Just read this thread for the first time. I've had many experiences and yes I plainly saw the deer the first time I looked at it without reading the text, other than the thread title (which hinted at something might be there). The deer is plain as day. Cool picture. Things I have seen without going into minute details: Orbs in the cemetary - I have a photograph I took where they are all over the cemetary of varying sizes and groups (taken with film, not digital) and developed at a commercial lab. It was my Mother's graveside service. They look similar to children's soap bubbles. I read about them later, after I saw them in the picture. Graveyard dog apparition in a cemetary - a thin, or pale vision of a white German Shepard that was standing there looking at me - then turned and walked back into the woods and poof - faded out of view, before it should have been out of view. Strange animal actions when asking for proof something existed. (3 times). Twice with wild birds and 1 time involving a squirrel. Too involved to explain. Astral projection - personal experience (2 times). First time scary, second time more controlled. Entry and exit point is the back of my neck both times. Read about in detail after the experiences. UFOs (many) but I work near experimental aircraft places, but these were quite visible and nothing like any aircraft I've seen before. All different than each other, and see in different places. One was quite small and I saw it over a house in my current community. It hovered and moved in various directions then sped off and disappeared. It was a green light with no definition, other than round. Music in a haunted lighthouse keeper's house (Point Lookout State Park) - America's most haunted place with cold air wafting up from the opening in the wall area in a upstairs bedroom. They were not playing any music. My son heard it too. Link to Pt. Lookout provided by the DNR of Maryland. Lots of death and misery there during the civil war. There is a mass grave of over 3800 prisoners of war there, and unmarked gravesites as well. Also, shipwrecks. If you are in the area it is open the first Saturday in November (and there are lines). The lightkeepers house is a mirror image house, with both sides the same, double everything. Cold spots that one wants to move out from immediately. Extreme deja vu around certain people. Foggy veil in a photograph taken of a deceased person moments after death, yet ALL images taken before death, and the next day are normal. Only those taken within 2 minutes of death. A soul escaping? Fog or smoke in a photograph taken at a funeral that had the outline of a face. Lights in shrubs as a child Ghost sports car (with top down) with one driver that crossed in the path of me and another person (we both saw it at the same time) and there was no road where it went, only grass. Caused the driver to hit the brakes it looked so real (yet unreal) It was moving left to right straight across in front of our path. I don't deny the existence of anything and most of these experiences were not scary, except cold spots and astral projection. Most I felt no emotion about, it was just there and I was not trying to see any of it. Some experiences felt warming. Brand me a nut - I don't care. I've seen what I've seen and that's about all I can say about it. I don't know why I see these things (and I did not see all of them alone) and some are photographed and some not. I don't try to explain them one way or the other. CT Here is a link that might be useful: The Gosts of Point Lookout

I'm too lazy to check if I said this before, but when we moved to this small town we had a lot of friends and stayed that way until our children grew up. Most kids here go to college and move back to raise their family. One of mine did too. Except we have no extended family here while our old friends have all sorts of family. And that's who they now get together with for holidays & other gatherings. No outsiders included, period. To make matters worse, DS built a house close to us, his wife was and still is like a daughter to me, her parents and siblings became my family since I have no one on my side in the state. Best in-laws a person could ask for. Both families went to DS and wife's house every holiday. And then DS divorced her, and holidays aren't the same anymore. He has a fiancée now but I don't know her very well, so it's kind of lonely with no women to be with this time of the year. His fiancée is kind of standoffish so I have to give it time. I should have expected it would be this way when my kids were little and their friends had birthday parties with only family, which included lots of cousins, aunts and uncles, grandparents. That was hard to explain to my kids, why they weren't invited. When the kids were around 11 I did get a new BFF who moved here from out of state. They moved away a few years later for the reasons listed above. lol There's nowhere to volunteer, nothing. Strangest place I've ever lived, but I hear it happens in other small rural towns. At least we're relatively close to a large city for entertainment.

Amylou, I LOVE the cookies, especially the one with the full face mask, LOL. Thanks, John. I'm finding the Township job is more involved than I thought, Michigan passed Prop 13, which is a very good thing, but now people can register to vote on the day of elections, can ask for an absentee ballot with no limitations, and we're working on letting overseas military personnel vote electronically. That means extra safeguards against hacking, of course. Plus, it's W2 tax time and the prior clerk is taking a 5 week trip to Australia, so no one to answer questions. Thankfully our accountant is very patient and lets me know what they need, but not necessarly where to find it, LOL. And I'll have to run for office in November so there are those petitions and we have a couple of millages for roads and fire protection that will need to be drafted and on the ballot. We're a small township, though, and I work from home, we don't even have internet connection or an office at the hall, so I can do things at night when I won't be interrupted and can puzzle them through. I do hope that DD feels better soon, Christmas is nearly here and it's just not a time when a person is sick. Take care of yourself, though, so you don't catch it too. And enjoy that machine, it's beautiful! Compumom, I was wondering how you were coping with your kids' relocation. (sigh) And I agree, the whole country seems to just be in a bad mood, bickering and fighting and slinging insults like third graders. I thought adults would be above that behavior and could disagree without being disagreeable, but apparently not. Merry Christmas anyway, I refuse to let reality intrude on my Christmas plans. The kids will be here any time for cookie baking and decorating and the powdered sugar explosions will begin. Bring on the sprinkles! Annie

My dad would burn our leaves in a large mesh bin on a concrete pad behind the shed. It was very exciting for us kids to watch. We also kept, for the Boy Scouts collection efforts, our newspapers in a large bushel basket in the garage. You can see where this is going. One day our mother asked my three-year-old brother what he was doing, on his third trip from the bathroom carrying his little cup of water. Yes, he had been trying to ”help daddy” by burning the newspapers in the garage. Next to the car. Mom got him and me out of the house and called the fire department, who took a wrong turn. Meantime, a fellow was driving by who just happened to have a fire extinguisher. He went in (I don’t remember if doors were open or what) and had the fire out before the fire department got there. Before you ask, yes, we all knew how to use a lighter. Back in those days, part of party preparations was making sure the cigarettes were in their nice dispensers and the lighters all worked. Back to the original post. the blowers seem to have stopped, and I spent the weekend playing and listening to carols, and I am singing carols mostly in my head as I go about my days.