It's not fair!

Today I interviewed the people who are living in the house from Midway Plantation. Dena grew up here in Davis and moved to No. Carolina after she and Charlie married 10 years ago. They have lived in the house about 8 years now.

Though I hadn't intended it, a good part of our chat today revolved around the house's ghosts, most of whom have moved with the house (though apparently some remained on the land where the house was located. Employees of PetSmart have apparently had real problems with merchandise moving around in the stock room. One of the pharmacists at Target said that tere had been strange things happening. For example, prescriptions which are organized at night before the employees leave are found rearranged and put in the wrong place when the employees come in in the morning.

Everyone just takes it for granted that it's some of the Midway ghosts.

This is the way it was explained to me:

"We know that my dad's ghost has moved and my Great Great Aunt has moved and the ghost cats have moved."

"Ghost cats?" I asked.

"You can tell when it’s a cat—it moves like a cat."

They apparently see the ghosts.

"The 'nice lady' has moved. We think it’s Charlie’s grandmother. We haven’t seen her really clearly, but his granddaughter does see her. Miss Mary [Charlie's aunt] moved and has been very pleased with the new location."

Miss Mary apparently appears as a wren who flies through the house. "We have some pictures of her in the house before it moved and then she’s flown in since then and checked everything out. She is very happy with it."

Dena said that when she first moved into the house, she walked around the rooms and talked with the spirits, explaining how happy she was to be there and asking them to please hold off showing themselves to her until she got used to the idea of living with them. Apparently they did.

They said that the only faux pas Dena committed was when she wanted to put the Christmas tree in the parlor their first year in the house. Charlie told her that was Miss Mary's room and she would not be happy with the tree in there, and suggested they put it in the hall. But Dena was adamant.

The tree went up and in the middle of the night they heard a crash and found it knocked over. Only one ornament was broken. "She was gentle, but she made her point," Dena said. The tree moved out into the hall.

The thing about these stories is that they are just so believable. The family just accepts the generations of ghosts who live in the house. "It’s much better if you think of them as real relatives rather than ghosts. I lived with them as people so it’s not hard for me to see they’re really there."

The employees at PetSmart and Target accept the ghosts who are now causing mischief in the business which took over the land that was once the plantation.

It seems that ghosts go with old houses. I remember a doctor who I used to be in contact with through La Leche League. He lived in a house that was generally accepted to be "haunted." Everyone just accepted the presence of ghosts, seeing them and "feeling" them.

The play I saw last night took place in a cemetery and one of the characters was obviously the ghost of a child who had died. The ghost made a significant (if silent) contribution to the story.

We know all about Scrooge's interaction with Marley and his buddies.

What I want to know is--if ghosts are able to walk (or fly?) around and interact with the living, why don't we see them in modern houses. I have read Paul and David the riot act. Why aren't they haunting this house? Why haven't they come back to do mischief, or interact with someone? It doesn't seem fair.

I mean the least they could do, since they don't have anything better to do these days, is to help clean up.

I've spent the day trying to prepare for the arrival of my friend Mary, who flies in from Wisconsin tomorrow for a 4-day visit. It was my grand plan to get the kitchen counter cleaned off, the kitchen table cleaned off, the living room all straightened, vacuumed and dusted, Lizzie bathed, etc., etc., etc.

Well, screw that! I did get some stuff done, but she has assured me that it won't make any difference to her. Yeah--but she thinks "cat hair on your pants" is her way of saying she's a bad housekeeper. Heh heh heh. She doesn't know from bad housekeeping! She's in for a real education.

However, it's 1000% better that it was .... well...make that 100% better. You have to work for two days around here to get this house improved to "awful" condition.

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My wonderful family bought me a Reebok 8700 treadmill. I got the word from Ned today that it has been ordered and that the company will be calling me to arrange for delivery and set-up. Walt and I were at Costco yesterday and I got one one of the home treadmills on display there and loved the feel of it, so I know that I'm going to get a lot of use out of this machine...and so will Walt (maybe I'll even teach the dogs how to walk on it!!!)

Thank you, guys. I love you all so much!