Stuck on Repeats
The world series obviously is putting many shows on a temporary hiatus. Add in local politics (third night in a row that they have reaired a political debate on our NBC channel), so there is little CrimeDrama TV wise that I have watched…
However, it does allow me to broaden my horizons and watch other shows. Anyone into GhostHunters? My ten-year-old wants to join TAPS when she grows up. She is thoroughly fascinated, and I have to admit, some of the things they film are quite intriguing. I think most of it depends on if you believe in ghosts or not. I most certainly do. I am a non-smoker, can’t stand the smell of smoke actually and it makes my eyes puff up something fierce, but my English grandparents were smokers. In fact, when my mom started smoking back in the 50s/60s, the ads in her hometown were that smoking cured emphysema (cute huh?)
My grandfather raised five girls, including a set of twins, but he’d always dreamed of having a son. When I got married 15 years ago, I took my new husband overseas to meet my grandparents and aunts. My grandfather begged me during that trip to name my first born after him. Of course, George, while a classic name, isn’t what I had in mind. I did have a surprise in store for him though. Two years later, my son was born and named after Grandad’s grandfather, Christopher/Kit, who died rescuing a number of stranded seamen from the North Sea. My grandfather was dying of lung cancer when me son was born. He was prouder than anything that someone had named a boy after Kit.
So now that that story has been told, I can revert back to where I was going. In my non-smoking house, every month or so, my children, husband, or I will be sitting in the living room and have the room fill with an intense smell of stale cigarette smoke. It will stay for a minute or so and then vanish. I actually love it because I know my grandparents have come to visit.
Yet weirder, the day my daughter turned two, we got the call that my grandmother had passed away. She was always terrified of flying, so she never came to America. My two year old had just fallen asleep on the floor after her birthday party and her balloon was in her hand. I’d finished picking up cake and the various mess that comes with a party. She’d lost her grip on the balloon and it was up against the ceiling. We had no doors or windows open that day… the balloon suddenly came into the kitchen area, went back to the living room, came back to the kitchen and went half way down the hallway off the kitchen that goes to the bathroom area, then came back and went to the front door. From there it went up the stairs to the bedrooms. Now my brother kept writing this all off as air currents in the house itself. I didn’t agree, but couldn’t prove otherwise. Then something happened…. The balloon came back downstairs and went back to my daughter and remained there. Coming back down the stairs - that one my brother suddenly couldn’t argue… I’ve never seen anything like it and to this day I assume my grandmother was finally at peace with flying overseas. 
October 26th, 2006 at 6:23 pm
It’s so refreshing to see someone write about such a controversial topic! I’m the odd one in my family who has had the paranormal experiences. For instance…years ago when I was a teenager and my father was in the hospital very ill, I awoke suddenly from a deep sleep. I looked at my clock which read 2:22 a.m. About one-half hour later, the phone rang. It was the hospital calling. We were told that my father had passed away. All the expected grief and funeral planning took place and we were all emotionally drained and numb. About 1 month later, we obtained a copy of my dad’s death certificate. Time of death? 2:22 a.m. A similar thing happened on the eve of my sister’s death. She was in the hospital and, although very ill, was not expected to die. That night I had a dream where my sister was in a house with my dad. She was standing in front of a french door. The next morning we were summoned to the hospital where we were all with her when she died unexpectedly. A week later, her daughter-in-law gave me a phone of her taken 2 months previous. In that photo my sister was looking at the camera…and standing in front of a french door.
Thanks for the post! I’m a big crime TV watcher (thus the attraction to your post) and appreciated your experienced with the smoke and balloon.
October 27th, 2006 at 7:37 am
You’re very welcome. My husband is a skeptic. He’ll watch Ghosthunters, but he is convinced it is all a scam. I’m used to skeptics, and I can see how those who NEED an answer would be rather skeptical.
His explanation for the balloon is that the helium level must have changed. We’d had it filled that morning, so I rather doubt it…
I’ve had another experience that he also LOVES to debate. We live near this pond/swamp that used to be home to a huge wood mill. Only in the 1940s, a woman and her young son had walked to the bridge to watch the millworkers, the son leaned too far over the bridge rail and fell into the water below - it was about 8 - 12 feet deep at that time. The woman dove in and got trapped in the cattails too and both ended up drowning.
The house they lived in is right down the road from us. It’s this gorgeous yellow Victorian. One day, I was taking my then 1 year old for a walk down to the bridge. It was in July (after the black flies, but during the time that deer flies become a pain in the behind) and it was a clear, sunny day. I’d left our house at around 8am to beat the hotter temps. When I passed the yellow house, this three foot high oblong cloud came across the road, stopped in front of me, then crossed the rest of the way and vanished. Weird, I know!
My husband has too theories - one that someone was burning something and that it was smoke. I keep telling him that I am pretty certain I would have smelled smoke and two that smoke isn’t oblong in shape.
So his response then becomes “It was probably a patch of fog”. Again, I’ve never seen fog come in an oblong shaped 3 foot high cloud.
It was a very strange encounter to say the least, but there was nothing threatening about it, so I figure one of their spirits must have been out for a morning stroll.