Yesterday was the second anniversary of Doris’s death. You might recall, she was the previous owner of the home we bought in 2019. We learned later that she died in the middle of the kitchen.
While that’s a little unsettling, I can’t say we ever feel her presence. There have been a couple of unusual occurrences — a light sometimes comes on by itself, a book fell off a shelf once — but for the most part, nothing. If Doris is still hanging around, she’s a quiet ghost.
Until last night?
Tara was listening to a podcast while doing dishes in the kitchen a few minutes before 10 p.m. when she heard, and felt, a thump behind her. Then, she felt a tingling sensation on her neck.
I’d been in bed already, so the first I heard about the incident was this morning. Here’s the thing about Tara: she’s a nonbeliever in anything paranormal (or at the very least, a strong skeptic), while I am Team This Shit is Real. I’ve had too many experiences to discount (like this one). I even went on a real-life paranormal investigation that was creepy with a capital C. Tara listens to my tales and humors me, but I don’t think she actually gives them much credence. And yet, what happened last night rattled her a little. Especially given the significance of the date and the location.
And while we don’t have an exact time of death, we do know it was dark when it happened because what tipped off the neighbor who discovered her body was the fact that her curtains had remained closed for a couple of days, which was not the norm. So, we figure it was either early morning or sometime in the evening.
Like maybe a few minutes before 10:00?
I had the pleasure of interviewing three couples from the tiny town of Philip, South Dakota, for a Valentine’s Day story this week. They had been married for a combined 183 years! Damn impressive. I got a kick out of hearing their wisdom and the way they interacted with each other. Talking with people and sharing their stories is the best part of my job.
I kept having to bite my tongue when talking to one guy who is a retired funeral director. At one point I almost said, “I’m dying to know the secret of your success.”
Pretty sure dying is the secret to his success.
At the end of the call he thanked me, and I replied, “Of course.” When listening back to my recording, it sounds like I say, “A corpse.”
That would have been a grave mistake, eh?
Greetings from the tundra, BTW.
It was 1° early this morning (midnight, actually) and only went downhill from there. It never got above zero once the sun came up and was down to -10° when I got home from work. Don’t even get me started on the wind chills. Add in some snow, and you’ve got a slick, sloppy mess on the roads. I’m so thankful for AWD! My Mazda would have struggled to get up our hill. Even in the Kona, I’m taking it real slow, especially when coming to a stop and turning. A few years ago, I would have freaked out driving in conditions like this, but I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable.
Not like I have much choice!
Luckily, I figured out how to start my car and lock the door to warm it up. Seems like a simple thing, but with automatic key fobs you can’t lock a car with the engine running. It’s a safety feature to prevent you from locking your keys in the car, I guess. Turns out there’s a hide-a-key built into the fob, and you can use that to manually lock your door. Who knew? Now I can start my car ten minutes before I’m ready to leave home or work, and it’s nice and toasty (ish…we are talking sub-zero weather still!). Bonus: no risk of death by carbon monoxide poisoning.
A few people have asked why I don’t invest in a remote start. And the answer is…umm…I have no freakin’ clue. Those who have it swear it’s the best thing ever. Guess it’s something I should look into, huh? Even Tara says go for it.
Ironically enough, we’ve been running the ceiling fan at night. We bought a down comforter a couple of weeks ago, and it’s almost too efficient. No chance of freezing to death with that thing covering us!
Hope you’re all surviving the cold. Sounds like most of the U.S. is affected. Even Portland’s got a Winter Storm Warning with lots of snow expected. We aren’t supposed to get back above zero until Monday and above freezing until the end of next week. This has been quite the cold snap!
Mark My Words 
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