Juel's Journal

Our 14th Anniversary

The kids don't understand what an anniversary is, they only knew 'their' anniversary was today, and they were gonna get to go to Big Boy's again. Yay! *laughs* They do so enjoy those hot fudge cakes.

I took this one with Mikyla's little Polaroid. Either the settings need changed, or it's just not a very good camera. Still.. it's the only picture I got tonight, so here it is. :)

We took the girls, and Bonnie and Kelly and Joel joined us, as did Lisa and Nick, and we had a really nice dinner. Lisa came with gift bags, anniversary gifts of course, for not only Stan and me, but little ballerina statues for the girls as well. It was their anniversary too, after all. Bonnie gave me some of the prettiest Pearl ear-rings, and Mom, Dad and Papaw sent us cards with MONEY in them, we do so love money. You guys shouldn't have done that. Thank you all!

We bought the girls new back packs and lunch boxes for their anniversary. They got to pick them out and so were happy with them. Mik and Mal also got a 'remembery' stick for their cameras, so they can take as many pictures now as they want to. Believe it or not, Mikyla figured out what it was earlier today, tried MY 'remembery' stick I had in my Kodak, and dang if it didn't fit her Polaroid, so it was either buy her her own, or lose mine. That kid is a PIRATE!
(When they get tired of their cameras, I'll have 3 'remembery' sticks so HA!)

Those of you with an acute sense of detectiveriness (yes, that's a word - well, it is now) will notice the time on this post. The unGodly hour of 4:00 A.M. - posting here, when I should be sleeping.. it's only 2 hours until time to wake the girls for school, but for the life of me I can't sleep. I'm too freaked out. Too uneasy. Too.. spooked to sleep.

I'm sure it's nothing more than Sarah's bedtime stories earlier tonight that's caused this unease, but just in case I'm getting haunted as a bonus, I'm playing it safe and just staying awake and alert.

Sarah and her husband are in Mississippi, Gulfport to be precise. Working when it's not raining, which is often lately...and when they're not working, they go out looking at the sights, today was such a day. She said all the beaches are closed, but while they were riding around, they saw a spot where 4 trucks were parked, people out walking the beach, so she and Roy stopped as well.

She said that they walked a mile down the beach and back up, and that the sand was full of not only shells, but human bones. She's going to go back to get photos to send me to prove it.. as I was finding it hard to believe. She said that there were so many, just lying on the sand, that it was like a horror movie. Jawbones, something she tried to identify, calling it cartledge from what looked to be an ear from the shape. Large bones, small bones she said had to belong to children. Just lying there on the beach. Along with the shells.

Roy kicked a bag and said that he could see what looked like a spine inside. It could have been an animal's, but he said it just made his skin crawl, that he just couldn't help but think it was human. Too, they saw a latex glove with what looked to be a black mummified hand inside. She's right. I'm going to need to see photos of those things to believe it. How horrible.

It's not impossible though, I did some online research, to see if someone had already taken photos of the beaches recently, but couldnt' find any. However I did find a site that explained which of the beaches there were still closed and why.

Mississippi Dept of Environmental Quality

It looks pretty much to be all of them in Harrison County.. because of 'debris' in the water. This site says that while their water analysis has indicated no problems with bacteria levels, it's not a good idea to go in just in case.

I suppose the beaches could be littered with human remains.. Katrina certainly killed a lot of people, as well as flooded cemeteries, and I did read where a lot of graveyards were flooded and tombs were broken and bodies did float away. Yes, I suppose what Sarah's saying is possible. Ugh. It's been over a year.. it was a year in August. It looks like our government would have created some kind of clean up crew just for that, doesn't it?

Hang on a second, I have to get my heart beating again.

May I say "FUCK!!!"? I'm already as jumpy as a cricket in a henhouse and the flippin' square of paneling that hides the attic crawlspace in my closet ceiling just fell down and hit Fudge, who decided the best reaction was to bark fiercely at the offending wood, which only added to my terror. I put my Christmas things up there earlier today and must not have put the paneling back right.
My only consolation is that tonight can not possibly be as long to last as it has been for these past 4 1/2 hours.

A while ago I decided to go straighten the kitchen, and while I was wiping off the counters and table, the light took a notion to dim. Then brighten. Then dim.. then brighten. It didn't flicker, it didn't flash, no tricks like Don described, after Midge died - just dim and bright, over and over.. I sat at the table and watched it for a time, half expecting the light to be the announcer for an otherworldly guest who was ready to pop in for a chat, but when that didn't happen, I stood up and tapped it to see if maybe a bulb was trying to blow. It stopped doing its dimming trick, but no bulb blew.

Then I started hearing rain. Very hard rain coming from out back, but when I looked, it wasn't raining. So I thought, well maybe it's just raining out front. (Yes, that's possible, I've seen it rain in one spot and a foot away be as dry as the Sahara) That, however wasn't the case. There was no rain, though I could clearly hear a downpour. That's when I eased myself on in here to get on the computer for a while. No, I wasn't ascared (Yes I was!) it's just warmer in here, and I was cold.

The neighbor's frickin' dogs are in their kennels out back, barking up a storm again, they have been all night.. as they've been doing every night since last summer. I don't understand how he can tell if there are prowlers when the blasted things never stop barking!

Okay, it's 4:30 now. I have 2 hours to go fix the girls' lunches, maybe watch a movie, maybe doze a little. (Yeah right...) If Mallory would stop thrashing in her sleep, and if Mikyla would stop moaning like something out of one of Sir Graves Ghastly's shows, and if things would stop falling, stop barking, and stop dimming and brightening...and if things would stop sounding like they were walking down the hall to my bedroom door, I think I really might be able to doze for an hour or so! I really do! G'nite, World!

Posted by juel at January 2, 2007 04:33 AM