I debated posting this at all. Given the timing, folks might think I'm pulling their leg, but I'm not. Not at all.
Last night (the wee hours of 25 December 2019), around 3 AM, I was sitting here minding my own business when I heard a "kerthump" outside, like a car door closing. Sat here a couple more minutes listening, and there was another "kerthump" accompanied by my motion-sensor lights lighting up. The combination usually means there is someone or something thrashing about in my yard in an unauthorized manner which may be in need of a bit of lead poisoning.
So, I grabbed my trusty "not an assault weapon" from it's usual home right next to my throne - erm, uh, I mean right next to my big comfy chair - and went to the door to see what was up. Now, my front door is on an enclosed and darkened front porch so that anyone outside can't look in and see me silhouetted against any light. That way, I can see them, but they can't see ME, and that's the way I like it.
There was no one, and no thing, there. The nearest street light is about 80 or 90 yards away, across the road and up on the hillside in my neighbor's yard. I have one in my yard, but it's long ago been rendered inoperative because I don't like them. There were no clouds in the sky and no moon. The stars were bright, and I could see Orion just starting to slide behind the hill to my west. So while I'm observing, looking for motion to key in on, I saw a flash across the sky. It wasn't big, probably about half a degree long (about the width of a full moon) and 2/3 to half of that wide, oval shaped, moving west to east to the south of my position. It wasn't blindingly bright or anything - it was actually pretty dim. It reminded me of a search light striking clouds, except there weren't any clouds, and there weren't any search lights. That also puts the brakes on my other analogy - it looked like a dimly glowing cloud scooting across the sky... but again, there weren't any clouds, and there would have to have been some pretty zippy winds for it to move that fast, but there wasn't any wind.
No idea what it was. It wasn't Santa, the reason for my initial reluctance to tell the tale being the thought that some would think I was perpetrating a Christmas hoax. It looked like a glowing, moving cloud, not a sleigh drawn by 8 tiny reindeer. I'm just reporting what I saw, not trying to explain it.
While I stood there in the dark pondering it, my motion-sensor light went off yet again... but there was nothing there to set it off. That, however, is not an unusual occurrence around here. While the motion light was turned off, the ambient light outdoors did suddenly dim, twice, like a street lamp turning off, but the neighbor's street light stayed as it always is, and I never determined why the ambient light dimmed. Whatever the source, it was coming from towards the other end of my house and fairly high up, and the roof blocked a direct view of it. I watched and waited, waited and watched, and never did see anything else. No more lights, nothing moving in my yard.
I gather that such events are not entirely unheard of around here. I have several reports from two other witnesses over time, who shall remain nameless, since I've not gotten their permission to name them.
One, a woman, told me several days ago that a few months back, around the beginning of September, she was outside on her porch smoking around 2 AM when she noticed a blinking light moving across the sky. That isn't unusual - airplanes fly over here all the time on their way to somewhere, anywhere, else. She said the strobe was entirely white, no red or green that can usually be seen on airplanes, which is what drew her attention. Suddenly, according to her, that tiny strobe "whooshed" (her words, by way of description, without any actual sound - I took it to mean an instantaneous expansion) into a MUCH larger, long thin lozenge-shaped light. It stayed that way a few seconds, and then disappeared altogether - not even the tiny strobe was left... but that wasn't the end.
She then removed herself from her porch and walked across the road to a grove of trees to try and see if she could get a view of a different section of sky to determine where it went (these hills are STEEP around here), but it was gone... or so she thought. While pondering what could do that, she says that it suddenly reappeared in another location, then drifted over the back of my house where it instantaneously expanded again and then POOF! it disappeared for the final time, directly over the back of my house.
My pitiful little glowing cloud kinda pales in comparison to that.
That same woman said that some time in the past - she didn't specify when - she and her husband both saw an oddly shaped aerial vehicle that went up over the mountain to my south. She said it was "shaped like a barbell, with two absolutely round ball shapes on the end with a catwalk connecting them". The direction of travel was lengthwise, with one ball leading, the catwalk connecting, and the other ball trailing. She and her husband jumped in his truck and chased it up the mountain, but after they got to the top it poofed away into the clouds at a pretty fast clip... and the truck could not follow it there.
She also reports that 4 or 5 years ago she followed a bright red glowing "kidney shaped" anomaly all the way down the mountain from the top one night on her way home from work. That one was also seen by her son who was home at the time, and she said it created a panic in him.
Not to be outdone, another gentleman from this neighborhood told me some time ago of an incident that occurred many years ago. He said it happened about half way down this hollow between here and the river at the mouth of the hollow. At that point, the ridges that enclose the hollow are probably about 700 meters apart. He and a friend were standing outside talking, in broad daylight, when a shadow passed over. They looked up, and saw a "machine" or a "craft" that was silently and slowly gliding along in the sky, just above the ridges. It was so big, he said, that the front end of it disappeared beyond the ridge to the southeast and the back end had not yet cleared the ridge to the northwest. He mentioned that it took about a minute for the whole thing to pass over and disappear. He had no idea what it was, and still doesn't. All he will say is "I don't know if we were supposed to see it or not, but I sure hope we were!" implying that he thought it might have been a secret government "thing".
I always miss out - all this spectacular stuff, and all I get to see is a crappy little glowing cloud zipping along!
.
Last night (the wee hours of 25 December 2019), around 3 AM, I was sitting here minding my own business when I heard a "kerthump" outside, like a car door closing. Sat here a couple more minutes listening, and there was another "kerthump" accompanied by my motion-sensor lights lighting up. The combination usually means there is someone or something thrashing about in my yard in an unauthorized manner which may be in need of a bit of lead poisoning.
So, I grabbed my trusty "not an assault weapon" from it's usual home right next to my throne - erm, uh, I mean right next to my big comfy chair - and went to the door to see what was up. Now, my front door is on an enclosed and darkened front porch so that anyone outside can't look in and see me silhouetted against any light. That way, I can see them, but they can't see ME, and that's the way I like it.
There was no one, and no thing, there. The nearest street light is about 80 or 90 yards away, across the road and up on the hillside in my neighbor's yard. I have one in my yard, but it's long ago been rendered inoperative because I don't like them. There were no clouds in the sky and no moon. The stars were bright, and I could see Orion just starting to slide behind the hill to my west. So while I'm observing, looking for motion to key in on, I saw a flash across the sky. It wasn't big, probably about half a degree long (about the width of a full moon) and 2/3 to half of that wide, oval shaped, moving west to east to the south of my position. It wasn't blindingly bright or anything - it was actually pretty dim. It reminded me of a search light striking clouds, except there weren't any clouds, and there weren't any search lights. That also puts the brakes on my other analogy - it looked like a dimly glowing cloud scooting across the sky... but again, there weren't any clouds, and there would have to have been some pretty zippy winds for it to move that fast, but there wasn't any wind.
No idea what it was. It wasn't Santa, the reason for my initial reluctance to tell the tale being the thought that some would think I was perpetrating a Christmas hoax. It looked like a glowing, moving cloud, not a sleigh drawn by 8 tiny reindeer. I'm just reporting what I saw, not trying to explain it.
While I stood there in the dark pondering it, my motion-sensor light went off yet again... but there was nothing there to set it off. That, however, is not an unusual occurrence around here. While the motion light was turned off, the ambient light outdoors did suddenly dim, twice, like a street lamp turning off, but the neighbor's street light stayed as it always is, and I never determined why the ambient light dimmed. Whatever the source, it was coming from towards the other end of my house and fairly high up, and the roof blocked a direct view of it. I watched and waited, waited and watched, and never did see anything else. No more lights, nothing moving in my yard.
I gather that such events are not entirely unheard of around here. I have several reports from two other witnesses over time, who shall remain nameless, since I've not gotten their permission to name them.
One, a woman, told me several days ago that a few months back, around the beginning of September, she was outside on her porch smoking around 2 AM when she noticed a blinking light moving across the sky. That isn't unusual - airplanes fly over here all the time on their way to somewhere, anywhere, else. She said the strobe was entirely white, no red or green that can usually be seen on airplanes, which is what drew her attention. Suddenly, according to her, that tiny strobe "whooshed" (her words, by way of description, without any actual sound - I took it to mean an instantaneous expansion) into a MUCH larger, long thin lozenge-shaped light. It stayed that way a few seconds, and then disappeared altogether - not even the tiny strobe was left... but that wasn't the end.
She then removed herself from her porch and walked across the road to a grove of trees to try and see if she could get a view of a different section of sky to determine where it went (these hills are STEEP around here), but it was gone... or so she thought. While pondering what could do that, she says that it suddenly reappeared in another location, then drifted over the back of my house where it instantaneously expanded again and then POOF! it disappeared for the final time, directly over the back of my house.
My pitiful little glowing cloud kinda pales in comparison to that.
That same woman said that some time in the past - she didn't specify when - she and her husband both saw an oddly shaped aerial vehicle that went up over the mountain to my south. She said it was "shaped like a barbell, with two absolutely round ball shapes on the end with a catwalk connecting them". The direction of travel was lengthwise, with one ball leading, the catwalk connecting, and the other ball trailing. She and her husband jumped in his truck and chased it up the mountain, but after they got to the top it poofed away into the clouds at a pretty fast clip... and the truck could not follow it there.
She also reports that 4 or 5 years ago she followed a bright red glowing "kidney shaped" anomaly all the way down the mountain from the top one night on her way home from work. That one was also seen by her son who was home at the time, and she said it created a panic in him.
Not to be outdone, another gentleman from this neighborhood told me some time ago of an incident that occurred many years ago. He said it happened about half way down this hollow between here and the river at the mouth of the hollow. At that point, the ridges that enclose the hollow are probably about 700 meters apart. He and a friend were standing outside talking, in broad daylight, when a shadow passed over. They looked up, and saw a "machine" or a "craft" that was silently and slowly gliding along in the sky, just above the ridges. It was so big, he said, that the front end of it disappeared beyond the ridge to the southeast and the back end had not yet cleared the ridge to the northwest. He mentioned that it took about a minute for the whole thing to pass over and disappear. He had no idea what it was, and still doesn't. All he will say is "I don't know if we were supposed to see it or not, but I sure hope we were!" implying that he thought it might have been a secret government "thing".
I always miss out - all this spectacular stuff, and all I get to see is a crappy little glowing cloud zipping along!
.
Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king.
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’
Said Aristippus, ‘If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils.’ Said Diogenes, ‘Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.’