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Minor Strangeness (IHTM)

I remember ice on the windows when I was a kid.
And that was on the inside.
Not meaning to take the thread off-topic when it just got back on track, but...

The house I grew up in (in the U.S.) had coal for heat until the 1970s. Just two radiators on the main floor with a vent over one of them to let the heat upstairs. Ice on the windows was common.

We switched to oil and baseboard heating just as coal was making a weird (but temporary) renaissance as a fuel of choice.

My house has 'character'. Unfortunately, the character it has is Dennis the Menace, but you can't have everything.
Would that be British Dennis (holy terror) or American Dennis (loveable troublemaker)?
 
Not meaning to take the thread off-topic when it just got back on track, but...

The house I grew up in (in the U.S.) had coal for heat until the 1970s. Just two radiators on the main floor with a vent over one of them to let the heat upstairs. Ice on the windows was common.

We switched to oil and baseboard heating just as coal was making a weird (but temporary) renaissance as a fuel of choice.


Would that be British Dennis (holy terror) or American Dennis (loveable troublemaker)?
I don't know anything about the American Dennis, but my house has a small and annoying dog which growls at everyone.
 
I don't know anything about the American Dennis
Both of the U.K. and U.S. have characters named Dennis the Menace, amazingly debuting on the same day in 1951. The British Dennis is definitely a mean spirited bad boy; the American one is a good kid who somehow manages to get in situations that make life difficult for his parents and - even more so - his retired nextdoor neighbor.
 
Now the scales are scary enough at the best of times. But ours now seem to be haunted. Both dad and I have spotted them coming on while we were on the loo. The thing is they only come on when you stand on them. I just tried kicking them (they deserved it) and nothing.

I think weird stuff happens more than we give it credit for. People just brush it off or forget about it. Like I’d completely forgotten a strange event when my phone camera seemed to show the future until something here reminded me.

Weird things just off the top of my head. A mate coming around to see me and saying we weren’t at home even though we were with a good view out the front. She wouldn’t have lied no point. Hearing everyday noises in the bathroom while in bed although everyone else was out and finding an old coin under a box on top of an ottoman with no way of it getting there. They are just the ones off the top of my head. I think the world is weirder than we give it credit for.
 
If you can afford it, get a proper paraffin heater (not the crappy ones for greenhouses).
Just use it to take the edge off the cold for a couple of hours a day.
Be careful when using it - keep a carbon monoxide detector nearby.
In the late 70s I used to leave a greenhouse paraffin heater in my Morris Marina van overnight to stop the windows freezing up. It worked very well -completely unsafe of course but it was the 70s and there wasn't a public information film telling you not too:)
There was a bit of a smell that lingered on and made my eyes water a bit so I had to drive with the windows wound down for a mile or so to clear the air, which was a bit chilly.
 
In the late 70s I used to leave a greenhouse paraffin heater in my Morris Marina van overnight to stop the windows freezing up. It worked very well -completely unsafe of course but it was the 70s and there wasn't a public information film telling you not too:)
There was a bit of a smell that lingered on and made my eyes water a bit so I had to drive with the windows wound down for a mile or so to clear the air, which was a bit chilly.
Yeah, that is the downside to that kind of heating. Hence, don't leave it on too long and use the proper type of heater.
 
I'm careful to inspect all new clothing for tags, labels, etc. I even remove the labels that are sewn into t-shirts etc because they are usually made from some kind of itchy-scratchy stuff.
And especially underpants.
I don’t know about men’s clothes but ladies often have a label on a twist these days which more often than not is as itchy as hell and like the above mentioned sock tags is hard to get out without damaging the clothes. I’d be driven mad without my stitch ripper.
 
My favourite highwayman was Claude Duval (sorry @Dick Turpin). A humorous piece here that Vic Reeves must have done for childrens tv;
I thought I was related to Claude but it doesn’t look like it now I’ve gone back pretty far on my family tree. Not to mention the that surname spelling only comes about with my great grandfather and on one census he was living with cousins who spelt it an other way. Odd.
 
The corner of our shop moos like a cow on windy days.
Elsewhere on here I have reported the farm down the road, which has its name picked out in horseshoes (suitably contorted) on the top of the big farm gate. When the wind blows from a certain direction it hits the horseshoes, which strain the wind down to a low moan that is positively eldritch. If you didn't know what it was, as you passed at speed, you'd swear there was ghostly moaning coming from the ditch in front.

I, however, run past at considerably less speed and have had time to fully appreciate the audio.
 
The school that I used to work at, before they spent a wedge on getting all new doors and windows, used to make some quite remarkable noises on a windy day, from all the gaps between the windows and the frames (a lot of the windowframes were the old 'council' type made from metal) and the main doorways were all sorts of bad fit.
And of course, what with the long corridors to add to the echoic effect, it could sound quite spooky, in the dark, on a cold night, if I had been called out at 2am by an alarm being triggered.
 
We had proper winters back then.

icy_window 2.jpgicy_window.jpg
 
I took the day off from work yesterday. This morning when I got to the place where I usually change buses to get to work, I noticed that in the last 48 hours the bus shelter - a qute serviceable little structure with two little benches in it - had been removed and replaced by a new one: a qute serviceable little structure with one big bench in it.
 
It's pouring down here today (relevant), and I had to take the dog out for her lunchtime walk before I leave for work.

During the walk I hear occasional noises, something like a distant dog barking, but with overtones of 'whispered shouting'. It was a good job it's broad daylight, because the sounds were sinister, the kind of noise that raises the hair on the back of the neck. I kept stopping to listen and not being able to hear, it only happened as we were walking along...

...and then, of course, the penny dropped. Because it's raining, I'd dug out my big waterproof coat, not worn since May. When the sleeves rub against the side of the coat, it makes that 'shouty-whisper' noise. I think I'd remarked on it back in May, but I'd completely forgotten about it in the intervening five months.

But do remind me about it before I wear that coat out in the dark, because those noises are freaky.
 
It's pouring down here today (relevant), and I had to take the dog out for her lunchtime walk before I leave for work.

During the walk I hear occasional noises, something like a distant dog barking, but with overtones of 'whispered shouting'. It was a good job it's broad daylight, because the sounds were sinister, the kind of noise that raises the hair on the back of the neck. I kept stopping to listen and not being able to hear, it only happened as we were walking along...

...and then, of course, the penny dropped. Because it's raining, I'd dug out my big waterproof coat, not worn since May. When the sleeves rub against the side of the coat, it makes that 'shouty-whisper' noise. I think I'd remarked on it back in May, but I'd completely forgotten about it in the intervening five months.

But do remind me about it before I wear that coat out in the dark, because those noises are freaky.
Just think, if you'd started running to get away from the noise, you'd have put a lot of miles in....
 
I took the day off from work yesterday. This morning when I got to the place where I usually change buses to get to work, I noticed that in the last 48 hours the bus shelter - a qute serviceable little structure with two little benches in it - had been removed and replaced by a new one: a qute serviceable little structure with one big bench in it.
They did nearly the opposite at a bus stop I commonly wait at.

I got there one afternoon and noticed that they had removed half the bench! There was one of those uncommonly positive people waiting there and she commented about how nice it was that they made it so people in wheelchairs could use the bus shelter to get out of the rain.

I, being aptly cynical, mentioned that they probably did it to keep homeless people from sleeping there. She was incredulous. She actually called up the transit company to ask them and they confirmed my suspicions. Made me rather sad, I'll admit.
 
Oh they deliberately make benches now that have either fixed solid raised points, or are ridiculously shaped/curved, or built-in raised armrests in them that make it impossible to lay on them.
It's called "Anti-homeless, 'hostile' architecture".
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If you can afford it, get a proper paraffin heater (not the crappy ones for greenhouses).
Just use it to take the edge off the cold for a couple of hours a day.
Be careful when using it - keep a carbon monoxide detector nearby.
Ah yes, the stench of a paraffin heater, smoky coal fires and clouds of pipe tobacco smoke - so evocative of my parents' home. It's a wonder we didn't all suffocate.
 
Is that really A Thing rather than the product of over excitable overpaid designers of street furniture? If it is, it's completely insulting to the otherwise homed.
Yes it is really 'a thing'. The product of our modern society in which we will happily provide shelter to people that dump their ID and passport etc in the English Channel but ignore the people already homeless on our streets, in a lot of cases ex-servicemen that failed to adapt to life outside of the armed forces and end up either on the streets or in prison.
Councils would rather spend money on preventing people from kipping on a bench than spend money on actual homeless shelters.
But apparently that's fine.
https://www.bigissue.com/news/housing/anti-homeless-architecture-hostile-designs/
 
Yes it is really 'a thing'. The product of our modern society in which we will happily provide shelter to people that dump their ID and passport etc in the English Channel but ignore the people already homeless on our streets, in a lot of cases ex-servicemen that failed to adapt to life outside of the armed forces and end up either on the streets or in prison.
Councils would rather spend money on preventing people from kipping on a bench than spend money on actual homeless shelters.
But apparently that's fine.
https://www.bigissue.com/news/housing/anti-homeless-architecture-hostile-designs/
:(I was not aware of this.
 
There’s a hotel called Hop Crofts Halt he’s supposed to haunt. I think it’s in Oxfordshire.

Actually when I thought I might be related I went to the Swan pub which was supposed to be his last stop before the gallows. I took some pictures and one did come out a bit strange. The only one I ever had like that with that camera.
 
On Monday morning there were a few small black flakes on the bathroom mat. They weren't moving so probably not organic, I mentally put them on a virtual list of cleaning jobs. On Tuesday I noticed a black flake stuck on my forehead when peering in the shaving mirror. Removed it and mentally made a note to check my pillow (but forgot). Wednesday and flakes on the bathroom mat were multiplying.
Today switched laptop on and plugged in headphones (neighbour leaves car on idle under my windows for 30 mins). Then saw the black PVC coating on the foam ear pads had started moulting. They're not that old, but minor mystery solved.
 
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