Saturday, September 30, 2006

Happy Halloween....only 31 days til Halloween!
28 days til opening of haunt!!!
Well...we got through the first night without any spooky happenings! Although, I was unable to unlock the back door and PoD had to unlock instead. This has happened to me before with this door!
This one time I tried, I was able to unlock the door but when I pushed it open I could feel this slight resistance liked the place was air tight or someone/thing was holding it for a few seconds. That place leaks heat like crazy and could never be called air-tight! So everytime I go to unlock this door I always feel hesitant about whats it gonna be.
Pod made a comment about this might not be a good sign and maybe we should come back tomorrow night! But like the brave little soldiers that we are we went in.
With the paranormal group we found that Friday nights are somewhat quiet and Saturday nights more active. So with this knowledge and that I didn't have any creepy feelings about going in there, I felt brave enough to go in.
I'm not sure if PoD's comment made her nervous or not but she was jumpy all night. It didn't help that the place has bats and spiders in it either!
The Minnions got to see bats flying that night! We all know that bats live in the attic of this place and that they fly around at night but we never usually get to see them. Last night it got fairly warm out and they were flying in and out of the huge gaping hole [that some idiot put in this beautiful building...but we won't get into that right now] that was in the roof. When you stand below the mess and look up you can see that the eaves is damaged also. It wasn't fully dark yet and you tell that they were bats by the way they flew and the hole being so large they had easy access. So we had a short bat lesson but all that did is worry the female minion and that they would get in her short hair...we had a good lol about that one.
Bravely we entered the place and got to work. With the chimney gone they can't turn the heat on and thankfully it was cool in there! First thing we found is that they turned the water off in the basement and we couldn't wash counters or use the john down there.
We started in the Custodial Quarters and removed the garbage left from the last year of the haunt. The outer walls are in pretty bad shape and we've got to cover-up a lot more. Some of them are covered already but have lots of crud from the wall fallen to the floor...so we had to sweep it all up before we could measure and tape the layout of the walk. In the living room area one part was pretty cobwebby but PoD thought she'd be brave and sweep it out...well she came face to face with the biggest, ugliest [her words not mine] spider and totally freaked out! I got a glimpse of this huge monster....ugly -yes monster -no! Just a creepy spider! That was it for control on her nerves and anything...yes I mean anything...set her off! Her being jumpy means a lot of scares for whom ever is around her!
We took a lot of fresh air breaks and gave the minions a time to run around. Forgetful me forgot the masks to keep the harmful dust motes out so we improvised by turning our sweaters around and breathe through the collar. Worked pretty good.
We also took time to check out the new lights [my old ones finally bit the dust and need to buy more...one expense we didn't need but it happens] and where to use them. With clean-up done, we taped the floors and planned the layout of walk until I ran out of tape. With that as a good excuse we turned out the lights and left.
I took a few final pictures and then we left. The evening was spook free and the only scary thing was PoD and her phobia!
So one section cleaned and ready to set up and it only took us 2 1/2 hours to do. The next clean-up will be tonight and it will be in the old dentist office. Hopefully the spooks will keep leaving us alone...but tonight is SATURDAY...their party night...so who knows?
Orbing out for now QoH

Friday, September 29, 2006

Happy Halloween...only 31 days til Halloween!
27 days til the haunt opens!!!
First day at the court house to officially start the haunt building process! Actually it will be our second journey to the place. The first one doesn't count as it was during the day while the place was open for business. It's only scary in there when your alone or a small group at night! Running the haunted courthouse is fun when its all ready and set to go, but it's getting it to that condition that is exhausting physically and mentally!
The Princess of Darkness [daughter] and our two little minions [grandkids] and of course me...did the first jaunt to get some measurements of the basement hallway and remove excess crap, from dentist's offices, left from previous year. While we were there I checked out the conditions of the walls.
The outer walls are slowly crumbling away!
These walls are the newest in the basement and they are breaking down! The 2nd yr of the haunt we covered the crumbling areas with old tarps and black plastic and the customer's never touched the stuff. The smells in that place drives my sinuses crazy! The good spots that year are now falling apart and the plastic left for the dividing walls will now have to cover them up. So now I have to buy more new plastic to replace the old but I'd rather use the new and have the walls covered to protect everyone who will be moving around in there. Clean-up this year will be with face masks to protect the lungs!
On our first trip I noticed that my granddaughter [now 9] is still nervous about being downstairs. I spotted her and her brother [7] standing close to each other and she was pointing down the hallway, looking sort of tense. I never said anything to her but I will keep an eye on her and watch how much the place effects her. I want my grandkids to be able to enjoy scary places and be open to experience the unknown without being afraid of it. After all...we all face the unknown daily!
In 2002 we were setting up in the basement and chatting in front of the doorway to the Custodian Quarters and she was facing it while I was standing with my back to it. Suddenly she interrupts the conversation with an exclamation of seeing her uncle [my son] just walk by behind me down the hallway of these quarters. I though she was kidding me as there was no possible way he could be back there as he would have had to of walked by us first. The look on her face told me that she was serious and that I would have to show her that she was wrong. We checked the place out together and the look on her face was of terror when she realized that she must have seen a ghost. The look on her face sure convinced me that she saw what she saw!
Sorry about the flashback...thought I'd fill in the story for those of you who never heard it before. Back to the saga...
I took a couple of photos of the hallway and saw no orbs in either shots but when downloaded, the first shot had quite a few in them whereas the other shot was clear...no orbs!
When the paranormal group was here they noticed that they would get quite a few orbs in shots if you took sudden random photos...no posed shots. But when they would set up the camera on the tripod and we would sit waiting for them to show...they seldom did. I find when I take multiple shots [as fast as is possible with a digital] that the orbs appear in the first shot and gone in the next. Not a bad maneuver for dust motes...lol!
I forgot to mention earlier that when I said that I get these photos with spots on them that I also get other shapes. In two different areas of the basement [opposite ends] I have images on the pics that look like horned faces. The other shape appears in a photo taken outside of a store downtown. I took two shots again...in the first shot it looked like a huge half [about 4' wide] of a orange butterfly...you could see one wing. The next shot the object had moved across the area and the other wing was now visible...other shots after that showed nothing. Later through internet research I found that this sight is called the red man or the orange angel.
So......
Tonight we start....Our first venture will be the worst spot in the place! The Custodian Quarters! If I had a choice on the last place I'd like to stay in...that would be the place. How someone lived in basement of the courthouse is beyond me. Thankfully the building is still cold [thanks to the idiots who tore the chimney off the place...leaving a gaping hole...but we won't get into that right now] and the heat won't be a bother for me. Other years it was so hot in there that we had to wear shorts and tank tops!
Tonight we'll just clean the floors [sweep], remove garbage, measure floor space and see what walls need covering.
The haunt this year will start in the upper floors. We will start with the courtroom, through the Judge's Hallway [from his quarters] down the stairs to the basement. The basement haunt will be the scarier of the two and we will be using the Dentist's Room and Custodian Quarters. The main Headquarters will be upstairs in the Judge's Chambers with the Jury Room as an extra dressing room.
Wish us luck!
Orbing out....QoH

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Happy Halloween...countdown to Halloween is 32 days!
This is my first blog...and hopefully I can keep it updated daily.
I decided to call my blog "Orbs 'r' Us" and it will pertain to my entrance into the world of the unknown.
All my life I have had the usual dejavu momments and even had a dream about my mother dying and then to have it come true the next morning was very scary! I was 10 yrs old and never knew how sick she really was!
Over the years I had a few other odd things happen but generally life was normal and so were my photos. It could be even my move to Dodge that has brought my enlightenment to the world of the unknown.
Halloween has always been my love!
Ever since I can remember it has been the only holiday that my family never got drunk in and ruined it by fighting. I grew up in a very large household that had adults that liked to drink at all holidays and couldn't hold their liquor[one reason I don't like to drink]! Except for Halloween! Maybe it was the letting loose of the inner demons by playing tricks on each other and just having fun...or the excessive sugar...who knows, at least everyone had fun!
I was always the creative one and loved taking old items and making them into costumes that even my friends wouldn't recognize us. My stepmother was forever trying to find that one thing that I couldn't build and it was because of her pushing me to do better that I come up with some of my strangest ideas.
My two younger sisters were great at putting up with my weirdness. They always had the best costumes. We didn't decorate the house up too much in my younger days. We were in it for the loot!
Decorating to the extreme started in 1998. One chick had left the nest and the other was leaving the next year. All through their growning up years the decorations were mostly cutesy. So as they leave I was left with all these costumes/masks! So I displayed them and for the last week leading up to Halloween we had creatures living with us! I loved it! The kids loved it! The X didn't! I do have to admit it was hard at the end to live with the neighbors wanting to see all of my collections and the last home haunt was in 2000. Laws were laid down and my beloved halloween was never to be displayed again until a bright idea from our local theater group!
Dodge has a Court House and the local towns people had labled it as haunted. So why don't I take my collection and haunt the basement of this building. So the courthouse and I were introduced to each other.
One warm and calm evening in Sept/01 I took some digital photos of the outside of the building and downloaded them into my computer. I have taken many a photo with this camera and never had any of the pics had spots on them. The ones of the courthouse were covered in them! Some even showed the spots BEHIND the windows.
I later [through internet research] found that others call these spots "Orbs" and some profess them to be lost souls waiting to be reborn or go on to a higher plane. Some even call them UFOs. Some even call them dust motes.
My daughter and I have had personal contact with a paranaormal group that have recorded these "Orbs" moving around us on film [in the courthouse]. After seeing and experience the unknown I have become a believer. After all...seeing is believing! What about feeling?
We started building the haunt in the basement Sept. 29. Right from the beginning I told her that even if we never experience anything in there we will lie and say that we did.
We've never had to lie!
She had only gone 20' into the basement area, that night after work, when she began to freak out and we had to leave. The next night she felt better. The basement of the building is the worst place of all of the experiences and the paranormal group agreed with us. They find the courthouse creepier than their haunted sanitarium! I've been driven out of the basement many times and we've had to quit for the evening and return at a later date to continue.
The "Orbs" are not just connected to the courthouse in this town! I have taken other photos of other buildings and some have them and some don't. My shop even has them...although I have higher activity the closer it gets to Nov. Weird things happen in my place around that time and have been seen and heard by others.
So do I believe in "Orbs"? Yes I do! I believe they are lost souls, spirits, essence....whatever and they are all around us. The more you believe the more you are able to see and feel. The paranormal group has opened me up to the awareness of the unknown and what the darkness holds for us. I has had its scary moments and I swear I'll never go back in there but I find myself returning.
So my daughter and I will return to the unknown and start this years Halloween decor Sept 29 and hopefully be let alone until Halloween Haunt 2006 starts.
Orbing out.....QoH