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Michaelaw
11-09-2009, 11:43 PM
So I thought this might be a fun thread, a place where we could share things, strange goings on, unexplained events and general weirdness:) I'll start.

W hen I was twelve or so I had a plastic battery operated toy Tank that I used to play with in my back yard. The yard was all grass save for a concrete path which went down the side of the house about forty feet connecting to the front yard. The backyard was fully surrounded by a six foot high hedge. The back porch of the house had a set of wooden steps leading down to the yard and was nine or ten feet above the yard. One day I had the tank driving itself across the grass but GI Joe was up on the porch sitting quietly in his orange flight suit. As Joe was an integral part of my imaginary game, I raced up the ten or so steps, grabbed him off the porch and flew back down to the yard. The tank was gone! No amount of hours or days of searching ever revealed where the tank had gone. In a perfectly square twenty by twenty foot yard walled in by a six foot hedge my tank had vanished!

Mad Aussie
11-10-2009, 03:52 AM
So I thought this might be a fun thread, a place where we could share things, strange goings on, unexplained events and general weirdness:) I'll start.

W hen I was twelve or so I had a plastic battery operated toy Tank that I used to play with in my back yard. The yard was all grass save for a concrete path which went down the side of the house about forty feet connecting to the front yard. The backyard was fully surrounded by a six foot high hedge. The back porch of the house had a set of wooden steps leading down to the yard and was nine or ten feet above the yard. One day I had the tank driving itself across the grass but GI Joe was up on the porch sitting quietly in his orange flight suit. As Joe was an integral part of my imaginary game, I raced up the ten or so steps, grabbed him off the porch and flew back down to the yard. The tank was gone! No amount of hours or days of searching ever revealed where the tank had gone. In a perfectly square twenty by twenty foot yard walled in by a six foot hedge my tank had vanished!
Eagle!

casil403
11-10-2009, 08:54 AM
OK I got one....
A few years back, I made a wedding cake for a good friend's daughter. Didn't like the daughter much (complete Bridezilla) but loved the friend so that's why I did it. For their wedding gift, on each table they had a personalized golf ball with both their names and their wedding date. I forgot to take mine home and seeing as I didn't much like the daughter anyway...no big deal...lol! My friend eventually moved away to the coast a year later and we pretty much lost touch shortly after that.
So one day, a couple of years later, I'm out golfing a par 3 at one of the local courses and I hit my ball far off into a gully somewhere so off I go to look for it. I never found my ball but I did find another ball instead....one of their wedding balls!

Mad Aussie
11-10-2009, 08:59 AM
OK I got one....
A few years back, I made a wedding cake for a good friend's daughter. Didn't like the daughter much (complete Bridezilla) but loved the friend so that's why I did it. For their wedding gift, on each table they had a personalized golf ball with both their names and their wedding date. I forgot to take mine home and seeing as I didn't much like the daughter anyway...no big deal...lol! My friend eventually moved away to the coast a year later and we pretty much lost touch shortly after that.
So one day, a couple of years later, I'm out golfing a par 3 at one of the local courses and I hit my ball far off into a gully somewhere so off I go to look for it. I never found my ball but I did find another ball instead....one of their wedding balls!
Well unless they had a 1000 guests and most of them were golfers living in that area ... that's a spooky coincidence!

casil403
11-10-2009, 09:09 AM
80 guests maximum and many were not golfers! :eek:

Bambi
11-10-2009, 09:24 AM
No explanation for the truck. Perhaps a gopher drove it away?

the golf balls: unless they were high quality, no one would use them (at least that's what my husband says). However if someone were in a fun tournament they might get used. Also, with a fun tournament it's usually 'best ball' which might explain how it got left behind.

Here's what happened to me yesterday: I was walking the dogs on our usual trail by the lake and I see a pile of feathers. Dogs sniffing but not too interested. My first thought was 'duck' (the bird not the action ;)). but when I got close some of the feathers had a brown and white 'v' pattern and were too large to belong to a duck. I then say a single raptor talon. No blood, no guts, no body, just the feathers and the talon. I think it might be an Osprey.

Anyway, I decided to head back :)

Michaelaw
11-10-2009, 01:17 PM
Here’s a strange one. Years ago I had the pleasure of living in Edmonton for a few years. I remember one winter it was consistently getting down to -47 at night, cold enough with wind chill that if your car was not plugged in there was just no way it would turn over in the morning. Every night I would plug the car in but in the morning it would not always turn over. It was so cold that even looking under the hood for more than five minutes was painful! The problem was intermittent, sometimes it would go but most times not. I was so frustrated for weeks I’d lift the hood for a few minutes at a time, curse and swear at the cold before beating a retreat back inside to the warmth. I could not find the problem. One night I had a dream, and in that dream I was under the hood and found a small break in one of the three wires that led from the electrical plug to the engine block heater. In the dream, the break was well behind the radiator where a bit of the cable passed. I woke up in the morning, remembered the dream but couldn’t believe it was anything more than wishful thinking, or dreaming in this case. But I was so frustrated by this problem that I donned my Parka, mitts and hat and headed for the car. It wouldn’t start! I lifted the hood and checked the cable for the break I had seen in the dream, sure enough a complete break in one of the three wires but you’d have to know it was there to find it. I fixed the break and had no more trouble. I always wonder about dreams like that, I’ve had a few in my life and they always remind me that the reality I subscribe to is not necessarily the reality that is!

Greg_Nuspel
11-10-2009, 03:19 PM
This week I rebuilt the pallet changer clamping mechanism on one of our machines at work. After placing the 75 Kilo part back on the machine and loosely inserting the bolts. I went to dial in the component. This involves running an indicator over a machined surface to check it's alignment. Over a 30 inch (76 cm) travel the dial did not move, this shows it was within 0.0005"/.00127cm of being perfectly aligned to the axis of travel. I had to check the dial to ensure it was working.

EJC
11-10-2009, 06:29 PM
This week I rebuilt the pallet changer clamping mechanism on one of our machines at work. After placing the 75 Kilo part back on the machine and loosely inserting the bolts. I went to dial in the component. This involves running an indicator over a machined surface to check it's alignment. Over a 30 inch (76 cm) travel the dial did not move, this shows it was within 0.0005"/.00127cm of being perfectly aligned to the axis of travel. I had to check the dial to ensure it was working.

That's not weird it just means you are a good machinist. Now we expect all your work to be within that tolerance.

I'm an aircraft mechanic. I was in the cockpit jump seat riding back from Las Vegas to Calgary 10 years ago. We were flying through thin ice cloud at high altitude. The pilots occasionally turned on lights to check the wings for ice accumulation which would light up the whole cloud around us for a few seconds. We knew from listening to air traffic control there were no other aircraft within many miles of us. A few minutes after one of these checks as our eyes became adjusted to the dark the cloud lit up even though our lights were off. Was it the military stalking us or the mother ship signalling?

Greg_Nuspel
11-10-2009, 07:21 PM
That's not weird it just means you are a good machinist. Now we expect all your work to be within that tolerance.

No the part has about 1/8 clearance on the bolts so it was magic.

kat
11-10-2009, 07:29 PM
I don't know if this is included in this theme or not but ...

I remember visiting grandma's house one year and sitting in the living room listening to the old newfie music. And out of the corner of my eye..the rocking chair starts rocking. Now I was the only person in that room.

What caused that chair to rock? Maybe the heat started in the register, vibration from people dancing in the kitchen..I don't know.

For a slight moment I felt panic then I realized that was grandpa's rocking chair. So I started to sing and clap away just as he did many times in that chair.

It's official..I am a loon.

Iguanasan
11-10-2009, 08:34 PM
That's not weird it just means you are a good machinist. Now we expect all your work to be within that tolerance.

I'm an aircraft mechanic. I was in the cockpit jump seat riding back from Las Vegas to Calgary 10 years ago. We were flying through thin ice cloud at high altitude. The pilots occasionally turned on lights to check the wings for ice accumulation which would light up the whole cloud around us for a few seconds. We knew from listening to air traffic control there were no other aircraft within many miles of us. A few minutes after one of these checks as our eyes became adjusted to the dark the cloud lit up even though our lights were off. Was it the military stalking us or the mother ship signalling?

I'd say it was static electricity - lightning. Or maybe it was the mother ship ;)

Michaelaw
11-11-2009, 02:06 AM
Cool story EJ and I'm baffled. I only know that it would have been very cool to be you at that moment in that jump seat. I got really cool images in my mind of the pilots turning on the lights and what that would look like from your perspective. I was thinking along Igy's line but realized I'd probably have to have been there to even hazard a guess. The long and short of it is, it was a mother ship! :D

crystalb
11-11-2009, 01:07 PM
About 9 years ago, we were driving home from Lethbridge Ab, at about 5:00am.
It was still dark out, not daybreak yet, and we seen a white light flashing on the left side of the road above the ground. (we thought it was a tower with a blinking light on top, not uncommon)
As we drove on the light then flashed on the otherside of the road, then again high in the sky on the right side of road and then again high on the left side and then was gone. At each stop it stayed long enough to blink 3 or 4 times, and it did not blink while it moved between the points. All of this happened in a span of maybe 6 seconds

May it was a fancy new military plane? But knowing Canada, probably not ;)
All of us in the car seen this and we still can't figure it out....


*Cue twilight zone theme song*

Xenos
11-13-2009, 04:48 AM
I'm a dog lover and have always been good with dogs. Even dogs who are known to be violent. I had met a wolf when I was 18, a guy who lived in the country used to breed it with other dogs and I was amazed by it. He moved while I lived in Saskatchewan a year later and I'd always hoped to get to have an encounter like that with a wolf again.

A few yrs ago I was driving through Crowsnest Pass (Hwy 3) heading to a buddies wedding in Lethbridge. I was driving through the mountains and that thought came to me and I voiced it to the girl who was riding along with me.

About an hour later between Grand Forks and Creston I saw something laying on the shoulder, road kill I thought. As we passed I noticed the head lift and saw those yellow eyes look right at me, felt like they looked into my soul. I hammered the brakes and jumped out of the car and walked back to what I saw. It was a wolf laying there. It growled at me as I walked up to him and I stopped and thought "Oh ****."

I got down on my hands and knees and stayed still for a couple minutes. Hoping for the wolf to relax. He didn't. He growled a couple more times while looking at me. He kept looking at his front foot and knawing at it. I started whistling softly and moved towards him. I got right beside him. He looked at me and snarled. I'd never seen teeth like that. I almost crapped my pants while thinking "What the **** am I doing." That's when I noticed there was a big piece of metal sticking out of his foot.

I put my hand out to him, he sniffed a couple times and seemed to relax. I pet his side for a minute or so and started up his body toward his foot. I took a couple minutes to reach his foot and started stroking it. After a couple minutes, I grabbed the piece of metal with my fingers, pet his cheek, then gripped his paw and pulled the metal out. He growled, barked and snapped at me, grazing my hand. I swear only one tooth hit me, it sliced like a razor blade. He ran about 10 feet and stopped.

Shana was outside the car when this happened. She saw it all and thought I was hurt bad. I was still sitting on the ground. All of a sudden she spoke, "Glenn. Turn around reallllllllyyyyy slow." I turned to see 4 wolves, 3 were kind of average size like the one with the injury and one was HUGE. The wolf that had the metal in his foot walked toward me and stopped about 5 ft away. The other wolves moved closer. They were making noise, sounded like growling, whining and crying all mixed together.

Shana thought I was a dead man when the huge wolf walked right up to me, face to to face. I stayed as calm as I could, trying to not show any fear. It sniffed me a couple times and then sat in front of me and looked at me. The one that I helped came over beside me and licked my face a few times. The big one stood up and let out a blood curdling howl and they all trotted off on their way.

I sat there for a few minutes in awe before I got up and got in the car and drove on.

Last year I ran into the guy I knew from 15 yrs ago who had the wolf. We got talking and he said he'd taken in a wolf that had been injured and needed care. It's foot had been sliced badly by some kind of "blade" near Creston. He asked me if I wanted to come by and see it. I said sure. I wasn't even thinking of the incident when I'd been driving through the pass.

I followed him to his house, about 5 miles from where his old place had been. Got out and we went to the kennel. We walked in and he told me this one was a little grumpy sometimes and to avoid his left front paw. I looked at him and asked if that had been the injured foot. He said yes. I got a shiver and the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I told him the story and he was gobsmacked. Didn't know what to say. We went into the kennel and closed the door. The wolf looked at us and came over to us with a light limp. He sniffed at Gord and then turned and sniffed me. I put my hand down my side for him to sniff. When he did, he looked up at me rather quickly, made eye contact with me with those yellow eyes, wagged his tail, moaned and lay down and rolled over into submission for me, all in about 5 seconds. I lay down beside him and was able to give him a belly rub and he licked my face before getting up and walking around.

Gord was amazed. He said he'd never seen a wolf do that, ever. He told the conservation officer about and he was shocked as well. He didn't believe him until a few days later I went into the kennel unacompanied (against the conservation officers wishes) and sat down and the wolf came to me and licked my face.

The wolf passed on about a year ago.

I always get a shiver when I hear a wolf howl in the wilderness.

Mad Aussie
11-13-2009, 05:15 AM
Bloody Hell Xenos ... you're nutter! As soon as I read the wolf was lying down by the road my first thought was "where's the others?" I was thinking classic wolf strategy ... decoy in the prey and then pounce with the rest of the pack.
That's some story!
Xenos the Wolf Whisperer!

casil403
11-13-2009, 08:41 AM
Wow Xenos...I got shivers now too! GREAT story! :highfive:

Iguanasan
11-13-2009, 08:50 AM
I'm not Brit or Aussie but "Bloody Hell" is the phrase that came to mind! ;)

That's quite a story. Wow. Thanks for sharing it.

Fortytwo
11-13-2009, 08:58 AM
Crazy story! Althought I've only seen wolfs in the zoo. The most dangerous animals around here are rabbits and cows...

Michaelaw
11-13-2009, 10:45 AM
Great story X, I enjoyed the whole thing beginning to end:highfive:

JAS_Photo
11-13-2009, 12:08 PM
Yep, cool story!

Bambi
11-13-2009, 01:53 PM
Bloody Hell is right.

But I would have done the same. My mother used to have a fit because I befriended all the guard dogs in the neighbourhood. I might have been bitten but I still would have done it.

Here's a different sort of story on the same theme. I used to have a horse named Woody. He was my first one :). At one place that I had him boarded he spent some time on pasture board with another horse-an Anglo-Arab. One day when I finished riding it was past feeding time. So I put myhorse out to his pasture and he trotted off. I then went and got the feed and came back. As i was walking into the pasture I heard a noise and looked around. I saw the Anglo-Arab comeing at me, head snaked out, ears flat and teeth bared. Horses only do that when they mean to do serious harm. It's not a warning or a display, it's what they do when they mean to kill dogs or other predators. All I have is a bucket in one hand and I'm too far away from the fence. And I'm thinking 'oh $H@#$!' So I get ready to swing the bucket and duck. Right before the horse was within 10 feet of me Woody came out of no where and slammed to a halt between me and the other horse. I swear to god he closed his eyes and braced himself. The horse came to a halt and then tried to get around Woody. Woody just kept coming between me and him. I walked over to the feed bin as quietly as I could, filled it and then walked away. The attacking horse settled in to eat. I then filled Woody's, gave him a pat and walked away. Woody left his feed (horse's NEVER do this, ever!) and 'escorted' me to the gate. Once the gate was closed he went back to his feed. I sat down and shook a little bit. :eek:

from that day on, he always stayed with me and escorted me out of the paddock.

Xenos
11-13-2009, 01:59 PM
I didn't realize how long I went... Sorry about that. I tend to be a little detail oriented and make sure that people know exactly what happened etc.

The weirdest experience I think I've ever had was taking a picture of a building dowtown Vancouver. I had a bit of a slow shutter speed (at night) a guy walked into the frame and I was like dammit. He looked over at me and said "Don't worry." and kept walking. I was thinking, I'm not worried about taking your picture because I'm just going to delete it and retake it. Before deleting it though I wanted to glance at it and see how the exposure worked out etc.

I looked at it, did a double take at it, looked down the street, he was still walking there, looked at my camera again. He wasn't in the photo. He'd walked right through the scene, shutter was open the whole time he walked by. I looked down the street again (2 seconds after looking before) and he was gone. There were no doorways or alleys or streets to have gone down.

Do Vampires really exist?

crystalb
11-13-2009, 02:08 PM
oooohh, these are good!