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Minor Strangeness (IHTM)

Think this should fit in here.
One of my friends rang and told me this story.
One of her grandaughters had lost all her Christmas money which was in a red envelope. Her family had looked everywhere to no avail.
Anyway she decided to go for an early walk down the beach, taking plastic bags to collect rubbish which my friend thought should bring good karma.
Shortly after my friend had a call from her daughter to say she had a dream the night before to look in a bag with Christmas cards in it. She did the next morning and it was there.
 
The night before last I went to bed early. It was ferociously windy here (but nothing out of the normal, we're on top of a very big hill so it's often a bit breezy). The dog has been a bit unwell, so instead of coming upstairs with me, she cuddled under her blanket on the sofa. Both these things account for why I had half an ear open and wasn't sleeping well.

About 11.30, when I'd been asleep for about an hour, I was woken by a weird kind of scraping bump. It sounded a bit like the dog digging in her bed, but odd. I didn't really think too much about it, until I went downstairs at 2am for a wee, when I found some birch bark (which lives on the beam in my living room, that runs across the ceiling) had fallen down and one piece was on the floor underneath, with another piece a couple of yards away.

I couldn't fathom out how it had come down. It's securely balanced across the beam, which is about six inches wide, it's never come down before, and there were no draughts blowing. Another piece is still up there. I can only imagine that a rogue gust of wind somehow swirled around the living room (disturbing absolutely nothing else) and blew these bits of bark down.

There've been one or two odd things happening here lately, nothing big, just mislocated items mostly, so I'm wondering if there's something up.
 
catseye said:
The night before last I went to bed early. It was ferociously windy here (but nothing out of the normal, we're on top of a very big hill so it's often a bit breezy). The dog has been a bit unwell, so instead of coming upstairs with me, she cuddled under her blanket on the sofa. Both these things account for why I had half an ear open and wasn't sleeping well.

About 11.30, when I'd been asleep for about an hour, I was woken by a weird kind of scraping bump. It sounded a bit like the dog digging in her bed, but odd. I didn't really think too much about it, until I went downstairs at 2am for a wee, when I found some birch bark (which lives on the beam in my living room, that runs across the ceiling) had fallen down and one piece was on the floor underneath, with another piece a couple of yards away.

I couldn't fathom out how it had come down. It's securely balanced across the beam, which is about six inches wide, it's never come down before, and there were no draughts blowing. Another piece is still up there. I can only imagine that a rogue gust of wind somehow swirled around the living room (disturbing absolutely nothing else) and blew these bits of bark down.

There've been one or two odd things happening here lately, nothing big, just mislocated items mostly, so I'm wondering if there's something up.
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No rodent activity? Perhaps an animal wants the bark for a nice cozy nest.:oops:
 
maximus otter said:
Eventually, maybe, but I reckon you have/have had one. Hence the bark.

maximus otter
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I'm really not in favour of the rodent theory, simply because the dog would...ahem...'bark' the place down if she saw a rat or mouse within a hundred yards of her (trust me, I've seen her with squirrels). And to get to the bark and knock it off, they would have had to run past a Hungarian tea set (don't ask, just...don't) on the beam too.
 
catseye said:
I'm really not in favour of the rodent theory, simply because the dog would...ahem...'bark' the place down if she saw a rat or mouse within a hundred yards of her (trust me, I've seen her with squirrels). And to get to the bark and knock it off, they would have had to run past a Hungarian tea set (don't ask, just...don't) on the beam too.
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Could woodlice have done it?
 
In the 1970's there was a fine Irish band called Fruupp. They released four albums but remained particularly obscure.

In the 1980's I spent a great deal of time in record shops. That thrill of finding a hidden gem. One time I was in the wonderfully named Shady Deals second hand shop in Putney. There, for the first and only time, I discovered an album* by Fruupp. Result! I buy at the till and just as the cashier was handing it to me in a bag, a chap enters the shop, stops at the till and asks if they have this album* by a band called Fruupp.

What are the chances?

In four decades in record shops I've never found another Fruupp album and I've never heard a customer ask for one.

The look on the cashier's face was priceless. He just said "no, we haven't". I didn't have the heart to reveal the contents of my bag.

*album was The Prince of Heaven's Eyes.
 
catseye said:
Oddly enough, no woodlice in the house either! The bark has been up there for over a year without moving a ...well, muscle. If it was woodlice, then they were very patient.
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Any, er, 'banging' upstairs stairs?

(I'm thinking similar to how plaster can fall off from where the nail holes are in plasterboard if you were to knock the floor above- moving furniture etc).
 
Erinaceus said:
Could the bark have twisted and fallen because of changes in humidity and temperature over the past few days?
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I think this is probably the most likely explanation. There was no banging (of any kind!) above, I was in bed asleep. But it was windy and I'd had the heating on for an hour or so during the day, so perhaps the air had just dried out sufficiently to unsettle the bark (which, being birch bark is quite light and flimsy, although not so light as to fall easily, as I said, it's been up there a while).

I don't think it's supernatural, just one of those odd things (like the time the board fell out of the ceiling - similar thing).
 
Two very minor Mandela Effect experiences, one recent, one old.

The recent one was when I was watching an old AC Milan match and the former Manchester United player Gabriel Heinze was playing for Milan's opponents, Roma. I was an avid watcher of Italian football in my younger days and also had a season ticket for United when Heinze played for them and followed his post United career, but I have absolutely no memory of him playing in Italy. I remember him going straight from Real Madrid to Marseilles, but apparently I am wrong.

Second one dates to the Lockerbie bombing on 21 December 1988. Like most people I remember the evening of that appalling event, and I remember being in the one room that I rented in a friend's house watching Sweet Dreams and thinking it wasn't the most tactful film to broadcast at that point in time. Except I can't reconcile that with my memories of moving into my own flat in August 1988. It must have been August 1989, but I can't reconcile that with splitting up with my then boyfriend in the Summer of 1990, we were together for longer than a year when I was in my flat, or so I thought. I suspect it's a failure of my memory and also that's an explanation for most Mamdela effect, but I was absolutely certain that I had moved in 1988.
 
Had a weird one this morning.

I was up early as usual, around 4 am EST (I love the quiet, just the soft hiss of the air cleaner.) Came out the bedroom, turned on a light, did the usual (bathroom, beverage, sit down and open FTMB) and everything was utterly normal.

Around an hour and a half later, I got up to use the bathroom, get another drink etc and returned to my browsing. Upon walking back to my chair, I realized there was a pile of stuff spilling over the couch, coffee table and floor. Seems one of my floating shelves detached and spilled all and sundry. No, that's not the weird bit.

The weird bit is, despite sitting only 3 feet away in the quiet, still hours, I heard absolutely nothing...

Edit: the floating shelf, one of 4

IMG_1296.jpg
 
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Here's minor strangeness from last week. I walked into the office at work, and noticed to my surprise, that two people from the IT department were taking calls (I work in a call centre for my sins). This was strange; why were they taking calls. I left for the breakroom and went to make a cup of tea. I came back and they were still there taking calls. I logged into my computer and thought that they were doing some kind of IT work. Later on I was talking to a friend, just by the two IT people taking calls. "Why are they taking calls?" I said to my friend. "Who?" she replied "The two people from upstairs?" "What do you mean?". I looked at the two IT people taking calls. It was the two people whio always sat in those seats, and had been for quite a while. I knew both of them well. They had been there all day. I suppose I hadn't been paying attention, for whatever reason - though god knows why I had 'filled' them in with two other people who had never worked in the call centre. Felt like I had slipped into another dimension for a few minutes...
 
catseye said:
I think this is probably the most likely explanation. There was no banging (of any kind!) above, I was in bed asleep. But it was windy and I'd had the heating on for an hour or so during the day, so perhaps the air had just dried out sufficiently to unsettle the bark (which, being birch bark is quite light and flimsy, although not so light as to fall easily, as I said, it's been up there a while).

I don't think it's supernatural, just one of those odd things (like the time the board fell out of the ceiling - similar thing).
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It wasn't those cupboard tenants causing chaos trying to break out was it?
 
Floyd1 said:
Well, I'm not an expert on woodlouse, but I would think it's possible that they could dislodge small bits of bark.
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Was in your neck of the woods last week for a night away. Before we went I was idly walking Streetview on Talbot Road in Whitchurch and came across a pair of semis named Talbot Villas (no. 43/45?). Strange upper storey decoration on the front elevation which seems incongruous, unless it's what is leftover from modernisation. Any clues Floyd?
 
PeteS said:
Was in your neck of the woods last week for a night away. Before we went I was idly walking Streetview on Talbot Road in Whitchurch and came across a pair of semis named Talbot Villas (no. 43/45?). Strange upper storey decoration on the front elevation which seems incongruous, unless it's what is leftover from modernisation. Any clues Floyd?
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I've noticed those myself Pete.
Yes, not really what I'd class as 'villas'.
I shall endeavour to find out.

Where did you stay?
 
PeteS said:
Was in your neck of the woods last week for a night away. Before we went I was idly walking Streetview on Talbot Road in Whitchurch and came across a pair of semis named Talbot Villas (no. 43/45?). Strange upper storey decoration on the front elevation which seems incongruous, unless it's what is leftover from modernisation. Any clues Floyd?
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No. 43 sold for £232,000 in 2021.
Minor strangeness in itself considering the area and small size.
 
Police have warned citizens in Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina that the alligators frozen in the ice on ponds are not dead but alive and dangerous.

The unusual bitter cold weather over the southern states have put the frozen alligators into a hibernation state.

Once the temperature rises, look out because the alligators will be on the prowl.
 
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