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Minor Strangeness (IHTM)

escargot said:
Haha no, all I know is -

1. There was a Flying Cow sign, which I photographed.
2. Someone else photographed the same sign and their picture was posted on a couple of blogs.
3. The Flying Cow sign was taken down and replaced with a 'Road Narrows' sign.
4. Another Flying Cow sign currently stands a few miles away. It is not the original Flying Cow sign which I photographed.

My guess is that someone doctored the first sign as a joke. The second sign might have been altered at the same time, 10 years ago or more, I don't know as I only spotted it last week. The style is similar.

I bet if @bugmum asked the Tarporley farmer's missis about it we'd hear that it was a stag night stunt or some local private joke or prank contest. Or, OR, there really are flying cows in Cheshire.

Have to mention that the sign amused me back in the day because Escet had been drawing nonsensical road signs for fun and one was 'Wingèd Cattle'.
(Note the grave accent. It's part of the rather obscure joke.)
Others I remember were 'Paradox Ahead' with the famous square/round pillars drawing and 'Pi (recurring)'.
So when I saw an actual 'Wingèd Cattle' sign I had to snap it to show to him. It was a coincidence as he was away at university and hadn't seen the road sign. He may have thought I'd altered the photo to pull his leg.
Click to expand...

This might help to explain part of what has happened to the sign, and why it appears to have been shifted to one side!
Cattle Sign.png
 
escargot said:
How so?
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Because the Cow and 'Wing' are much closer to the left hand edge of the sign in one of the photo's (with the cyclist). i.e. The 'wing' bit is actually touching the left hand edge.
 
Sid said:
Because the Cow and 'Wing' are much closer to the left hand edge of the sign in one of the photo's (with the cyclist).
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Yup, it is the photo I took last week, several miles away from the original. There are two different signs.
 
mikfez said:
Every so often I get a grey scum on the top of my pond which has been puzzling me until yesterday >

View attachment 29977

It is from a Wood Pigeon's feathers - the dumbest klutzs of the avian world try to stand on the lily pads and end up getting a bath
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Nice lily! We just finally got round to putting one in our previously neglected tiny pond, in the Spring - and already the top few inches of water is clear where it used to be solid green algae coloured... Next spring we'll be able to see the newts!

And yes, pigeons are the thick of the bird world, eh? We went to this place up near the White Horse at Kilburn the other day and for whatever reason noticed we kept seeing dead pigeons on the road - for quite a few miles (we stopped counting when we got somewhere well over 20). A day or two later SPLAT one went into our car, just as we'd been saying how thick they are.

If you've ever seen a pigeon's nest you'll wonder how they are still here at all - just really badly built rafts of random twigs, basically. No idea how the eggs don't roll out.

Then, another mildly weird bird related trip - last month. Same thing - lots of corpses on a stretch of road in the Dales, but this time it was pheasants. Again, obviously they're bred to be stupid or they wouldn't be so easy to shoot. But we started counting, we saw so many - and again, there were so many we got bored and gave up. Then turned a corner and a pub called 'The Pheasant Inn' came into view... It must be a thing round there.

We live near a shoot and the chinless wonders who used to own this part of Yorkshire, were keen on it in the 19thC - as a result the hedge bottoms round here are full of golden pheasants and we often get them in our garden, front and back. Last week I heard this almighty kerfuffle at the bottom of my garden - in the bit I couldn't see because there's a shed in the way and a tree. It was so loud, I thought my nuts neighbour or someone was climbing over the back fence so I went to investigate - two hen pheasants farting around - think they'd "flown" over the fence from the field then couldn't get back out again very easily, or were just dicking around noisily for the fun of it.
 
mikfez said:
I'm assuming that the grey substance is also what they leave behind when they fly into the windows - on a regular basis.
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That and some red/grey lumpy bits. We've had at least two smooshed into our windscreen. First time we were visiting my dad in Worcester and I don't think the people there get out much because a crowd gathered to look at the bood/matter stain, when we were inside talking to me dad.
 
The friend who had the strange things happen with the dog and the noises rang yesterday to say the noises are still happening.
She said that on Thursday even her husband was woken and when they went to see there was nothing.
Next morning a little ornament given to her by a late friend had detached from the wall so she thought the hook must have been faulty.
She replaced with a new hook but the same thing happened the next night.
I sometimes have wondered if her house is haunted as it's an older one, and when I have been there I have smelled perfume and heard toys in the spare room start up.She said that it's a wonder their dog never barks at the noises though.
 
04:30 this morning.
Not what you want to hear.
My wife shakes me awake and whispers "I think there's someone in the house".
Full of adrenaline, I creep out onto the landing.
I too can hear voices and can see a light glimmering downstairs.
Halfway down the stairs, I see ......

Our bloody SKY Q box has turned itself and the TV on! Switched it all off and then lay in bed Googling this very problem. It's the first time it's happened to us through all three incarnations of SKY boxes over 15 years or so, but several other users have reported the damn things coming to life in the early hours (which apparently is when routine updates are sent out). I wonder if some malicious SKY engineer has added some additional command into the overnight packet and is having a giggle at all the customers his prank has woken up?
 
blessmycottonsocks said:
I wonder if some malicious SKY engineer has added some additional command into the overnight packet and is having a giggle at all the customers his prank has woken up?
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Can you set the SKY box to not turn on the telly when it starts up? There is a setting for this (for example) on the PS4. That would at least help you both get your beauty sleep :)
 
Mythopoeika said:
Just turn it all off when you go to bed.
That's what I do.
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For around 15 years, I've used the SKY remote to turn the box off at night. This is the first time that it's turned itself back on.
Several SKY Q owners have reported the same issue.
I'm looking into Moth's suggestion to change the settings so the SKY box won't trigger the TV and home cinema setup if it turns itself on in future.
 
blessmycottonsocks said:
For around 15 years, I've used the SKY remote to turn the box off at night. This is the first time that it's turned itself back on.
Several SKY Q owners have reported the same issue.
I'm looking into Moth's suggestion to change the settings so the SKY box won't trigger the TV and home cinema setup if it turns itself on in future.
Click to expand...

Switching off with a remote will leave it on standby won't it? Switch off the socket it's plugged into & it won't fire up on it's own unless you have a poltergeist.
 
In the Sky Q box's advanced settings I found an option for HDMI control, which I toggled to off.
This should mean that any devices connected via HDMI i.e. TV and home cinema audio rig, should not now wake up if the Q box turns itself on.
I'll keep you posted and fingers crossed for a decent night's sleep.
 
If only sledge hammers came with an "undo" option.
 
I was sitting around the other night when I felt a strange, tingling, slightly scratchy, 'sensitive' (best word I can think to describe it) sensation on my upper back. I thought it was the tag in my t-shirt scratching me, but when I reached back there I discovered that there was no tag in my t-shirt. I shrugged my shoulders and went to bed.

The sensation lingered the next day, so I checked it out in the mirror to discover an approximately 4" long, perfectly horizontal scratch between my shoulder blades. I'm not usually shirtless, except to shower, and I can't think what could have scraped me there without damaging my shirt. The only explanation I can think of is that maybe there was something sharp in a towel I was using?

When I mentioned this to my brother, he reminded me that this wasn't my first mysterious scratch.

It hasn't happened for several years, but I used to find weird scratches beside, or on the side of my nose. Typically they'd be roughly vertical, 1-2" long, very fine, and very light - often invisible (and I'd always find them by touch before I saw them even when they weren't). I don't remember any tingly sensation like with this new one though. I'd go through a period where I'd find several over the course of a few weeks and then nothing for months or years, only for it to start again.

Most of the time I would find them in the morning, and assumed I was doing it to myself in my sleep somehow (I slept alone). But on at least one occasion I remember reaching up to scratch my face and finding one where I was sure there hadn't been one a couple of hours prior. My nails were pretty ragged at the time, since I used to bite them compulsively, so I thought I might be scratching myself with them in my sleep or whatever. I even tried consciously replicating the effect, by running my nails against my face at various angles and pressures but couldn't. Weird.
 
captain_bats said:
I was sitting around the other night when I felt a strange, tingling, slightly scratchy, 'sensitive' (best word I can think to describe it) sensation on my upper back. I thought it was the tag in my t-shirt scratching me, but when I reached back there I discovered that there was no tag in my t-shirt. I shrugged my shoulders and went to bed.

The sensation lingered the next day, so I checked it out in the mirror to discover an approximately 4" long, perfectly horizontal scratch between my shoulder blades. I'm not usually shirtless, except to shower, and I can't think what could have scraped me there without damaging my shirt. The only explanation I can think of is that maybe there was something sharp in a towel I was using?

When I mentioned this to my brother, he reminded me that this wasn't my first mysterious scratch.

It hasn't happened for several years, but I used to find weird scratches beside, or on the side of my nose. Typically they'd be roughly vertical, 1-2" long, very fine, and very light - often invisible (and I'd always find them by touch before I saw them even when they weren't). I don't remember any tingly sensation like with this new one though. I'd go through a period where I'd find several over the course of a few weeks and then nothing for months or years, only for it to start again.

Most of the time I would find them in the morning, and assumed I was doing it to myself in my sleep somehow (I slept alone). But on at least one occasion I remember reaching up to scratch my face and finding one where I was sure there hadn't been one a couple of hours prior. My nails were pretty ragged at the time, since I used to bite them compulsively, so I thought I might be scratching myself with them in my sleep or whatever. I even tried consciously replicating the effect, by running my nails against my face at various angles and pressures but couldn't. Weird.
Click to expand...
I've had this myself a few times over the years. I always keep my nails trimmed right down, cutting them almost every day - I can't imagine how I might scratch myself inadvertently.
 
captain_bats said:
I was sitting around the other night when I felt a strange, tingling, slightly scratchy, 'sensitive' (best word I can think to describe it) sensation on my upper back. I thought it was the tag in my t-shirt scratching me, but when I reached back there I discovered that there was no tag in my t-shirt. I shrugged my shoulders and went to bed.

The sensation lingered the next day, so I checked it out in the mirror to discover an approximately 4" long, perfectly horizontal scratch between my shoulder blades. I'm not usually shirtless, except to shower, and I can't think what could have scraped me there without damaging my shirt. The only explanation I can think of is that maybe there was something sharp in a towel I was using?

When I mentioned this to my brother, he reminded me that this wasn't my first mysterious scratch.

It hasn't happened for several years, but I used to find weird scratches beside, or on the side of my nose. Typically they'd be roughly vertical, 1-2" long, very fine, and very light - often invisible (and I'd always find them by touch before I saw them even when they weren't). I don't remember any tingly sensation like with this new one though. I'd go through a period where I'd find several over the course of a few weeks and then nothing for months or years, only for it to start again.

Most of the time I would find them in the morning, and assumed I was doing it to myself in my sleep somehow (I slept alone). But on at least one occasion I remember reaching up to scratch my face and finding one where I was sure there hadn't been one a couple of hours prior. My nails were pretty ragged at the time, since I used to bite them compulsively, so I thought I might be scratching myself with them in my sleep or whatever. I even tried consciously replicating the effect, by running my nails against my face at various angles and pressures but couldn't. Weird.
Click to expand...

You're possessed by a demon, off to the priest with you my lad.
 
captain_bats said:
It hasn't happened for several years, but I used to find weird scratches beside, or on the side of my nose. Typically they'd be roughly vertical, 1-2" long, very fine, and very light - often invisible (and I'd always find them by touch before I saw them even when they weren't). I don't remember any tingly sensation like with this new one though. I'd go through a period where I'd find several over the course of a few weeks and then nothing for months or years, only for it to start again.

Most of the time I would find them in the morning, and assumed I was doing it to myself in my sleep somehow (I slept alone).
Click to expand...

This same thing started to happen to me when I was about 50. I slept in a bed with an ornate metal frame, and assumed I was moving around more than I thought while asleep, and so catching my skin against the pointy parts of the frame. In women, menopause can result in skin becoming more fragile, so I figured it was related to that. I've assumed that wouldn't be a problem for men. My skin already tends to be dry, and is more likely to be easily damaged when I'm dehydrated, so maybe dry skin and dehydration lead to your mysterious scratches. On the other hand, since noses don't tend to have dry skin, that isn't such a likely factor. A tiny bit of grit caught in your shirt and scraping across your skin before falling out of the fabric might account for the scratch on your back, though not how evenly horizontal it was.

Perhaps Naughty Felid is correct in blaming nefarious supernatural forces, and we are sometimes under some kind of (pitiful) psychic attack.
 
escargot said:
Someone kindly showed me this photo they'd taken in Arrow Valley Park, Redditch.View attachment 30303
Click to expand...

Maybe you should contact the FT mag and ask if anyone else has seen a doctored flying cows sign, seriously. It's possibly more common than we expected, but I'm not sure why at all. Flying horses, yes, but flying cows? What's the derivation? Or is it because there are no horse signs, so cows have to do?
 
GNC said:
Maybe you should contact the FT mag and ask if anyone else has seen a doctored flying cows sign, seriously. It's possibly more common than we expected, but I'm not sure why at all. Flying horses, yes, but flying cows? What's the derivation? Or is it because there are no horse signs, so cows have to do?
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Y'know, I may do just that. People on'ere have mentioned that the deer on their local signs have red noses and have hops drawn around them as if they're performing. How nuts.
 
escargot said:
Y'know, I may do just that. People on'ere have mentioned that the deer on their local signs have red noses and have hops drawn around them as if they're performing. How nuts.
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I blame the influence of Banksy, meself.
 
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