ABOUT FACTS NET Strange

Did you ever have a strange thing happen to you, something that seemed very odd? You probably have, but you may not think about it much. I have talked to a few people about such events and you would be surprised at what I was told. Some people told me of experiences that closely resembled those of my own. One of the first things that was mentioned was an incident in which time seemed to slow down all around the person but yet not for him. One man told me a story about when he was about 12 years old. He said that some other kid threw a rock at him but he felt that it was taking forever to reach him and he was able to get to that other person who was about 50 feet away before the rock ever reached the spot he was in. I remember when I was a child, I fell through the center of the monkey bars, at a playground, head first. If felt like it took forever to reach the bottom. I had time to recall a lot of things. I was lucky, my head hit my arm which hit the concrete and I didn't even get a scratch as unbelievable as that sounds. I never stood on the very top of the bars again. At another time, my daughter was falling on the stairs and somehow I managed to race from the couch to the stair case and catch her. It was an impossible distance to make this catch from.

Another experience that was very strange for me was what I like to call my tv experience. I have always had trouble purchasing electronic devices, I would get them home and they just wouldn't function and I would have to return them at least once and sometimes more. One time I purchased a stereo and plugged it in and a few minutes it went up in flames, but here is my tv experience. I went to a department store and they had tvs on sale. Not that it matters but this was in the days when tvs had mechanical tuners. I purchased one and brought it home. When I plugged it in, the picture kept rolling and no amount of adjustment could stop it. Disgusted I brought it back to the store and exchanged it for another one. I brought that one home, plugged it in and the picture kept going from side to side. Again it couldn't be adjusted. I tried one of my other tvs on the line and it worked fine. These tvs were purchased from a reputable store. I returned the tv and decided to go to a different store. I purchased a tv and brought it home and it wouldn't go on. Now what are the odds of something like this happening. They are probably longer than winning the lottery. I returned the television and decided to try once more and purchased a Sanyo color tv, brought it home and it worked fine. Not only did it work fine, but it lasted for over 15 years and was still working when I replaced it with a model with a bigger screen. Another time I was given an expensive transistor radio for a present for my birthday. This was in the days when transistors first came out, the radio was over $50.00 which today would be more like $200 or more. You guessed it, even then I had the electrical curse, the radio blew out after a short time. The curse extended into the computer age. I purchased accessories for my Amiga computer such as a disk drive. I remember how happy I was and couldn't wait to hook it up, a disk drive in those days was a big thing, many people were using tape recorders as drives. I hooked up the disk drive but it wouldn't read a disk. Disappointed I returned the drive for another thinking that I should have known this would happen because I had just experienced problems with my car's tape player, it kept eating my tapes. I got a new drive but that didn't work either. Man was I mad. Out again I went to exchange it. To my embarrassment, I got the same clerk that I had returned the previous drive to. He looked at me like I had two heads. He pulled the drive out of the box and hooked it up to an Amiga computer that they had in the store. Sweat began to run down my forehead, would it work on his computer making me look like a fool? It didn't work, thank goodness. He checked the serial number carefully, I guess he thought that I had exchanged a new drive with a broken one, but the numbers matched. He got me another drive, I brought it home and it worked.

The electronic curse also extended to many other devices. My wife and I decided it was time to get a new wall phone for the kitchen. We picked one that had all the speed dial buttons on the front and I installed it. After about ten minutes the phone rang, it was the police, they wanted to know why I called them and hung up. I told them I never called but they said they had my number. I swore I never called and they finally accepted that and they hung up. Another ten minutes passed and the phone rang again, it was the police. They said that I called again and hung up. I was getting very worried by this time, was someone, somehow, faking my phone number? I again swore it wasn't me but they insisted it was but they said they would forget the matter this time. After about ten minutes the phone rang again. My blood ran cold. I went over and answered it, it was the police. All I could picture was the bars by now. Then a thought hit me. I told them that I had just installed a new phone and it had a button programmed for 911 the police line and maybe it was a malfunction that I didn't know about. I promised them that as soon as they hung up I would disconnect the phone. They hung up and I disconnected the phone as I promised. It never happened again. The phone must have had some type of short that cause it to dial the police every ten minutes.

Here is one of my favorite strange things that happened to someone. My daughter's in laws went on a vacation to Hawaii many years ago. They decided to go down to the beach. While they were there they took some photographs. Now everyone takes photographs so that in itself is pretty uneventful. Lets skip ahead about five years. My daughter's mother-in-law has a younger sister. She got married. Many years later the photos of the Hawaiian vacation were pulled out again and in the background was the guy that married the sister. He had been in the US Navy and stationed in Hawaii and was down at the beach that day and somehow got into the photos. No one knew each other in those days. Pretty weird isn't it?

More recently I had something happen to me I call the saga of the stoop. On the east coast a stoop is the steps that lead into the house. It is an old dutch word I believe. Well anyway my stoop is made of brick and it is old and starting to fall apart so I decided to either have it repaired or replaced. It isn't very big and is only two steps and a landing. So I got several people in for an estimate and took the one that gave me the best price. When the day came to do the stoop, he came over and told me he would need to take a brick out of the stoop so that he could get the exact size bricks for the job. He took one, left to get more, and I never saw him again, leaving me with a stoop with a brick sized hole by the railing. Not very appealing. Since I hadn't given this guy any money yet, I decided I wouldn't call him because he was not dependable and maybe it was better he didn't work on the stoop. I waited awhile and thought things over. Now I decided to replace the brick stoop with a cement one. Again I got several companies to come over and give me an estimate. I took the most reasonable one. A 10% deposit was required. I was sent the contract, signed it, and mailed it back with a check for the deposit. Weeks went by and I never heard anything, so I called them. A very nice lady answered and told me the date I was scheduled for, apparently they forgot to notify me. When the day came, I got up nice and early but no one showed up. Then the phone rang, it was that nice lady telling me that they couldn't do the stoop and she didn't know when it would be done. Astonished I asked her why. She said that the company had to fire the person that was doing the stoops because he was doing such a bad job that everyone was complaining and they all wanted their money back. I was amazed. I asked her for the return of my deposit and she said very politely that it wouldn't be a problem. They say that bad things happen in 3s, what will happen with the next stoop contractor, will he take a railing and leave?

One of the things that really bugs me, is when I am told by someone who I went to, to get something fixed, that they never saw a problem like mine before. Unfortunately for me this happens quite often. I brought my car back to the dealer because the air bag system warning light won't go out. I left the car and I went home and later in the day got a call from the service department. The agent was nice but he said those dreaded words, "I never saw a problem like this before". A code had gotten into the air bag chip that set the light off. He said that they had taken it out but couldn't figure out how it got there. Then the crazy ideas started to fly. I was asked if I ever laid a cell phone on the front passenger seat while it was on or used a wireless laptop in the front seat. I was told that on RARE occasions this MIGHT send a code to the chip. I don't know for sure, but this really sounded like bunk to me. Anyway they took the code out. Two days later I was driving my car and POP the light goes on again and wouldn't go off. Now I had to go back to the dealer and they told me that the code is back. This time the dealer figured out that the chip was bad. It was my old electronic bugaboo back again. The car had very low mileage and the part is going to be replaced without any cost to me, I am just hoping that the second chip won't be bad because this wouldn't be unusual for me.

I am going to end this article with what has become know as the Monkey tale. One day while I was at work, I received a frantic call from my wife, she was almost in tears. My heart almost stopped pumping, was one of the kids hurt, did one of my parents die? While in a state of almost hysteria I asked her what was wrong. She replied, there is a monkey swinging all over our house. I couldn't believe what I had heard and said, "did you say a monkey?". Yes a monkey she replied. I told her I would come right home to handle the problem. I was home in about half an hour and there was the monkey on my house and everyone on the block was standing in front of my home watching it as it swung from edge to edge with those long spider like arms without a care in the world. I couldn't figure out why it was staying just on my house and not swinging onto another one. I realized that there was no way I was going to be able to get up there and catch it so I called the A.S.P.C.A. A female voice answered and I told her that there was a monkey on my house and I needed it to be captured. The voice was very polite and said that it would be no problem, someone would be out in about three weeks. Frustrated I said "lady didn't you hear me, its on my house now and I have to get rid of it?" She said that she was sorry but they were backed up and there was no way they could get there any sooner. Looking back on this event I should have asked to speak to a supervisor but I was so angry that I just hung up. What was I going to do? I decided to call the police. Hey, can you help me I have a monkey on my house? " They replied with, "who is this?" I politely gave them my name and address and explained what was going on. I was told to call the A.S.P.C.A. I further explained that I did and told them what happened. Amazingly they agreed to come over when they realized that I wasn't a nut job. I just hoped that the monkey wouldn't leave now because they would think that I was a nut job. They arrived and were amazed when they saw it. Somehow they convinced the animal to come down and then they put it into an empty fish tank with a cover that I had supplied and took it to the station. I received a call from the police the next day and they told me that they thought I would be interested in knowing that the monkey belonged to a young boy who lived a few blocks away and he had come down to claim it.

If you find some of these events unbelievable I can't really blame you. They are all true however and remember they could happen to you!