Getting the bike Ready

Tuesday the 22nd of February – Night

Did you ever do something so stupid, so wrong, that you knew it was a bad idea from the start, but did it anyway? Yup, you guessed it!

Sure, I can blame it on the pain, the lack of sleep, or the disorientation from the medication; I can put blame Dr. Spooky and his challenge; and I can say it was the result of dark forces from the other side; regardless of the cause, I used my Ovilus.

“What the hell is an Ovilus?” You may be asking, and “Why is it such a bad thing to use?”

The Ovilus is an electronic device that purports to use ITC (mentioned previously) to communicate with paranormal entities. This device has been considered the “holy grail” of devices and has been featured on numerous paranormal TV shows, and used in many investigations. Opponents of its use claim that it actually opens portholes to the other side (and possibly other places).

It’s a great tool for investigating, but not something you want to use in your own home, just in case… I’m pretty sure I’ll never be struck by lightning, but that does not mean I’m willing to stand on a hill during a storm wearing a tin-foil hat.

But common sense be damned, that’s exactly what I did.

I turned on the Ovilus and within seconds it spoke a single word, a word that sent chills down my spine. The word was “leave”.

What went through my mind was a scene from the Amityville Horror movie, a movie about a haunted and possessed house. The scene had the house itself say, “Get Out” to the occupants. It was, and is, one of the signature scenes of the movie. It was frightening at the time.

I firmly said, “No!” to whatever may have been listening.

Soon other words were spoken, “circle”, “spell”, and “closet” which repeated several time, in sequence. A few other words also repeated; “gate”, “doll”, and “barn”.

I’m still not sure if “closet” meant “closet” or “close it” (referring to a possible “gate’ or portal. The “circle and spell” could be referring to a ritual that I know very well that is supposed to “close” those things.

My old friend “doll” was back too (revealed by a different system, days earlier). I had originally thought it may have been referring to Catherine Zeta Jones from my dream. But now I knew it wasn’t. I had used both devices in the same place, and this time I looked up and saw the doll...

You know how it used to be popular 40 years ago or so to have a little Hawaiian Hula dancing doll on the dashboard of your car; one that wore a grass skirt and swayed and danced due to a spring, whenever you turned or went over a bump? Last year I saw a similar doll that I thought would be great for the handlebars of my scooter. It is a ukulele playing, grass skirt wearing, devil. And right then, it was shaking its bottom and smiling.

Tuesday the 22nd of February - Day

The mailman brought the movie today.

Here is the basic synopsis:

A small group is assembled by a dying wealthy man to find proof, one way or the other, of existence after death. “Hell House” is the chosen location for this quest. This house has been the dubbed the Mt. Everest of Haunted Houses”, built and owned by an evil man (Belasco) who vanished 45 years before, leaving a house filled with dead guests.

The group is consists of: a stodgy, stick-in-the-mud know-it-all physicist, his very attractive wife (not sure why she hooked up with him); a young woman who is a spiritual medium; and Benjamin Franklin Fischer, a physical medium who was the sole undamaged survivor from a previous investigation.

The movie starts with investigation, the spiritual medium holds a séance and there are physical manifestations. She blames this on Ben as he is a ‘physical medium” but he says that he is not to blame and is repressing everything. The physicist looks for ways to explain away what had happened, and his wife starts drinking.

Soon the plot changes and the physicist’s goal is revealed, he wants to rid the house of all ‘spiritual” energy by using a device he built; the young spiritual medium is looking for the ghost of Belasco’s son (the spirits said that he had one); the physicist’s wife is running around naked throwing herself at the repressed (and obviously gay) Ben. And Ben is keeping himself “closed off” to survive the time in the house and collect the $100,000 he was promised. Soon even the ghost obsessed spiritual medium is throwing herself at Ben.

Now, I am a repressed, closed off psychic (two out of three should be close enough!!!), why can’t I have beautiful naked women chasing me around a house for a week?

The movie inspired me to want this project even more!

Monday the 21st – Birthday Month Continues

Monday morning came and I had to rush off to the store. I’d been housebound for the past few days, not physically very mobile and tethered to the home phone (I was on call for the day job). “Being on call” means being available to provide technical support to any customer having an issue. And as I don’t own, and refuse to carry, a cell phone, that means calls go to my home phone, so I’m stuck.

Well, I wasn’t stuck now, and it was my brother’s birthday.

Joe loves games and games are what we all get him. Currently he is using the Wii and has just about every game for it; so I called to ask if anyone knew what he did not have. I was told of a few and headed off to the bus stop (the road was too icy for the scooter).

At the store, I couldn’t locate even one of the games that had been suggested, but I did spot a Scooby Doo game. Scooby it was.

I missed the bus going home. I’m lucky that way. So I had a long walk on the icy roads. It used to take me about 20 minutes to do this walk, but with my back and spine issues, it took me well over an hour and required several stops.

One block from where I would have exited the bus had I ridden it, the bus passed me. I gave it the finger!

I made it home just in time to get the call to come over for cake.

Two O’clock found me participating in another frightening rendition of “Happy Birthday”, a slice of cake and a little conversation, then I was headed back home.

Arriving just as the severe back spasms started, I collapsed in bed. Thankfully I had picked up some food and snacks for the little guys while I was at the store earlier; it was going to be another 2 days before I could walk.

I needed a break!

The Rest of the Weekend

Sunday morning was typical, the only thing that stands out is looking at the TV and noticing that the Blair Witch Project was airing yet again. It felt like the universe, or at the least SYFY, was trying to give me a message.


Sunday night, or should I say Monday morning, I decided to test out the ghost detection system again and turned it on. I said “If you are real, prove it.” Nothing happened, I saw blips on the screen moving around, and then at 1:17:48 AM it said the name “Washington”. It was President’s Day, a holiday observing Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthdays. Then it said, "Finish". At that point I did and turned it off.

Little just looked at me and shook his head.

“No more playing with this in my house” was what I told myself, “Must ignore!”

I went to bed.

Saturday the 19th

With the concept of the project pretty much set, there was not much to do on it today. The book and movie were on order but hadn’t arrived yet. What I did, was locate and order a copy of the Discovery Channel program on the Connecticut Hell House. I even found a couple of “Ghostbusters” Stickers for the scooter. Things were coming together.

About 11:30 at night, I decided to ask the spirits what they thought of this project. It never hurts to get an “inside” opinion.

My house is definitely haunted, or should I say, “It has residents from different planes residing in it.” There has always been a presence here, we usually ignore it, but it is here, nonetheless.”

Additionally, my late buddy and bestest puppy dog, Spanky hangs around and watches out for us. He passed away nearly ten years ago, but I still feel him around. Every now and then, the cats will take off and run as quickly as they can, as if being chased. And if I look just right, I can almost see my buddy chasing them, tongue hanging out and a huge smile on his face.

Not wanting to expend too much effort to contact the spirits and ask my questions, I used one of the newer electronic detection systems. What it does is detects energy fields and displays them on the screen, it also utilizes a process called ITC to convert energy and changes into words. (I’ll go through all the technical stuff in a Ghost Hunting Equipment section to come later.)

Yes, I know I was being lazy, but my furry friends don’t like using the Ouija board. I don’t know if you have ever tried using one with 2 cats and a dog, but it isn’t pretty and they lose interest pretty quickly.

Before I continue, I have to explain something. As I said before, each night, or rather any time I lay down, I go through a routine with Teddy. There is a similar thing that goes on with my other kitty, Little. Please, don’t be confused by his name, He may have been little when my daughter brought him home 7 years ago, but he is anything but that now. He measures about two and a half feet in length from the tip of his nose to the base of his tail, and he is an easy 25 pounds. He is huge. And Little has his own routine; anytime I sit, he has to lay down in my lap. Any and every time I sit. As he lays down, I pet him, he smiles and dozes off to sleep, and I cannot move. He is too big and heavy, plus he has his paws and claws positioned where they can and will latch on at the slightest movement on my part.

So I sat in my bedroom, Little on my lap, and the detection system going. A short time later, Little turned his head to the left as if he saw something, the display on the detector then registered a blob at that location, Little then turned to a different direction, the display then showed a blob there as well. It seemed as if my kitty could see these things.

For the next minute or so, blobs kept appearing around me and Little, so I asked a question: “Who are you?”

At 11:32:02 the word “doll” was recorded.

Not really understanding what that meant, I asked “What do you think of the project?”

At 11:32:44 the word “log” was recorded.

I said, ““Log”, what do you mean?”

There was a lot of activity on the screen showing blobs bouncing around me, some red, some yellow, and some blue.

At 11:33:48 the word “fireplace” was recorded.

“Log” and “fireplace” were the key elements of the dream I had the night before: The dream that convinced me to do this whole project. The dreams with Catherine Zeta Jones, and she is a “doll”.

This was something I’d have to think on. I turned off the equipment and turned on the TV. “The Blair Witch Project” had just started. I looked at Little as he looked up at me. The look on his face seemed to ask, “What the ‘fluff’ is going on?”

I shrugged, and went to bed.

Reminiscing – Early Childhood

During childhood, I loved to hear the spooky stories: stories of heroes, witches, monsters, leprechauns, banshees, ghosts, curses, and magic; anything that was meant to cause freight, in me created delight. I remember sitting as my parents and grandparents recounted these tales, legends, stories, and rhymes. Those were magical times.

As I grew older, I had to learn to entertain myself, reading and television fueled my imagination.

Growing up in the 60’s my views of ghosties and things that go bump in the night were shaped by television. Scooby Doo and the gang brought new ‘ghost hunting’ cases each weekend. Their influence can be seen today by most all of the “paranormal” investigation shows on TV, they are in some way emulating Scooby and his crew.

“The Doo” was not my only influence, television back then was full of supernatural shows. Although most were comedy, they feed an ever-growing interest in the supernatural. Saturday’s were “Creature Feature” days, which brought many of the Hammer films which included vampire and monster hunters. These inspired my imagination and taught me the “Hollywood” version of the monster lore.

After watching the movies, I’d be out in the back yard doing battle with the creatures: staking vampires to the ground with clothespins; banishing demons with a cross made by crossing my index fingers, and with prayers from church, grace, and bedtime:
“Now I lay me down to sleep, go back to ‘heck’ you evil creep!”
I wasn’t allowed to say bad words, not even in prayer.

Not being old enough to cross the street restricted me a bit, but I got to work on the basics and try out new things in a safe location. Well, mostly safe… Things did get a little out of hand one night. I covered the kitchen floor with flour hoping to catch foot prints of a ghost; instead I caught handprints on my butt. I could not sit for a week.

This was all fun, scary, but fun. Things changed one Saturday. I watched my usual shows and saw an interview with a couple, Lorraine and Ed Warren. They “really” investigated ghosts and hauntings, this was serious stuff! The woman was a psychic, and the man called himself a “Demonologist”; I knew what I wanted to be!

“OK Tony, what do you want to be when you grow up?”, “I want to be a Demonologist!”

No, I didn’t have many friends.