprise twist ending. Just the Zone. I know a lot of people don't believe these things, but I always have. I do find what's going on here unexplainable. And unless someone can debunk it. I did try, and couldn't. I mentioned how far away people were to the actual location of events because some have hypothesized that it's obviously someone doing this. I say "but how" no one is physically near these things enough to touch the objects, never mind use them. Things seen out of the corner of your eye? That can be a vision phenomenon I suppose. There's quite a good explanation of that here:
http://www.assap.org/newsite/articles/Corner%20eye%20phenomena.html
So I buy that, except I've been seeing the EXACT SAME THING for so long.
Make what you want of it all and I'd love to hear anyone's explanation of these things. In the meantime, I'll wait and see what happens.
Until next time, please find a recording of Tubular Bells, which is the theme song of the Exorcist, and play that while slowly closing this window for extra spooky factor....
P.S. I apologize for any typos or annoying grammatical errors because I am tired of proofreading this, and yes I realize this just killed the spooky factor. I apologize for that too.
