A lot of strange things have been happening around here….
Last summer, shortly after Meg came home from college, she woke up in the middle of the night to see her drapes fly up in the air. No window was open, nor was a fan operating. She was understandably shaken and, although I had no logical explanation, I told her it was just a “thing.” I said it was probably my dad, just having a little fun. For a few weeks she only used her room to sleep in; always hanging in the family room until the very second she went to bed.
A few weeks later, in late June, I was working out on my Stairmaster. The equipment is located on the bottom level of our home. Although it was warm outside, the AC was not on. I had worked up quite a sweat and was very warm when suddenly I felt a cool breeze come from the front and bottom of the Stairmaster. No possible explanation for it; it came from the opposite side of the room where the windows were, which were closed up tightly. The windows are rarely opened since they are on ground level and face the woods, making it easy to obtain access to our home without detection if left open.
I make sure they are closed.
I wasn’t worried or terribly concerned. I had no logical explanation but the breeze felt good and wherever it came from, it seemed to be from a good place.
Things seemed to settle after that and nothing defying logic happened. Then, in September, I was sewing in our sewing/hockey equipment room. As I was ironing a seam, and listening to the radio, the TV behind me suddenly turned on. It was not hooked up to any cable or box – only my son uses it to occasionally watch movies. I assumed I had stepped on the remote control and I looked for it, locating it on top of the bookshelf behind the TV. I had no explanation so I simply turned it off. A few minutes later, yep, it turned on again. I turned it off and this time I flipped the off switch on the power strip.
Whatever had caused it to turn on apparently was unable to master the power surge strip…success, score: Colleen 1. Ghost 0.
Then just a few weeks ago, I was tinkering with my daughter’s old phone. It had taken an unfortunate bath in a cup of soda early in the summer and had lost its ability to speak. Meg was only too happy to replace it with an iPhone and it joined the rest of our discarded phones in the junk drawer.
I know that phones are collected for servicemen, but I am reluctant to part with them and any data that may still be on them (it’s a privacy thing I need to get over).
One day, I decided I would attempt to retrieve the pictures on it to send to Meg. It took a while, but I did download the pictures and after completing the task, I powered off the phone and put it in the desk drawer. I moved on to other tasks and when I opened the drawer for something…..the phone was on. I had powered it off, not put it to sleep…..So, I powered it off yet again, and within seconds, it came back on. OK, at least I could chalk this up to the fact that the phone wasn’t well; it probably had a few shorts due to the bath. I removed the battery and went back to my business. I replaced the battery a few days later, and it hasn’t happened again.
The final incident occurred last week. I was cleaning dishes in the morning left from the previous night. As I rinsed a bowl, I heard a sound behind me and turning around, I watched in disbelief as an 18” high, Calphalon pan was spinning on my stovetop. Not slowly, not too quickly, just spinning as if I had just given it a playful swipe.
I have to admit, I am pretty nonplussed about any of these things. As long as whoever or whatever is doing it, isn’t doing anything to hurt me, I am game for a little fun.
After all, that cool air felt good, and I was hot….
I am used to things that go bump in the night. I grew up in a Victorian house in St. Paul with many rooms and just as many nooks and crannies. It was an awesome place for hide and seek and just as awesome a place for unexplained noises and thumps.
I always assumed it had ghosts on the third floor – several times I heard the scampering of childlike feet coming from the top floor. One time, when I was an adult, I had a friend over who heard the noises and she freaked. It really did upset her. I was so used to it that I simply explained that it was most likely ghosts. She wanted to leave the house and I admit, that surprised me. Growing up, our family lost four children to Cystic Fibrosis and I had always just accepted that the spirits or ghosts were my siblings. The feeling of them was always light, nothing I ever feared.
I often wonder why some people are so frightened of unexplainable phenomena and others are not. I love ghost stories. I often take a ghost tour when visiting a new town when vacationing. Besides being fun, they often give a great version of a town’s history. If you get to Boston – definitely take the tour!
I like the idea of the people I love, that have died, hanging around me. I really do feel them; I sometimes hear them out of the blue say something that is so typical of them, not me. Perhaps, it is my imagination, perhaps it is not. It is one or the other and I choose to believe that they are in the room with me.
Have you ever decided to do something different at the last second only to find that you avoided something dangerous?
Have you ever had something suddenly pop in your head and then in the next few minutes, you experience something that connects that thought?
Have you ever lost something only to suddenly see a picture of where it is pop in your head…and you find it, just where the image told you (happens to me all of the time).
Have you ever had a tough decision to make, and then suddenly and inexplicably, you knew exactly what to do?
When I was little, right before the teacher called on me to provide an answer (believe it or not, I hated talking in front of the class), my palms got sweaty. It only happened when I was going to be called on….weird.
I don’t know why things go bump in the night, or why things, which defy logic, happen….but they do. Some people fear what they do not know, some people chase it like a child chasing a butterfly. Some demand logical solutions, others simply shrug and accept it.
I say, “It is what it is.” Whatever that is……..
