November's Haunted House

There's a drawer in the kitchen crammed full of information. I think it might be time to open it for the first time and read what's inside. Jolene, the former owner, pointed it out to me just before they got in their trucks and moved themselves to South Dakota. Inside is all pertinent information about this house, its parts and its behavior.

I've avoided looking at the materials in the drawer since July in hopes that we can figure most things out for ourselves. In most cases we have, but this morning we were dealing with an unexplainable mystery. Bill thought I was moving furniture upstairs and wondering why I was doing it so early in the morning. I thought Bill may have set up an indoor gym downstairs. He hadn't told me about such plans, but it sounded like he was working out with great gusto.

I took my bath, got dressed, walked out of the bathroom and again heard the rumble right next to the door to the garage. Oh, it must be the dogs, I thought. Opening the door, I looked into the garage to see the dogs snoozing away on their couch. By that time, I was really curious. I shut the door and listened in the wall, summoning Bill from the kitchen to listen along side me.

First, silence, then the mysterious noise again. It sounded like a big critter was inside the walls, scratching to get out. We thought about cats and wondered if one of them had gotten into the upstairs storage rooms overnight. A check of both doors showed them firmly latched shut. We could not find Lonesome Love under beds, where he usually hides, when threatened with ousting for the day.

We still haven't found Lonesome, but we have surmised---hopefully correctly---that the rumble and tumble comes from snow sliding off the roof. Now, we've had snow sliding off house roofs before but never with such a variety of loud noises. Sometimes it sounds like a thunder storm, sometimes like a critter scratching to get out, and sometimes the notion of a full-blown earthquake comes to mind.

Bill thinks we've solved it for sure. While I was reading the paper this morning and he was eating his breakfast, he yelled out, "That's it! I just saw some snow hit the ground." He was pointing toward the eave near the sliding glass door.


We're now living in a two-story home with a tin roof and a steep pitch. It's certainly a new frontier in winter time fun, living here in this house. As I write, the wind is blowing wildly and while typing this posting, I've left my computer three times to go downstairs and shut the door to the garage. We've discovered in the past three weeks that it does not like being closed in cold weather.

I've also just discovered the whereabouts of Lonesome Love. He was, indeed, hiding under a bed, one where he has never dared to go before. Maybe this haunted house has him a bit disoriented too.

I think I may just open that kitchen drawer with all that information and see what other surprises might lie ahead. But then again, maybe I won't. Those surprises might just fill our first winter here with a touch of adventure. And, during long North Idaho winters, that's a good thing.