Welcome back! *waves*

Oh, cool, catacombs! And some great pictures. :-)

Oooh! Poe's grave! Very cool :o)

Very cool. And I recently posted a photo of where (sort of, if you squint) he was born. I think we have Poe covered! :o)

Thanks so much for the b'day shout-out! Lovely to have you thinking of me. Have been missing your presence in my world. Srsly. xx

I looked at a property for sale last year recently which had heavy exterior deadbolts on two of the bedroom doors. I went down into the basement by myself because my agent had a mold allergy, and didn't really care for it down there.

Another agent (who I recently purchased a house through) told me that the first time she showed the house, which was allegedly vacant, the bed looked just slept in. The nest time, she looked in the window and a rocking horse was right next to the full length window panel next to the front door. She didn't even go in this time, she just let the buyers (friends of hers) in to see it for themselves.


""The match scraped on the box, and flared up, dully; and in the same instant, I heard a faint sound behind me. I whipped round, in a kind of mad terror, and saw something, in the light of the match -- a monstrous horse-head, close to Beaumont.

"'Look out, Beaumont!' I shouted in a sort of scream. 'It's behind you!'

"The match went out, abruptly, and instantly there came the huge bang of Parsket's double-barrel (both barrels at once), fired (evidently single-handed by Beaumont) close to my ear, as it seemed. I caught a momentary glimpse of the great head, in the flash, and of an enormous hoof amid the belch of fire and smoke, seeming to be descending upon Beaumont. In the same instant, I fired three chambers of my revolver. There was the sound of a dull blow, and then that horrible, gobbling neigh, broke out close to me. I fired twice at the sound. Immediately afterwards, Something struck me, and I was knocked backwards."

William Hope Hodgson, The Horse of the Invisible

What author first appreciated the creepy quality of rocking horses (or merry-go-round horses)?


I've been seeing vehicles in the driveway recently and it no longer shows up on realtor.com. It's either under contract or sold (for at least 28% less than it listed for when I viewed it), or rented.

Even though it's mostly finished, my house has a fairly creepy basement by virtue of its length (90'), Buffalo Bill-style layout, and lack of natural light for most of its length. If there was ever a power outage when I was down there (it will be mostly for storage and the usual home systems, but I am planning a home gym in the large rec room), I would be in great consternation.

Just to be sure nothing emerges, I shall have to incribe the first and eighth signs of the Saaamaaa Ritual on the doorposts of the walkup stairs.

---

“‘My God!’ he said, and went forward again, and shone his light down the steps; but there was nothing visible, only that on each step showed the unnatural footprints.

“The inspector brought the beam of the light vividly on the top step; and there, clear in the light, there was something small, moving. The inspector bent to look, and the policeman and I with him. I don’t want to disgust you; but the thing we looked at was a maggot. The policeman backed suddenly out of the doorway:

“‘The churchyard,’ he said, ‘... at the back of the ’ouse.’

- Wm Hope Hodgson, The Searcher of the End House


You're right, your page is very slow.