Island Lake Home Pt. 4

We’re building a history here of the office light turning itself off. While that hasn’t happened in about a month, just now something else happened.

It’s hot out, which I’m sure a lot of you already know. It’s February 15th, and today our high was 70° F. It’s pretty hot and stuffy in our place, so we decided to open a window and let some of the hot air out, cause no cool air was blowing in, which sucked. Because we did this, we had to open that curtain, which I like to keep closed at night because I don’t like not knowing if one of my crazy ass neighbors is looking in at me.

My wife and I were hanging out on the couch most of this afternoon/evening, and I kept looking at the open window, because I don’t like not knowing what’s out there in the dark. From where I was sitting I could see a small part of our front porch and the banister that goes around it. I heard a thump earlier and looked around to see one of the outside cats walking on the banister.

The front porch light was not on. There was no reason for it to be, and it wasn’t weird at all seeing that it wasn’t on.

I just now took the dog out back to use the bathroom. I was out with her, enjoying the cool air, when I noticed that side of our place was lit up. I figured it was the light going out of the living room, through the open window, and on the ground, except it was pretty bright.

I walked around and saw our front porch light was on. I asked the wife and she said she hadn’t turned it on, cause again, why?

I’m not sure when it happened, of course. I can’t remember the last time I looked out the window before we both got up after finishing a game and went to use the bathroom. While she was in there, I was out back with the dog. My wife then left the bathroom and went into our bedroom to change into cooler clothing. Those rooms are next to each other in the back of our house. The front door is near the front of the house.

Unless one of the cats just then learned how to jump up and flip the switch, I have no explanation for it. The front door is locked and has been all day. I think I last went outside to pick up our Amazon packages off of the porch. It was around 5pm and still light out. Never mind that, I had been hanging with the wife on our couch since then, until we got up from playing at 9pm to use the bathroom and take the dog out.

Okay, so we weren’t sitting there for 4 hours, we were getting up every now and then to use the bathroom or go to the kitchen. But we never went to the front door, which is where the light switch is. And I had been looking out of the window randomly ever since it got dark, cause I’m paranoid, and of course I hear the outside cats jumping around on our front porch, which is a small deck. The light had been off until we went to the bathroom and to let the dog out.

Before I could get to it, my wife turned the light off, so when I went back in there I looked out the window and saw what I had been seeing all evening. I turned the light on and looked out the window again, and I could clearly see the light on.

I have no idea, but I find it funny it never does it when I’m there. I’ve never had the office light turn off by itself while I was in the office. I can’t wait to get some cameras for indoor use.

The Winchester “Mystery” House

You’ve heard the stories about how Sarah Winchester was haunted by all the people who had been killed by Winchester guns and how she built a huge mansion with stairs that led to nowhere and doors that opened to nothing and trap doors and blah blah blah.

It’s all crap. I’ve been saying it for years, but nobody wanted to believe me. I even thought it was crap when TAPS went there for an investigation on Ghost Hunters back in 2005. I get it, ratings, right?

Wanna know the truth about the place and about Sarah? This video I just stumbled on tells the truth.

I won’t name names, but someone said “it’s still fun to believe.” Yeah, well how about believing the truth? That’s my biggest issue with ghost hunting and the paranormal. You’ve probably come to realize I’m all about the truth here. I even post about creepy things that happen where I live when I discover what is actually happening, like with the last post. I could’ve let it all go and let everyone who read those posts believe it’s all paranormal, but that’s not me, because that’s not right.

Stop thinking every speck of dust you catch in a picture are orbs. Always assume whatever you catch is NOT paranormal until nothing non-paranormal explains what you’ve seen or heard. THAT is how you’re supposed to ghost hunt. We’re looking for proof of the paranormal, not whatever you dream could be. Reddit’s Ghosts subreddit is full of people bitching about this very thing. That sub is inundated with tons of posts from people who are posting pictures and videos of nothing and claiming it’s ghostly. It’s sad. It’s also the reason the paranormal will never be taken seriously by skeptics.

Lastly, with the above video in mind, do some research once in a while. Google is your friend. Anyone can use it, I’ve checked. You think something is haunted? Do some research.

Island Lake Home Pt. 3 Update

The dresser drawer thing happened again. I was planning on setting up a camera in there to see if I could catch it. But then I saw it.

Tonight I was taking my dog outside and when we walked into the bedroom, our kitten was sitting in the open space to the right of the drawers, and she LOVES to paw at stuff and make a ruckus. I bet she did it. I didn’t get a picture of her there, but I took the previous photo and photoshopped a cat there for reference.

Island Lake Home Pt. 3

This is going to be short and sweet.

My wife was headed to bed and wanted me to hang out with her in bed for a while. It’s something we used to do every night, but haven’t in a while. I sat down on my side of the bed, back against the wall, and waited for her to use the bathroom. She came in, stood just inside the door, and stared across the room.

I asked, “what?” She pointed.

One of her dresser drawers was pulled out. Not all the way, just about halfway, but it was pulled out.

We got that for her right after we moved in, and she’s never used it. None of those drawers have been pulled out since we got it home and in the bedroom.

I suggested maybe the cats running around, shaking the house, or maybe any one of the many trains that go by here shook it out. We both knew that was ridiculous, because this is the first time any of those drawers have ever been out. Hell, I had the dog out about an hour before that and it wasn’t out then. It’s right next to the back door, and when I had her out, I stood at the back door with the dresser to my left. It wasn’t out then, and whatever I suggested could’ve caused it, hadn’t happened between then and seeing it sticking out.

I have no explanation for it, but I don’t have any explanation for our missing casserole dishes, or the office light shutting off on its own all the time.

I took a picture of it, just to show what we saw. This was before we went over to shut it. We also noticed that particular drawer slides in and out very easily. Even still, it has never slid out before, why now?

Regardless of what caused it, one thing is for certain. Weird things are going on here, and I have no idea why. Maybe it followed us from my dad’s. Maybe it was here on its own. Despite some of the things happening here being like they were at my dad’s, they’re different somehow. They’re very sporadic, often days or weeks go between incidents. Or months. Things happened at my dad’s all the time, and still do.

Whatever it is, I’m kinda tired of it. For once I’d like to live in a place and not have anything go on. Anyway, that’s what happened.

Updates

I decided to do some research on the area I live in. I sent out two emails to tribes that used to live in this area and have history here, but I haven’t heard back and at this point I doubt I will, so plans to figure out what’s going on around here have come to a halt and I may never go back to it.

My paranormal podcast, To Catch A Cryptid, is over. So are all the other ones I’ve done, including Quick History, which I just got started again. The reason for this sucks, but it’s out of my control. I go into more detail here.

Lastly, I just noticed there’s a local ghost tour group called Cincinnati Ghosts. The first thing I noticed about their site is, they misspell “Cincinnati.” You can’t tell on the site itself, but the “title” of their site that appears in the tab says otherwise.

That’s all I got for now.

Island Lake Home Pt. 2

I mentioned once my office light turning itself off. Since then it has happened a couple more times.

There’s a potential 4 times total, but the last two I’m not sure about.

I can’t recall shutting it off those times. The only thing I can go on is that I don’t turn the light off if I’m going back in the office after I leave for whatever reason. Why turn it off? So when I come back and it’s dark in the hallway when the office light should’ve been lighting things up a bit, it was a shock. Still it takes a moment to realize what has happened.

I don’t turn the light off if I’m coming back in. I just now had to take the trash out to the curb and so I went around to the bathroom and emptied that tiny trash can into a bigger bag, then I went into the office. The light was still on, of course, because I knew I was going back in when I left to take the trash out. I went in, dumped that trash into the big bag, and left the office. I was still going back in there. I left my phone and drink in there. No reason to turn the light off.

But when I came back from taking the trash out, it was off. I just don’t remember if I did or didn’t turn it off. It was that way with the last one, too. But again, I lean on the fact that I wouldn’t have turned it off because I was going back in.

The first two times I distinctly remember that I left the office and didn’t turn it off, but it was off when I came back.

Not only that, but something else disappeared. We have 4 paper plate holders, two blue and two pink. We use paper plates a lot, so we use those a lot. If they’re not sitting on the kitchen counter, we’re using them.

Except for now.

Now we’re missing one pink holder. Saturday night I remember looking at the counter as I went in the kitchen and the two pink holders were there a few inches away from one another. Sunday I went to use them and one was gone, but the other was where it had been the night before. I even picked it up and checked to see if they were stacked. Nope.

I hadn’t used it, but I checked where it would’ve been had I used it, and I couldn’t find it. The wife checked everywhere she would’ve had it, had she used it, and it wasn’t in those places, either. Checked the cabinet but it wasn’t there. That’s the cabinet next to the cabinet where our 3 casserole dishes disappeared from.

Paranormal? Glitch in the matrix? Unsure, but all of the stuff that keeps disappearing is starting to bother me more than a little.

UPDATE: This is hysterical. I found the plate holder. It is in the refrigerator with sliced up sausage and cheese. The wife did that for Sunday’s playoff game and it was been in there ever since. Each time we open the fridge for whatever we eat some. So it wasn’t Saturday night, it was Sunday night that I noticed it was “missing.” Wow. I’m okay now.

Except for the office light going off. I didn’t do that.

Some Extras

I’m starting to document all of the things that have happened in this area into one big post. More for me than anything, but of course I will share it. I realized while writing it that there are things I haven’t shared here, so here they are. Then again maybe I did share them somewhere here and just can’t find them now.

Years ago, my dad was hanging out where he lives now and a friend came to see him. I’m not sure if I’ve ever met this guy, but my dad told me he’s very soft spoken, doesn’t really tell stories of any sort, and is very blah about whatever he says. On this day, he showed up and kinda tossed out that he had seen a werewolf on his way to see my dad.

Apparently he had driven by a cemetery in College Corner, and as he drove by, in broad daylight, he saw what looked like a very tall werewolf standing next to a headstone. He later told my dad when he went home that day after the visit he stopped into the cemetery to have a look at the headstone the creature had been standing next to, and the last name on it was Wolf. I plan on stopping by sometime to see if I can find it myself.

I also worked with a guy a couple years back at a local restaurant in Oxford, who told me for a majority of his life but mostly when he was younger, there was a large creature that visited him regularly but would perch in a tree outside his window, and would talk to him, trying to get him to go outside to the creature. His grandmother once told him to not go, that’s how it was trying to get to him. He said later in life he was living in a mobile home, and one day he looked up and saw it staring at him through a window, and claimed it had to have been very tall for it to see through the window.

That guy was hard to believe with a lot of what he told me, and I’m not sure if I should believe this story or not. However, all of it happened around College Corner, and, many strange things have been seen all over this area, so who knows. A friend of mine said it sounds like it could’ve been a Wendigo.

One night on my way home from that restaurant, when I lived in Indiana with my dad, I saw a very tall creature as well. At least I think it was, but I know I saw something. If I had seen a creature, it was at least 10 feet tall.

I was on State Line Road, which is a long, straight road, that sometimes has hills. I was coming to a spot with two small hills, and right where those are is a row or patch of trees on either side that isn’t very thick. Beyond that is a farm. The house is on the right, as well as a barn, and on the left is more of their farm buildings. I’m unsure of how that works, since the right side of the road is Indiana and the left side is Ohio.

When I got near, I saw, for only a brief moment, something large standing in the middle of the road at the top of the first little hill, at least that’s where I believe it was. It could’ve been anywhere in that very small stretch of road over those hills and between the trees. It was very tall, as I said, I’m guessing it was about 10 feet, and very thin. I couldn’t make out a shape other than it was thin.

It was dark and my headlights hadn’t illuminated it. The only way I saw it was, the sky that shows between those trees and above was being blocked by it. The only thing there that is ever seen is a couple of power lines that cross the road from the house to the other buildings across the street. When I did a double take at that spot, it was gone, and I could see the sky there again, including those power lines.

It should also be noted that on further down the road past there is another farm, and very early one morning before the sun had begun to come up, I saw a red balloon hovering over a corn field while on my way into Oxford to pick my wife up from work. I look for it every time I go by there now, but even as we came back that way that morning, it was gone. As I drove by it though, it appeared that it was attached to something with a string or something, as it wasn’t moving at all. The corn was grown, so it was attached to either one of the corn stalks, or something else that I couldn’t see, and wasn’t that far off of the road.

I can only speculate on any of this, but the story I believe is from my dad’s friend who claimed to have seen a werewolf, and only because my dad said that guy never tells stories like that, ever.

More Glowing At The Lake And Crop Circles

You might remember back in June I posted about some large, glowing, green people on the dam of the lake behind my house. Tonight I saw another glow, and it was almost the same as that, but in a different location.

I took my dog out around 6:40 pm and noticed a glow on the ground on the other side of the road that runs along the back of the lake. The road is a dead end, and though it goes back a half mile or so, there are only a few homes on it. I’ve only been down it once just to check it out, but I remember all the homes sit on at least a couple acres of land, and at least one is a farm. There might be another one back there. The farm that I know, I can see from my back porch. The home and barn sit way off in the distance, but one of their fields is on the other side of the road from the lake.

Because not many live back there and it’s a dead end, the road gets little to no traffic. It’s such an unimportant road that where the train crosses the road, there aren’t big flashing arms that come down when a train comes by, there’s just stop signs. Also, there’s no street view on Google Maps of that street.

When my wife and I go over there to fish, we go directly across the lake from our place, and that’s where I saw this light. From that part of the dam where we sit and fish, the ground drops off behind it to the road, and on the other side of the road is another hill that goes up to the train tracks. On the other side of that is the large corn field for that farm. The road is so low through there that even when bigger vehicles drive by, I can’t see them from my back porch. I can hear them, and if it’s at night, I can see their headlights go by along the hill going up to the tracks.

The distance from my back yard to that spot on the dam where we fish is maybe a football field length, 100 yards.

EDIT: I decided to look at this on Google Maps and I used their distance chart in the bottom corner to figure out how far it is from my back porch to that part of the road, and it is right at 400 feet. I’m actually surprised my guess of 100 yards was pretty close. (100 yards = 300 feet)

What I saw when I let my dog out was the tiny bit of hill going up to the tracks was lit up, but not a lot. The entire area of that hill that was lit up, length wise, was maybe 60 feet, I’m estimating. The telephone pole down the road a bit wasn’t lit up, so no headlights were pointing in that direction.

Honestly, my very first thought when I saw it was there was a patch of snow on the ground that was reflecting light from the moon, cause that’s exactly what it looked like. That thought was only for a second because it hasn’t been cold enough for it to snow here for a long time, and it has been nonstop raining for the last few days. Also, the moon isn’t visible, as the sky is still currently full of rain clouds.

Then I started wondering if it was someone fishing where we do. It’s a popular spot and I see people fishing there every now and then during the warm months. But lately I haven’t seen anyone fishing anywhere around the lake. Too cold, windy, and rainy for it. I looked as best I could in the dark and didn’t see anyone. They would’ve been silhouetted by the light behind them, and there was nothing there at all on the dam.

I kept watching the light, of course, and wondered if maybe someone was there on the road, maybe broke down, and had a lantern or something out so they could work on the car. Maybe. That’s what I’m choosing to believe. I never heard any noise coming from over there, so I can only speculate. I wanted to drive over there, but there’s no telling what I would’ve found, and there have been attempts out here in recent years by people to fake being broke down to get someone to stop to help, and then they get robbed or killed. It’s easy to do in the country when the roads go on forever and nobody is ever on them.

I kept hoping a car would go by to see if anything happened, but none did while I was out there.

I just went back out, just past 9 pm, and it was gone. I did watch a large pickup come down the road from the dead end of the road, and as they drove past that spot I tried to compare their headlights with what I saw. It was a bit similar, but different. For starters, the headlights didn’t go up onto the hill as far as the light I saw did, and I saw the trucks headlights on that telephone pole long before the truck got to that spot.

Again, it could’ve been a strong flashlight or lantern being used, and it was stationary, because I never saw the light change at all.

But, the color of the light and its brightness reminded me of those big green people I saw back in June, just not as bright. I have no idea what it was, but again, I’m going to tell myself it was a broken down vehicle with a lantern on so someone could look at the engine, or change a flat.

Ghost Pets Update

I sent Chip Coffey a message and never heard back, but I didn’t think I would. I had spoken to Chip 20+ years ago on the phone one night when I had questions about my own “medium” abilities and he was so awesome for doing that. It still surprises me that he did that for me. But now I know he’s busy and I’m sure he doesn’t remember me from that far back.

I asked a friend of mine, Thea, what she thought. Her and I had our own ghost hunting group 20+ years ago that we started a year before Ghost Hunters began on TV. She lives down in Kentucky, and explores tons of ultra haunted places, and has more knowledge of the paranormal than I do. She sent my issue off to a group she’s in with people who are more into it than even she is.

They were at a loss, and kept saying “when your pet dies…” and that’s what all my Google results kept saying. The problem is, the pet isn’t dead when this happens.

Thea suggested astral projection, or possibly other dimensions barely interacting with ours.

My wife just found a Reddit post about it, and it’s exactly what we’re experiencing, and others there are also suggesting astral projection, as well as sharing their own stories about this.

I guess that’s what I’m going with, astral projection, though some are saying they do this when they’re asleep, and the first time I saw my dog in this way, he was awake, and behind me in the kitchen eating.

My wife is suggesting glitch in the matrix or doppelganger. Glitch in the matrix is a very good theory on this.

The mystery continues, but at least now I have things to consider.

Ghost Pets?

I have a question for anyone who might know. Many times, MANY times, I’ve seen what I thought was my pet but it wasn’t.

I think I’ve spoken of it before, but basically, it’s when you do actually see your pet, but very briefly, and then you see your pet somewhere else and you know that what you saw wasn’t your pet because your pet is somewhere different, and when you go to look you find nothing.

I’ve done Google searches on this, but for some reason Google keeps showing me things about the rainbow bridge, acting like my pet died.

I even sent Chip Coffey a DM on Instagram because I had no idea who else to ask. We’ll see if he gets back to me. He’s very busy, so I’m sure he won’t. Plus he probably gets tons of DMs a day and maybe doesn’t even check those. We’ll see.

In the meantime, I’d love to know if this means anything, or if there’s a reason behind it. And no, it wasn’t my eyes playing tricks on me.

I’ve talked about seeing my dog Redd at my grandmother’s old house when it wasn’t him, but it resembled him.

At my dad’s place, where I last lived, I think I remember seeing Shade, our cat, once, when it wasn’t him.

Well now we have things going on in this home of ours and they’re very sporadic, but when they happen THEY HAPPEN.