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Minor Strangeness (IHTM)

Ok I have a similar story to Cochise's lost lighter. In our house we use a cocktail stick to prop open the spout of the kettle (no need to go into why). We keep the stick on the counter next to the stove where the kettle resides. Today I went to make tea and couldn't find the stick. Searched the counter, even moved the toaster to look behind it. No sign of the cocktail stick so got another one, used it and then put it down on the counter in the usual place.

About a half hour later I went back into the kitchen. There, in the place we always keep the kettle-stick, were TWO cocktail sticks lying next to each other; the new one I had just used and the old one I had been unable to find, which had somehow not only returned to its place on the counter, but broken itself cleanly into two pieces.

No one else had been in the kitchen in the interim. I was on my own in the house.

Trivial. But quite weird, no?
 
Something somewhat unusual happened yesterday. I went to eat a baby beetroot from the jar, but it refused to be impaled on the fork I was using, so I put the fork under it and lifted it out. But (many a slip..) it fell off before I got it to my mouth. I heard it bounce on the work top, but there was no sign of it there. Drat, I thought, it must have fallen on the floor. But no sign there either, not even a splodge of beetroot juice. And come to think of it, I hadn't heard it hit the floor.

Finally I concluded that it must have bounced back up from the worktop and back into the jar! What are the chances of that happening, eh?!
 
Similarly. My old amp (That I run my TV and living room computer through) has radio type buttons for sound source. Changed the source and one of the button caps fired off. I heard it rattling around, so looked on the shelf underneath. I actually found eventually on the shelf _above_. It must have bounced up, which is not 'strange' - but rather surprising!
 
rynner2 said:
Something somewhat unusual happened yesterday. I went to eat a baby beetroot from the jar, but it refused to be impaled on the fork I was using, so I put the fork under it and lifted it out. But (many a slip..) it fell off before I got it to my mouth. I heard it bounce on the work top, but there was no sign of it there. Drat, I thought, it must have fallen on the floor. But no sign there either, not even a splodge of beetroot juice. And come to think of it, I hadn't heard it hit the floor.

Finally I concluded that it must have bounced back up from the worktop and back into the jar! What are the chances of that happening, eh?!
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Christ Rynner it's obviously Poltergeist activity!
 
That's beetroot for you (she said, darkly)
 
I'm 75 years young. Way back when I attended grade school we were all taught to write longhand by the same teacher. I understand that many schools do not teach long hand anymore (script); they are going to regret that decision. Anyway out of the 90 or so classmates that I attended school with, we ALL had a different style of handwriting. Some were so characteristic that we students could recognize who wrote what by their handwriting. No one can be taught someone elses handwriting. I suppose close kin might have enough genetics in common that their handwriting is similar. My mother, father and brother all had their own writing styles. I did manage to fake my older brothers signature so well he changed his signature but as far as faking other work of his I wasn't that good.
 
rynner2 said:
Coming home from town this afternoon, I was on a bus that does a roundabout tour of the suburbs, and I saw two birds sitting on different roofs. So far, not very strange! But one was a heron and the other was a hawk of some kind, neither the sort of birds to commonly visit suburbia.

The 'heron' might possibly have been an outdoor ornament - I only caught a fleeting glimpse as we passed - but I've never noticed it there before. (I'll keep a sharp look-out next time I pass that way.)

The hawk was definitely real - I saw it turn its head. Knowing we'd pass the same spot about 5 minutes later, I got my camera prepared for a shot or two, but when we passed again the bird had flown.

(Some years ago I saw a duck perched on the ridge of a house roof in Falmouth! The house was on a hill, so it was quite a way from any water. It would have been interesting to see him land there! I did post about it then, but the post seems to have disappeared.)
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This reminded me of the time I saw a strange bird when I was on the bus. We were passing a field when I spotted a large, squat, round-looking bird with a large beak waddling about. It then 'unfurled' itself to reveal it was, in fact, a heron, which had been walking with its head down and its neck tucked in.
 
rynner2 said:
Coming home from town this afternoon, I was on a bus that does a roundabout tour of the suburbs, and I saw two birds sitting on different roofs. So far, not very strange! But one was a heron and the other was a hawk of some kind, neither the sort of birds to commonly visit suburbia.

The 'heron' might possibly have been an outdoor ornament - I only caught a fleeting glimpse as we passed - but I've never noticed it there before. (I'll keep a sharp look-out next time I pass that way.)
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Reading that gave me a brief flashback to The Wheel On The School by Meindert DeJong, which is one of the first books that I can remember having a real effect on me, in a literary way. Is that a case of (very) minor strangeness in itself?
Anyway, I'm almost tempted to purloin a tractor wheel from a nearby farm and lash it to my roof to attract herons.
 
In the field next to mine there was a very large standing stone, menhir, and when I woke up this morning it wasn't there anymore! I can't get my head around why the guy who owns that field would move such a huge piece of history.
 
They'd have to go through my land or the farmer's to get to it though, it'd take a tractor to shift it, I reckon he just didn't have any sense of history and removed it for some farming reason. But I presumed farmers would leave them alone as cattle like to scratch their backs on the stones. Really sad.
 
FrKadash said:
In the field next to mine there was a very large standing stone, menhir, and when I woke up this morning it wasn't there anymore! I can't get my head around why the guy who owns that field would move such a huge piece of history.
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Was it an ancient standing stone? Ie, marked as such on the OS maps?

(But some are relatively recent, set up by farmers as animal scratching posts.)

Have you spoken to the farmer about it? If it has been stolen by someone else, there must be people you can alert, the local council, perhaps, who probably have an Ancient Monuments department, or maybe English heritage. Either should be able to provide relevent contacts. Failing that, try the local papers. And let us know the outcome!
 
It's been there since I moved over from the U.K. 10 years ago and I've always thought of it as an ancient one, but I've only ever seen reference to it on one old local map. This is over in Cork by the way, and there's many stones that seem to be forgotten and undocumented dotted around Ireland. Not spoken to anyone yet but will post my findings.
 
FrKadash said:
In the field next to mine there was a very large standing stone, menhir, and when I woke up this morning it wasn't there anymore! I can't get my head around why the guy who owns that field would move such a huge piece of history.
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Gone all of a sudden? Maybe he didn't move it. All kidding aside, I have run into numerous people with absolutely no sense of history or things past. Purely surface thinkers. Aggravating to no end. There is no cure for stupid.
 
FrKadash said:
In the field next to mine there was a very large standing stone, menhir, and when I woke up this morning it wasn't there anymore! I can't get my head around why the guy who owns that field would move such a huge piece of history.
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Please bring it to the attention of The National Monuments Service

Reporting possible damage or threat to a Monument
The National Monuments Service is reliant on landowners and the general public in fulfilling its role in the protection and preservation of our archaeological heritage and the assistance of the public is gratefully appreciated.

If you wish to report possible damage to a monument please contact the National Monuments Service by phoning 01 8882000 or e-mailing [email protected] as soon as possible.

http://www.archaeology.ie/monument-protection
 
Hmmm. Looks far too shiny.
However, it is well known that a significant component of many meteorites is iron and nickel.
 
Just thought this was a little strange. Whenever I'm browsing as soon as I stop to look at something someone will inevitably want to get past
Anyway today I was up at the far end of Millers and stopped to look at a top. As soon as I did I heard "excuse me" which sounded like it was from a well educated woman of about 45 maybe.
I quickly moved to the side and there was noone there. Noone was even close. There were some people further down at the counter, waiting to be served.
I've had taps on the shoulder before but not invisible people wanting to go through.
 
Iris said:
Just thought this was a little strange. Whenever I'm browsing as soon as I stop to look at something someone will inevitably want to get past
Anyway today I was up at the far end of Millers and stopped to look at a top. As soon as I did I heard "excuse me" which sounded like it was from a well educated woman of about 45 maybe.
I quickly moved to the side and there was noone there. Noone was even close. There were some people further down at the counter, waiting to be served.
I've had taps on the shoulder before but not invisible people wanting to go through.
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Sorry, I had to read and re-read that before I understood.
'Whenever I'm browsing'... I initially thought that meant browsing on the Web! :D

But, yes... I've had the disembodied voice thing in a supermarket too.
 
Mythopoeika said:
Sorry, I had to read and re-read that before I understood.
'Whenever I'm browsing'... I initially thought that meant browsing on the Web! :D

But, yes... I've had the disembodied voice thing in a supermarket too.
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Ditto, and again this afternoon, queued at the tills. A disembodied male 60+ voice spoke LOUDLY and distinctly into the empty space behind me "That's us now". I spun around, as it was breathy and so inside my bubble to make me jump. But aside from a trio of small grannies ( they hunt in packs), no potential perpetrator was there. The bored checkout girl clearly thought I was possessed/mad/tourettes, so at least I brightened somebody's day.

I have got a boring possible solution, though. Hot air, columns thereof, in coldish Supermarkets. It seems to be compulsory for large supermarkets to have random overheated hot-spots.

Might they act as some kind of conduit for human voices? (utterly unsupernatural, an AsdaPrice version of the Whispering Gallery in St Paul's cathedral). Could a person speaking at a cold part of the store be unwittingly communicated (I don't know, convection, air particle vibrations via temperature-differentiated silos of air).

Just an attempt at prosaicness rather than ghostlyness. Though it now looks like a wooly business pitch at 'Dragon's Den'. Bugger!
 
I have no idea how that would work in the complex aural landscape inside a supermarket.
Generally, I have real trouble hearing the cashier (they never speak loudly or clearly enough), so why I should hear someone else some distance away is puzzling.
 
Actually Millers is a clothing shop. It has lots of clothes and not much room between them. There was music playing but this sounded really close which was why I moved to the side.
 
Iris said:
Just thought this was a little strange. Whenever I'm browsing as soon as I stop to look at something someone will inevitably want to get past
Anyway today I was up at the far end of Millers and stopped to look at a top. As soon as I did I heard "excuse me" which sounded like it was from a well educated woman of about 45 maybe.
I quickly moved to the side and there was noone there. Noone was even close. There were some people further down at the counter, waiting to be served.
I've had taps on the shoulder before but not invisible people wanting to go through.
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Well Iris, I live in a huge Victorian brick that was built in 1857. There are no close neighbors and the thick brick walls mute sounds from the street in front of the house very thoroughly. One summer afternoon, I was quite alone in the house, as my wife was away shopping. I was cleaning out old clothes from a closet when a voice, very clear, very distinct, and very feminine said, I cannot help you". I was startled, I suppose I reacted, but there was no one anywhere near me. Like, I mean, no one within a quarter of a mile. I have since wondered what I needed help for. One other time when I was alone in this same bedroom I distinctly heard someone call my name. That time I checked out the whole house. There was no one here but me. Nice to know these things happen to other people too.
 
Brig, we have threads on the subject of hearing one's name called and similar themes. Lots people have had similar experiences. You might like to have a read, great fun! :)
 
Hello everyone!
This is a bit weird...there's an old arcade machine thing that's a roulette wheel that you put a 2p piece into on the colour you think the ball will land on. There are about 50 drops and one, the White space, is the big winner (£1!!!) it hardly ever comes up white. I've known this machine since I was about 5 and always used to seek it out whenever we went to a seafront anywhere in the country. But the strange thing was I could stand near this machine and instinctively know when the White was about to drop. My Mum remembers more than I do that I would have a look of excitement on my face and would only put my 2p in just when the White was about to win.
Fast forward a couple of years...(cough cough) and as an adult my husband and I were on a mini cruise and there was a grown up roulette wheel. I'm not a gambler at all but my husband wanted me to have a go so I waited and waited and just felt that the next turn was going to be the green. I put my money down and there it was, the green! As a joke another traveller decided to copy what I put on next and I waited until i "knew" what was coming and instinctively knew number 18 was coming so bet on that as did my new friend and yes, we both won. This lead everyone in the room to follow me and after about 20 spins of the wheel I again knew what the next number was and we all bet on it and we all won....hubby then saw the look on the croupier and decided we should leave much to the chagrin of the other gamblers!
This happens quite frequently on small scales but sadly not yet with the lottery......;)))
 
I was out this afternoon, but early this evening I noticed I had a 2" plus scratch on the inside of my right forearm. It's reddish, as if somewhat inflamed. Now I'm pretty sure it wasn't there this morning, when I showered, but I can't think how I got it.

Now my skin is often very itchy, and has many strange small marks which I often scratch, but my scratchings do not resemble this. It's just one longish, slightly curved scratch, in a place I never have occassion to scratch.

The only conclusion I can reach is that it's a form of stigmata for atheists!
 
I have this myself every now and then - long scratches that I can't explain.
 
There was an even more minor strangeness that I did notice this morning. There was a a tiny rough patch on the palm of my right hand, on the opposite side to the thumb. It felt a bit like I had a small splinter there, and I managed to pull off a tiny patch of skin, but no sign of a splinter.

I only remembered this after making my post above because the spot is still slightly sore.
 
Mythopoeika said:
I have this myself every now and then - long scratches that I can't explain.
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Same here. They're easily explained if discovered on waking, as a sharp bit of fingernail or metal watch strap could cause the injury during the night (I've had them on my face before), but sometimes they're more puzzling.

Last September I found one on my left forearm (actually I felt it first) on returning from a shopping trip and removing the light overshirt or jacket (I forget which) I had on. This was baffling as it was by now quite sore, red and livid and maybe four inches or more in length, featuring two slight changes of direction as whatever it was cut into the flesh. There were other marks too, including one nearer the wrist, which was more like the puncture wound from a needle.

Now I think of it, it resembled the scratches I've earned in pruning the rose bushes whilst wearing a T-shirt. Which obviously serves me right, duh :rolleyes: But my arm was undamaged when I left the house and had been nowhere near any thorny shrubberies. I was surprised enough at the time to take a photo of my arm, which I'll try to find to see if it ties up with my recollection.

I suppose sometimes these minor injuries are just not noticed at the time, as the mind is focused on other things?
 
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