ghost in the machine
A benign otherwordly presence is hanging out here at ATC HQ. We're hopeful it's benign, anyway. The facts:
1. Last night I was home alone (well, with 3 dogs as I was babysitting Skout) doing chemistry, eating Chile-and-Lime Cashews, drinking Pellegrino and doing more chemistry. All that mineral water, eventually you have to hit the loo. On my last trip, I'd equipped it with a new roll of T.P. After I'd torn off the little bit of paper I required, the roll kept spinning and unraveling on the floor, rather rapidly. I reached out to touch the roll to pause it, figuring it was off balance somehow. But the minute I took my hand off, whoosh, it started unraveling furiously again. I stopped it again. As soon as I took my hand off, it started again. I just sat there and watched an almost-full roll drape in cascades to the floor until it was all gone.
2. This morning, my roommate went out our kitchen door to the laundry room, while I was sitting in my bedroom reading. 5 minutes passed, and she called out to me. I hopped up and went to the kitchen, calling "where are you?" "You locked me out back," she answered in a puzzled tone. Sure enough, the back door was locked, so I let her in. But I hadn't locked it. I hadn't moved from my bedroom. She didn't lock it from the outside -- we don't even know where the keys are to that door. We only ever bolt it from the inside.
We laughed and said oh, we must have a ghost and chatted for a moment about it. She hypothesized that maybe the upstairs neighbor had an exorcism and the ghost just shifted down a floor.
I didn't bring it up, but there's also Fact 3 - her father died 8 days ago.
Further bulletins as events warrant.
1. Last night I was home alone (well, with 3 dogs as I was babysitting Skout) doing chemistry, eating Chile-and-Lime Cashews, drinking Pellegrino and doing more chemistry. All that mineral water, eventually you have to hit the loo. On my last trip, I'd equipped it with a new roll of T.P. After I'd torn off the little bit of paper I required, the roll kept spinning and unraveling on the floor, rather rapidly. I reached out to touch the roll to pause it, figuring it was off balance somehow. But the minute I took my hand off, whoosh, it started unraveling furiously again. I stopped it again. As soon as I took my hand off, it started again. I just sat there and watched an almost-full roll drape in cascades to the floor until it was all gone.
2. This morning, my roommate went out our kitchen door to the laundry room, while I was sitting in my bedroom reading. 5 minutes passed, and she called out to me. I hopped up and went to the kitchen, calling "where are you?" "You locked me out back," she answered in a puzzled tone. Sure enough, the back door was locked, so I let her in. But I hadn't locked it. I hadn't moved from my bedroom. She didn't lock it from the outside -- we don't even know where the keys are to that door. We only ever bolt it from the inside.
We laughed and said oh, we must have a ghost and chatted for a moment about it. She hypothesized that maybe the upstairs neighbor had an exorcism and the ghost just shifted down a floor.
I didn't bring it up, but there's also Fact 3 - her father died 8 days ago.
Further bulletins as events warrant.
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