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Minor Strangeness (IHTM)

bugmum said:
I was on my way into work this morning; parked up, got out of the car and opened the top pocket of my rucksack to remove my card and lanyard - they've been there since I left work on Thursday. Only - there are three points at which my card holder can attach to the lanyard, a long one in the top middle and two small ones either side of it. Somehow the lanyard was attached to the left-hand small hole, which made it hang askew - but I would NEVER wear it like that, it would offend me. The clasp linking the two was properly shut, so it was unlikely to have just slipped from one hole into the other, and who would have been fiddling with it anyway when it had spent all weekend tucked away? That gave me something to contemplate on my walk across to the building.
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A moment's inattention.

Today I opened a toolbox, looked across the room at my pasting brush and thought 'I really need to put that pasting brush in'ere.'

Next I closed the toolbox, opened another and glanced across to where the pasting brush was, but it wasn't there.

Where was it? I opened the first toolbox again and there was the pasting brush. I'd somehow stepped across the room, picked up the pasting brush, put it in the toolbox and closed the lid and then forgotten all about it, in about a minute.
 
escargot said:
Where was it? I opened the first toolbox again and there was the pasting brush. I'd somehow stepped across the room, picked up the pasting brush, put it in the toolbox and closed the lid and then forgotten all about it, in about a minute.
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Or you'd teleported it there.
 
IbisNibs said:
Or you have too much on your mind. I do stuff like that when I'm juggling too many unconnected things in life.
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Spot-on. That's why I mentioned a moment's inattention.

When you're not concentrating you can do something automatically with no later memory of it. People may drive halfway to work before they remember it's their day off and they're supposed to be shopping, or put money away safely and later think they've lost it. Happens to us all.
 
maximus otter said:
This is at third hand, but the sources are impeccable (via my wife, from her mother):

The MIL has an allotment in Ayrshire, which she is giving up. Within the last few days she took home from the allotment a large-ish pot full of chives, which she wanted to keep and pot on.

On digging into the pot, she found it to be pot-bound, i.e. a tightly-woven mass of roots. ln the centre of said mass, she found an egg, which she describes as “like a hen’s egg”, which l take to mean in appearance and dimensions. She threw the egg into a bin, where it cracked, revealing exactly what one would imagine you’d find in a hen’s egg apparently, i.e. yolk & white, all liquid and fresh-looking.

My wife’s (and my) first thought: grass snake, but a quick Google reveals that the laying/hatching season ended months ago.

maximus otter
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It's difficult to explain if the egg was in the middle of a dense mat of material, but hens will certainly lay in pots of plants.

Many years ago, I visited a friend who kept rare breeds of chickens, and a hen was happily sitting on eggs in a hanging basket outside the front door.

Some sources (eg https://www.thehappychickencoop.com/how-to-store-your-chickens-freshly-laid-eggs/) claim that eggs will remain fresh for 'at least a month' without refrigeration., so I suppose that might be sufficient time for vegetation to grow and an unfertilised, unincubated egg to remain edible.
 
escargot said:
Spot-on. That's why I mentioned a moment's inattention.

When you're not concentrating you can do something automatically with no later memory of it. People may drive halfway to work before they remember it's their day off and they're supposed to be shopping, or put money away safely and later think they've lost it. Happens to us all.
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As I age rapidly, I find that this happens more often. Frequently I jump into the car and cannot remember locking the house door. Done it so many times I do it automatically without thinking. Now to avoid wasting time I concentrate on doing it and similar things so I recall what I've done. Not the greatest thing ever invented this aging thing.
 
"People may drive halfway to work before they remember it's their day off ".

Not quite the same but.
When I was a schoolboy, probably about 14, I got up one day, put on my school uniform etc, my mum made me a bit of toast for my breakfast, and off I walked to school, about 3/4 of a mile away.
It did seem very quiet to me that morning, and when I eventually arrived at the school gates, they were closed, locked.
I thought this rather odd, and headed back home.
Turned out it was a Bank Holiday Monday.
But my mum had let me go without mentioning it was a Bank Holiday, and to this day I still don't know why - had she forgot too? Or was it one of her little jokes, haha?
 
Trevp666 said:
"People may drive halfway to work before they remember it's their day off ".

Not quite the same but.
When I was a schoolboy, probably about 14, I got up one day, put on my school uniform etc, my mum made me a bit of toast for my breakfast, and off I walked to school, about 3/4 of a mile away.
It did seem very quiet to me that morning, and when I eventually arrived at the school gates, they were closed, locked.
I thought this rather odd, and headed back home.
Turned out it was a Bank Holiday Monday.
But my mum had let me go without mentioning it was a Bank Holiday, and to this day I still don't know why - had she forgot too? Or was it one of her little jokes, haha?
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Heh, you'll never know! :evillaugh:

Some American father did similar to his kids a while ago, and posted photos of them looking brassed off standing on the drive. TOP Dad banter there.
 
Trevp666 said:
"People may drive halfway to work before they remember it's their day off ".

Not quite the same but.
When I was a schoolboy, probably about 14, I got up one day, put on my school uniform etc, my mum made me a bit of toast for my breakfast, and off I walked to school, about 3/4 of a mile away.
It did seem very quiet to me that morning, and when I eventually arrived at the school gates, they were closed, locked.
I thought this rather odd, and headed back home.
Turned out it was a Bank Holiday Monday.
But my mum had let me go without mentioning it was a Bank Holiday, and to this day I still don't know why - had she forgot too? Or was it one of her little jokes, haha?
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I once did similar, turning up for work having forgotten I had the Bank Holiday off.

Luckily it was a gym and kept a kit there so I had a nice long workout, taking care to verbally abuse my colleagues who were working like suckers.
 
BlackPeter said:
Many years ago drove out of the zoo where I used to work and drove most of the eleven miles home to my house before I remembered I had sold it and now lived in a flat at the zoo! Total example of the mind just working on autopilot!
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I did that just after I moved into our new house with my now ex-wife. Left the school I worked in at the time and my motorbike drove itself back to my moms all by itself. I must have been in cloud cuckoo land.
 
I recall years ago when I was at school and my brother had started work.

My mum woke us both up in a blind panic, shouting "get up, get up, it's 10 to 9."

We both ran like idiots getting ready until my mum very gently knocked on the bathroom door, addressing my brother who was sat on the toilet."

In the gentlest voice she could muster she said "David, I'm sorry, it'd only 10 to three."!
 
I was in the backyard pouring water from a container into a watering can when I heard what sounded like a small child clearing their throat.
I thought maybe a neighbour's child had wandered in from down the street as I had the gate open but there was noone there.
The last time this happened it sounded like an adult.
We have an easement along the back and when my youngest was little she said that she dreamt of a river there and indiginous people fishing.I wonder...
 
Spudrick68 said:
I recall years ago when I was at school and my brother had started work.

My mum woke us both up in a blind panic, shouting "get up, get up, it's 10 to 9."

We both ran like idiots getting ready until my mum very gently knocked on the bathroom door, addressing my brother who was sat on the toilet."

In the gentlest voice she could muster she said "David, I'm sorry, it'd only 10 to three."!
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How'd she manage that? Had the clock stopped night before?

My brother in law once misread his alarm clock as twenty to ten when it was actually 07:50. Nearly broke his neck jumping out of bed.
 
escargot said:
How'd she manage that? Had the clock stopped night before?

My brother in law once misread his alarm clock as twenty to ten when it was actually 07:50. Nearly broke his neck jumping out of bed.
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It isn't that hard to do. I went to bed one night probably about 11, got up at what I thought was 6am. It was still dark so it must have been winter. Put the TV on and wondered why there was still a random film on. Looked at the clock at was 12:30.
 
Meechyemoo said:
It isn't that hard to do. I went to bed one night probably about 11, got up at what I thought was 6am. It was still dark so it must have been winter. Put the TV on and wondered why there was still a random film on. Looked at the clock at was 12:30.
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This has happened to me and it was soooo great to know I had loads more time to sleep!
 
That can be a problem in winter - as my mum became increasingly bed-bound she'd wake up at seven but couldn't tell if it was morning or evening from the light through the window. I got her a 'dementia' clock (now on my wall) which shows an illustration of night, morning, evening as well as the time.
 
I once got my kids to school one hour early. Husband in work early too. Neither of us could figure which one of us had made the mistake. It just seemed to arise organically.

Also, I once arrived at the local park with the kids and me all dressed up for a Halloween event, only to find that the event was taking place the next week. On actual Halloween.
 
Meechyemoo said:
It isn't that hard to do. I went to bed one night probably about 11, got up at what I thought was 6am. It was still dark so it must have been winter. Put the TV on and wondered why there was still a random film on. Looked at the clock at was 12:30.
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It's common with exhausted night shift workers. On their day off they'll sleep right through the day and wake up in the evening wondering what the hell is going on.
 
Weird thing happened this morning.

I’m working from home still, and was on a video conference call with my department - 6 of us in total.

My boss was half way through a sentence, when we all heard a piercing scream that lasted for 2-3 seconds. The scream appeared to be female and quite guttural.

My boss stopped speaking and we all looked quizzingly into our respective screens, with everyone saying all at once “did you hear that, where did that scream come from”

I know it didn’t come from this house, the scream definitely came from the computer monitor, with the rest of the team saying the same thing.

MY boss shrugged her shoulders and carried on speaking, when 20 seconds later the same high pitched guttural scream came out of the monitor again.

This time my boss said that whoever was mucking around should stop it, but we all denied we were, and again we all confirmed that the scream came out from the computer.

I’ve been doing these conference calls on a daily basis since March, and it’s never happened before, and I know it sounds a little odd, but the scream was not unlike the scream that was recorded in Chingle hall back in the 1990’s

It was quite weird and a little unnerving.
 
I experienced an unexplained sound only this morning. I'd not long woken up, and put the TV on. Normally I mute it first thing in the morning, so as not to disturb my other half.

Anyway, I suddenly heard a sound like a distant horn, playing 3 or 4 different tones in sequence. If you've seen those recent Channel 4 (UK) indents with their stickman thing, there's one where he/it makes a similar sound from a clifftop.

This sounded about the same volume as a car horn at maybe 1/2 mile distance, but as I say, there were separate notes to it.

I checked the TV, and it was muted (I thought perhaps I'd left it on extremely low volume, but no), and then the sounds repeated. And again 30 seconds or so later. Our bedroom window was slightly ajar last night, so there's every chance that this noise came from outside, though I suppose I can't entirely rule out plumbing...

Another thing the sound reminded me of was the welcome message in Close Encounters, if it were heard from far away.
 
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Peripart said:
I experienced an unexplained sound only this morning. I'd not long woken up, and put the TV on. Normally I mute it first thing in the morning, so as not to disturb my other half.

Anyway, I suddenly heard a sound like a distant horn, playing 3 or 4 different tones in sequence. If you've seen those recent channel 4 (UK) indents with their stickman thing, there's one where he/it makes a similar sound from a clifftop.

This sounded about the same volume as car horn at maybe 1/2 mile distance, but as I say, there were separate notes to it.

I checked the TV, and it was muted (I thought perhaps I'd left it on extremely low volume, but no), and then the sounds repeated. And again 30 seconds or so later. Our bedroom window was slightly ajar last night, so there's every chance that this noise came from outside, though I suppose I can't entirely rule out plumbing...

Another thing the sound reminded me of was the welcome message in Close Encounters, if it were heard from far away.
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That’s Interesting Peripart. Neighbour’s TV perhaps.??

Yesterday afternoon I was sitting on the laptop in the kitchen, when I heard the unmistakable sound of water escaping from a pipe.

The sound was quite loud and definitely came from inside house. Obviously that is not a good sound to hear, so I rushed around the house checking each room but couldn’t see anything wrong. The sound petered out after a few minutes and I haven’t heard it since.
 
Dick Turpin said:
That’s Interesting Peripart. Neighbour’s TV perhaps.?
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It's possible, I suppose, though it didn't sound like it. I don't recall our neighbours having the TV on at 7am before.

I don't suspect it was anything too unusual, if I'm honest. This is the "minor strangeness" thread, after all, not the "run to the hills, they're invading" thread.
 
Dick Turpin said:
I’m working from home still, and was on a video conference call with my department - 6 of us in total.
My boss was half way through a sentence, when we all heard a piercing scream that lasted for 2-3 seconds. The scream appeared to be female and quite guttural.
I know it didn’t come from this house, the scream definitely came from the computer monitor, with the rest of the team saying the same thing.
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You're not using Zoom are you? You know that Zoom meetings were getting hacked with nasty and distracting AV effects until people learned to use security measures, right?
https://bestlifeonline.com/prevent-zoom-hackers/?nab=0&utm_referrer=https://www.google.com/
"So, how can you tell if your meeting has been infiltrated by hackers? "The most sure sign that your Zoom meeting has been hacked is if there is an extra participant that you don't recognize," says cybersecurity expert Ted Kim, CEO of Private Internet Access. Kim says that other clear signs of an intruder are unwelcome screen shares and disruptive noises in the meeting."
 
CarlosTheDJ said:
One of my mates sent her kid back to school a day early this term - cue much hilarity on Facebook from people who had spotted him dejectedly making his way home.
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You'd think Mum'd've joined in with the Facebook conversations about when the schools go back. That's all the go where I live!
 
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