I’ve had several television sets in my lifetime.  The first time anything happened with a TV I owned, I was sitting in my Army barracks one time watching AFN.  I had this TV for about a year I would say when one night while watching it, the television just turned itself off.  Weird, but no big deal, right?  Easily explain that away right?  Something must be up with the TV.  It’s not like it was a great TV.  It was a cheap television I found at the PX and since we could only get one channel on base in Germany, it did the job.  So I really didn’t think much of it.

Except that it kept happening.  At various times, various days, various seasons in the year, the TV would just turn itself off.  Once again, I didn’t think it was a ghost or anything like that, I still told myself it was a crappy TV and while I didn’t register it as creepy, I did register it because it kept happening.

We fast forward to Seattle.  I’m in a completely different apartment, different city, different country, different television set.  This particular TV was actually my roommate’s television that was out in the living room because it was a bigger screen TV.  I was watching it one day when it shut itself off.  Now I still thought, “Well, that is strange…but it could just be coincidence.â€? 

Except that it kept happening on this TV as well.  Even then, I still logically explained it away that it wasn’t out of the question that two televisions could be faulty and I still did not get creeped out by it but the idea that this sure was odd grew stronger.

Now we fast forward to a new apartment, new television.  The last apartment I lived in before moving to TX, I had a fairly new television and again, was watching it one night when it turned itself off.

Now this was just getting plain weird.  What is going on?  I was starting to get a little creeped out but still told myself that it was still possible that I just happened to have experienced three faulty TV sets in a row.

Except for what happened one day.  I was off work one day and felt like being lazy and stayed in bed all day watching TV.  Sure enough, sometime during a show, the TV turned itself off.  Of course.  Sighing, I reached for the remote control and turned it back on.  It turned itself off.  Oh give me a break.  I turned it back on.  It turned itself off.  Now I’m getting a little annoyed.  I turned it back on.  It turned itself off.  I thought, “Ok, if something IS fucking with me, that something needs to stop now.â€? So I yelled to the air, “Nok it off!â€? and turned it back on.

I’ve never had a problem with that TV since.  However, even here, where I am right now, the television has turned itself off on me once.  Is it a ghost?  I won’t say it is….to me, not enough evidence but it definitely is strange.

By the way, I’ve never seen a ghost.  That would pretty much be the hard evidence I seek but at the same time, I’m not altogether sure I really want to see one.  I do, however, see things move all by themselves and there is part of me that believes it could be a ghost or spirit moving it.

Of course we start off with the usual, “I put something here and when I came back five minutes later, it was over thereâ€? sort of thing.  Logically explain that one away easy….you obviously thought you put said item in the first location but you must have actually put it in the second location.  That is what makes sense.  And for every time that sort of thing happened to me that is what I would tell myself.

The problem with that explanation, however, is that you realize either you are extremely scatterbrained and perhaps in the early stages of Alzheimer’s or maybe something really is going on.  Still, for me?  Not enough proof.

But when you actually see an object move?  Now that’s just plain unexplainable.  One time, in Seattle, I was sitting at my computer desk talking to a long time friend.  I had a computer desk that had a shelf to the right, below the desk table, which you put your tower, hard drive on.  At this time, I was living in the day basement of a house, rented out as a separate apartment so that my bedroom was the only thing actually underground.  This is where I, my computer desk and my computer were when this happened. 

I was talking away to my friend when I heard a noise to my right.  Now, keep in mind, the only thing I’m touching is the keyboard which is sitting in a pull out keyboard tray, connected to the desk.  I hear this noise to my right; I look over and just happen to see my tower slamming back down to the shelf.  Oh yes.  I most certainly did.  I did not see it lift up but I saw it thump back down.  I cannot possibly tell you how very unsettling that is.  Even if I had somehow managed to move the desk enough to cause the tower to slide, I could not have moved the desk enough to cause the tower to lift up 2 inches off the shelf and crash back down and when I saw the tower coming back down, there was 2 inches of space beneath it.

It has happened here as well.  Same type of computer desk, only the shelf for the tower is to the left.  However, this time, I didn’t see it happen.  I just heard something drop.  And, most importantly, at the precise moment I heard something drop, I wasn’t even touching my desk, the keyboard or anything touching or attached to the desk.  I had actually sat back and was reading something on the web.

I have no idea how to explain those away.  In Seattle there was no earthquake and nothing else in the house moved.  Here they don’t get earthquakes and again, nothing else in the room moved.  And no, my cat was nowhere near either one of these desks…believe me, that was one of the first things I checked for.

But that’s not good enough for you, you say?  Ok.  One time, at my brother’s house, I witnessed another object move on its own.  My brother had let me use a desk but it was nowhere near an actual computer desk and the chair, made of wood, was extremely uncomfortable.  So, I positioned the desk to be near my bed, turned the monitor around and would sit on my bed with my wireless keyboard and mouse to navigate my way around the computer.  In other words, I was about 2 feet away from the desk.  I absolutely was not even close to touching it.  So I’m sitting there one day, reading or typing or whatever it is I was doing when I heard something rattle. I looked on my desk and witnessed an empty pop can moving…as if someone was shaking it.  This lasted for about 5 seconds.  I sat there, on my bed and watched this pop can rattle around.  Must have been the wind?  Must have been air of some sort? Ok…then why didn’t anything else, like the flowers or papers on my desk move?  And yes, again, there was no cat in the vicinity of the desk.

Finally, I have played with the board.  I think you know what board I’m talking about but I’m not going to name the actual board on here.  And I’m major time skeptic with the board.  Huge.  Skeptic.  There are only two people I can play that board with and know that they are not moving it around because one is a bigger skeptic than I am…although I don’t know how much anymore, and the other I just know she isn’t doing it.  I have been friends with these two for a very long time and they both came up to visit me one time and we played the board.  I’m not even going to talk about things that happened because they are really unexplainable, a bit creepy and frankly, not something I wish to share.

But, since they both lived in a different state than I did, I asked a roommate of mine to play one time.  I didn’t really trust my roommate not to move the little triangle piece around even though she had some wild stories of her own.  I knew her, but I didn’t know her well enough to just trust her on this.  So after about a half an hour of playing I thought, “Ok, I’m just not really buying this so let’s test it.â€?  I got out six candles.  I lined them up next to us on the floor, where we were, with candle #1 closest to her and candle #6 closest to me.  I asked the “spiritâ€? if it could move things.  It said it could.  Fine.  Move something.  Now, after about 30 seconds later of us sitting there, quietly waiting, the dishes in the sink did crash but, also, my cat Xaxu came running out of the kitchen shortly after that.  So, to me, Xaxu must have been up on the counters sniffing around in the dishes and he moved them despite the fact that we had asked the “spiritâ€? to move something in the kitchen.

I lit the candles, numbered them out loud and asked the “spiritâ€? to flicker the flame of candle #1.  We sat for about 10 seconds when suddenly the flame of candle one started flickering crazily.  None of the other flames were moving.  I told it to stop.  It stopped.

Still skeptical, I mean, for all I know, my roommate could have been blowing air in that direction while I was looking at the candle.  So I asked it to flicker the flame of candle #6.  We sat for only a few seconds this time, waiting, when suddenly the flame of candle #6 started flickering about wildly.  All the other flames were completely still.  I also was holding my breath because I didn’t want to have any doubts about whether I was actually breathing too hard in that direction. 

I told it to stop and it stopped.  I did ask it to flicker other flames and I remember it did but I can’t remember which number it was but by this time, I was getting creeped out in a major way.  If it was my roommate blowing air, that would explain candle one but not candle six.  If there was a draft in the room, all of the candle flames should have moved but they did not and finally, it stopped flickering as soon as I said, “Okay, stop.â€?

I’m sure someone, somewhere, will try to give an explanation or some will mock every single incident and tell me I’m just looking for something but the fact is, except for the candles, I was not looking for anything to happen.  The very idea of seeing objects move is quite unsettling.  The fact that every damn TV I encounter in my living space seems to turn itself off is unsettling.  The only thing that irritates me about the TV set is I don’t recall ever having a witness to the fact.  And believe me, I know how it sounds.  I know how all of this sounds.  I get the same thoughts in my head when someone tells me their strange or possible ghost stories.  I’m skeptical or flat out refuse to believe they actually happened.  But every single one of these things has happened and I can’t explain them away no matter how hard I try.  Are they actual spirits or ghosts?  I have no idea.  Regardless, they are weird, strange and freaky and there is a part of me that fights with my logical mind and tells me, give it up.  There is no other explanation.

My final freaky story comes on Halloween.  This one is very weird.  Stay tuned.