It really didn’t seem like a public holiday today other than the post office being closed as well as a few other government offices and banks. At first I thought it a bit like a Sunday morning with fewer people out and about, but the real reason was likely the strong wind from the north keeping people inside. Since my office is only a half block from The Manor which is a senior living apartment building, I didn’t see but one of them out early this morning likely due to those chilly gusts of wind. Later today, I was called over there to visit a client and she said she’d not yet been out due to the windy weather. I can understand why elderly people are more careful about walking outside when the wind is blowing hard and most know that when the wind blows between tall buildings, there are wind tunnels created. My visiting relative who is still here mentioned how she’d forgotten how windy it can sometimes be in Mason City. I told her it really doesn’t bother me at all other than when it’s winter and the high winds create dangerous walking and driving conditions. We both got a good laugh when I said, “Maybe we should create an artificial mountain to the north and west of Mason City to where if it were tall and wide enough, would block the wind and it would just blow up and over us like it does in some of the more hilly and mountainous areas of our country.” One of my dear friends once lived near the bottom of Carolina hill and State Street here in Mason City. She used to marvel at how she could hear the strong winds blowing above her but not much around her house. She didn’t realize she was living in a lowland of the downtown where the wind just blows over the tops of the trees and houses of that area. The full force of the wind is usually felt on the stretch of Highway 122 between Mason City and Clear Lake. There’s not much out on those flat acres of land to slow the winds down.
Since we’re approaching Halloween I thought it best to tell something a bit scary that I heard recently from someone who is certainly not a fabricator of tales. One of my friends stopped by the office some weeks ago to tell me of some creepy happenings in the home of one of his friends. I normally don’t talk to people about such things, but this person and I once encountered some strange things happening in a home I showed him and his family. With that said, my friend began the story by saying this particular friend of his decided to do some re-modeling in the basement of a home he and his family purchased some time ago. At first he thought he’d left some tools lay in the basement in a position to where they sort of “fell” off the workbench and onto the floor. The next time he finished up for that day on the project, he made sure all his tools were placed back where they belonged. That night he was awakened by the sound of crashing metal in the basement. He got up and ran down the basement to find all the tools he’d hung on the wall and placed on shelves were strewn on the basement floor. Both he and his wife were starting to get very concerned about someone being in their home. Several nights later while in bed sleeping, he was suddenly awakened and upon opening his eyes, found a ghostly man and a woman holding a baby in her arms staring down at him while hovering from above. He was frozen in terror watching them for moments which felt like hours until they suddenly disappeared. He quickly awakened his wife and told her what happened. They stopped work in the basement for fear they were conjuring up some angry spirits in their home. A few days later their daughter and son started telling them that certain parts of their home were haunted. That sort of talk had never come from the mouths of their children before. After he told me the story I certainly had goose bumps as well. I did mention I’d heard about people having strange visitations of entities while doing re-modeling projects in their homes. Evidently that house must be one that contains the spirits of previous owners who simply don’t like things being changed. So tonight when you think you’re hearing some off world wailing of ghosts, don’t worry, it’s likely only the Albert Clipper moving through.
