the ghosts of christmas past

[cornerofmadness]

that's what I'll be sleeping with apparently. I'm going home for a couple weeks so boarding would be pricey, very pricey. Grandma is still in a home so the cats are moving into her place. This ought to be a horrible drive, four hours with terrified kittens and releasing them into a two story house that they'll probably never want to leave.

So where do the ghosts come in? Grandma thinks the place is haunted. Frankly every time I dream of my grandmother's house it's about something evil and magical in the cistern and in the earthen basement. Grandma has almost never used the living room, especially since the 70's when she ended up alone in that place. Whether or not the living room is haunted is debatable. My great grandmother laid out her husband and Mary and Joseph (two of her children) in that living room. All three died within a week, probably from the flu.

Well before her last fall the bed was put in the living room for the overnight helper (which never happened) and a hospital bed she could more easily get in and out of was put in her bed room. So guess who'll be sleeping in the haunted living room with the cats...

Maybe not me. We shall see. I've never been able to sleep in this house not even in the upstairs bedroom. (though most of it was the lonely sound of a train and the bang of the steam heat that were unfamiliar to me as a kid). I'm more worried about my messed up back and shoulder on that bed. The cats won't be left all alone naturally but more alone than I might want. (mom and dad's cat won't tolerate them so...)

I have no enthusiasm for going home. Still dealing with that piece of me that broke in 2006. I don't know why traveling is causing anxiety but... and then again I lost my enthusiasm for the holidays in this entire decade. so far this decade sucked. I'm hoping the next one is better.

I did get a card from rahirah and wildrider thank you (everyone else i'll probably see on saturday





Today Soul met catnip. Kanda doesn't care that much about it (I have video but am over my broadband limit so you'll have to wait). SOul thought this was the Best. Stuff. Evah!

Comments

[wildrider.livejournal.com]

Kitty tongue FTW!!!

Not sure how to console you for the night in the haunted house... sounds like a sad place. Perhaps the presence of kittens will help. Box of kittens heals all wounds.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

it is not a happy house. It's never been that. Great grandma owned it first (and whoever else before her), there were only 4 rooms then. My mother didn't have indoor plumbing until she was in h.s. I remember having to pump the cistern since no one trusted 'city water' and I remember the out house burning down. It's a house that saw alcoholism, domestic violence, poverty and my grandmother's ill temper so... the kitten will have their work cut out for them

[wildrider.livejournal.com]

Eep.

Our family's not had a family home in generations, far as I can tell... (in some ways, I kind of envy you -- I'd love to have some family history at all).

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

mom would like me to get a job in Pittsburgh area and take the house. My dad's brother lives in that grandma's house too so I have that on both sides

[wildrider.livejournal.com]

I don't even know for sure what town my grandparents CAME from in New Jersey...

I tried to write to a newspaper in North Platte to see if I could find any family there, but never got any responses.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

aw that's too bad. Ancestory.com is so frigging expensive too

[sillymagpie.livejournal.com]

Just keep them close by you.

And bring catnip. Such a cute picture!

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

one of them is missing inside this apartment. I dread finding out where he went

Soul likes his nip

[sillymagpie.livejournal.com]

I sometimes have nightmares that I've traveled somewhere--usually Tucson, with friends--and my cat (sometimes Dickens, sometimes Toccata) has run off and people won't allow me to stay behind to find him or her. I think I'd find traveling with cats just too darn stressful.

OTOH, cats are a great comfort. I like to think they can keep scary spirits at bay. ;-)

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

them running off down my grandma is a fear of mine too

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Now I wanna see grandma's house.

AWWW, HIGH SOUL. Soul high? Something. With his tongue out!

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

it's not a very exciting old house

Soul is crocked

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Scary cistern, creepy earthen basement....

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

cistern covered over

basement full of my crap

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

And ELD collects some goodies for her collection....

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

been in that basement since 2000

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Hmmmmm

[sp23.livejournal.com]

Heh, my guys like the nip, but I've never seen them that zoned. LOL

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

hahaha Soul's just a little dude. he can't handle his nip yet

[silvrethorn.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, I could never sleep in my great-grandma's house, either. Of course, having trains passing within a few yards of the front porch might explain that. Really, though, it was just a weird, lonely, abandoned feeling I always got when I stayed there. I was OK during the day--MaMaw Kit's house was fun for a child--but at night, all alone in that bedroom, I just got creeped out. It was an older home, so no telling what emotional cargo it carried.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

I just got creeped out. It was an older home, so no telling what emotional cargo it carried.

this is it exactly. the house is over 100 years old (my grandmother being 95 and lived her whole life ethere and we can't find WHEN the house was built). That train was over the hill so it echoed. It's now a bike trail so if I hear a train I'm SO going down there with equipment.

but i figure if it freaks out the cats I'll board them in PA but it's worth the 400$ (plus the 150$ in shots the little one still needs) to give it a try

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

What bothers me is that cats are sensitive to things like that; so if the house is haunted, they may not like being there so much, themselves.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

this is also true so we shall see. In all honesty, they won't be in the basement and I've spent the last 20 years hunting ghosts and that living room has not felt haunted.

I think Grandma just goes in there and sees her dad and her two siblings lying in state in her mind

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

Sure, that makes sense. I probably would too, if I were her.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

of course tonight i'm going in there so if you don't see me again you know

[ozma914.livejournal.com]

I wish you hadn't told me that right after I watched a horror movie ...

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

hahahaha Boo

[rain-oubliette.livejournal.com]

Freaky about the house. Sounds like it is in need of some research. :D Dude, you do NOT want me to go there, though. I attract that kind of crap. :P Seriously. But then, my family all seems to have that. I will admit I'm intrigued. Out of curiosity, you could leave an audio recorder going while you're there - to see if you pick anything up.

Very cute kitten. Love the tongue.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

oh I'm a total magnet for this stuff too and ditto the family. We have weird electrical energies. We kill watches and win a lot on slot machines...

I only have the old fashioned tape kind with no tape but I think i can set my MP3 player to record. I've considered it. Honestly I don't think it is haunted, the upstairs. I'm convinced there is something in that root cellar. I've loathed that thi ng since I was a kid.

Look at my tongue, i'm so high

[rain-oubliette.livejournal.com]

I make watches run backwards. I have to have something between me and the watch. My uncle could kill a watch in under an hour. Freaky.

I greatly dislike dirt-floor cellars. I cannot tell you how much they freak me out. Just the smell sends shivers.

My grandmother lived in a place out in Wayne, WV, that was an absolute freakshow. There was a room under the stairs that was always FREEZING. It also smelled of pipe tobacco even though no one smoked a pipe. You would also hear a violin playing in that room... no one plays one in the family. And since there was nothing in the room, it wasn't a radio or a tv. This is also the house that had the weird stain on the stairs and where I had my first paranormal experience - at age five or so. 8-S

I should print out and mail to you the weird shit I've written down.

Well, car is soon done.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

yeah my watches also go backwards or just die. i'm hell on light bulbs and cellphone batteries.

now that house sounds cool. you and i could probably fill a book

[bob_fish.livejournal.com]

That house sounds very spooky. I wonder what the cats will make of it?

Kitty crack Soul is adorable. I'm excited to see his video madness.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

I'll surely be taking pictures of the house. I'm hoping they're not too freaked.

Soul likes the hard stuff. the video is only a wee bit cute but still

[bob_fish.livejournal.com]

The house does sound cool, in a freaky way.

Mah kittehs loves the nip. Blame enemy, she shipped it to them.

I went to my department party and my boss made me drink a lot of beer. And then she interrogated me on the erotic possibiities of being married to a blonde twin? My department is a fun one? At least I feel like less of a perv?

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

the basement is weird

hahah way to go enemy

snort. your department is way more fun than mine it seems. they're way too conservative for that

[caffeinified.livejournal.com]

Cute kitty!!!

I'm not sure I could sleep in a house I thought might be haunted either.

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

he is cute

well I've lived in many a haunted house but I've never been that comfortable at Grandma's