My Sister's Haunted Crack House, Part II

I was home at Christmas this past year and after the Harrison Christmas party, the ex-girlfriend and I were up until 1:00 AM talking with Tammy, my dad's second wife. Somehow the story of my sister's haunted crack house got brought up, most likely by me and my dad's second wife had a story I had not heard.

During their separation, my dad had injured his back. Tammy went over to the house and he was laying out on the couch in the family room. She gave him his medicine and he decided he would stay out there, so Tammy was going to go sleep in the bedroom.

"Uh-huh," was all my dad said to her.

She went in, shut the door and jumped into bed. When she shut the door, it latched.

Right as she was getting ready to doze off, she heard the door unlatch and it fell open about an inch. She wasn't asleep yet and thought perhaps my dad was coming in for something in the room, but the door never fully opened.

Suddenly the door slammed shut loudly and she sat straight up in bed as it scared the crap out of her.

She got up and pulled the door and it was definitely latched in the door jam. She opened it and was able to look through both open doors and see my dad was still on the couch.

She shut the door and tried to pull it open again, but it was latched in the door jam.

She laid back down and about 10 minutes later, the door unlatched itself again, swinging open about an inch. Then without warning, it slammed itself shut again.

She grabbed the pillow and blanket off the bed and walked out to the couch where my dad was still awake.

"Does that door do that all the time."

"Yep," my dad answered. Turns out that reoccurring event was why he slept on the couch in that house by then. It was not the furnace kicking on causing it, the door did this by itself at night.

"I'm going to sleep in here with you," she said.

***

The next time Tammy visited the house, my dad had moved out and Brandon and Laura had moved in with their new baby.

Tammy had gone over to help her one night with Cole, completely forgetting about the events of her first night in that house taking care of my dad.

As Tammy and Laura were standing in what was Calvin's room, Cole was whimpering as he tried to sleep and Lora was gently touching him. The door that led to the family room unlatched and swung open and suddenly Tammy remembered what happened the first time she was there with the other bedroom door.

Two minutes later, Tammy was standing there when the door then swung back closed and latched. Lora was oblivious to this. Tammy asked her, "Does that door always swing open and shut?"

Laura, not the brightest crayon in the box, said, "Brandon says that when the furnace kicks on, the door swings open and when the furnace kicks off, the door swings shut."

Tammy was standing there and never heard the furnace kick on. We think Brandon told her that so she would not freak out. Tammy could not explain why Lora would believe this story except that she's really gullible.

You could easily hear that furnace kick on in that house when it did. Tammy was momentarily charged up though from witnessing the same thing I had actually witnessed once as I had told Stacy and my dad that night in my mom's kitchen.

Tammy did not return to the haunted crack house after that.

Season 1 of TV's "Roommates" - Now available on DVD!

Now available on DVD, it's Season 1 of "Roommates," the show that examines the lives of an average person in Ohio and his new roommate, The Pope.

***

Episode #1 - "Whine and Cheese"

Bryon throws a wine and cheese party to impress a girl, but the Pope refuses to help his roommate save money by turning water into wine.

Episode #2 - "Holy mess"

Neat-freak Bryon can't stand the way the Pope leaves his Pope robes and hats lying all around the house.

Episode #3 - "Papal Knows Best"

Bryon comes up with a business model to sell Pope Bobbleheads, but The Pontiff smites him down.

Episode #4 - "The Dark Ages"

Hilarity ensues as Bryon helps the Pope overcome his fear of the dark, allowing the Pontiff to sit in the booth for Confession.

Episode #5 - "Treats me like her Brother"

Bryon falls for the Pope's sister who also happens to be a nun (guest starring Sarah Michelle Gellar.) Meanwhile, the Pope is in charge of the Saturday morning pancake breakfast at St. Bernard.

Episode #6 - "Blinded by the Light"

Bryon greatly disappoints the Pope when he runs off to St. Louis to catch a Bruce Springsteen concert after promising to help out at the soup kitchen.

Episode #7 - "Leaping Lepers"

Bryon's big date comes to a screeching halt when he and Beth return to his house and find the Pope tending to lepers.

Episode #8 - SWOT

Bryon uses SWOT analysis to decide it Emily is the right one and the Pope disapproves.

Episode #9 - "Mouse in the House"

Bryon has the weekend to write a 25 page Intopia paper, but the Pope keeps interrupting as he tries to catch a rascally mouse that is loose in the house.

Episode #10 - "The Christmas Special"

Bryon helps The Pope save Christmas for a group of orphans with special guests Willie Nelson, Jessica Simpson and Elvis Costello.

Episode #11 - "Baseball Fatima, Catch It"

Bryon takes the Pope to a Dime-a-Dog night at a Grapefruit league game and The Pope doesn't know whether to cheer for the Angels or the Cardinals.

Episode #12 - "Dyslexic God"

The Pope comes across an injured dog bleeding in an alley. He adopts him and names him Stigmata. Meanwhile, Bryon helps a friend realize she's not dyslexic, she's just stupid.

Episode #13 - "March Madness"

The Pope wants to skip Easter festivities so he can watch Notre Dame in the Sweet Sixteen, so Bryon helps him devise a plan to try to be in two places at once.

Today's late tournament game is actually Xavier!

I am surprised, in a good way, that Columbus will actually get Xavier and Pittsburgh as the local game today.

There's a shift the past few years, channel 10 is actually looking at geography rather than blind allegiance to the Big Ten.

History has shown during my 17 years here that WBNS is blinded by the Big Ten and I fully expected to see Purdue despite both Cincinnati and Pittsburgh being closer in geography than West Lafayette.

WBNS does not have a history of logic when deciding what games to show. Something has definitely changed their mind after years of frustration, trying to talk logic to people who didn't seem open to logic at all. This yearly action was the sole reason I refused to watch 10 TV news for over 15 years after I moved here. I'd watch now except the damage is done and I am loyal to another channel's news show now.

The origins of this aggravation began after I moved to Columbus in 1993.

For years, every time there was a nationally televised Kentucky game on channel 10, it meant we would not get to see it.

The years of complaints must have finally gotten through to someone. Gone are the days of them preempting nationally televised Kentucky games in favor of games like Iowa versus Minnesota (seriously!)

Because of this, I boycotted WBNS 10 TV news. I also urged other UK fans not to watch their news and I can only hope it had some effect in costing them revenue over the years with lower ratings than they should have had. And, yes, they were the #1 news cast for several years locally, but they could have had a larger margin.

Complaints to Doug Parker (Mr. White's predecessor) and to Mr. White (wish I could remember his first name) seemed to fall on deaf ears as they hid behind a lie of claiming there was a contract that forced them to show two teams located 13+ hours away that maybe 100 people in Columbus cared about over a team that was 3 hours South in Lexington, KY that had over 5000 alumni living here.

I still remember complaining quite loudly when the brain dead decision came just a few years ago that we would see UCONN against Indiana locally over #1 North Carolina versus #2 Kentucky. It was because Indiana was in the Big Ten. This was a Mike Davis coached Indiana team that sucked harder than a tornado through a trailer park.

When I spoke with the manager that year (Mr. White,) he actually confessed on the phone to me that they blew it by going with the Indiana game. As I pointed out to him, UCONN and Indiana would be the worst beating since "The Passion of the Christ."

I was actually wrong as the Tar Holes throttled Kentucky, but still, it's like the station never considered the financial impact of the large UK fan base in Columbus and the lost opportunity for commercial revenues through higher ratings by alienating the UK fan base.

It's like they never considered that the Kentucky state line is only two hours South of Columbus or that Columbus has the second largest UK alumni base outside of the state in the US (behind Atlanta.)

These actions had gone on for years and happened the two or three times Kentucky played on CBS. In 1995 or 1996, it wasn't even like the game they wanted us to see was going to have an effect on the Buckeyes being last in the Big Ten that year under Randy Ayers. That year was so bad, they started showing Ohio University games instead of Ohio State on local TV. I think parents felt the violence was too much for children to watch.

And now this recently seems to have stopped. The only time a CBS nationally televised Kentucky game the past few years in Columbus was preempted was for the Buckeyes and I am fine with that since they are the local team.

And it means we get to see an Ohio college today instead of a Big Ten team! Consider just a few years back, we were treated to a Big Team instead of the Dayton Flyers in the tournament.

I am awaiting word from the Vatican to see if this constitutes a miracle.

Avery stomps off...

My mom called me in June of 2008, cracking up. She had a very quick Avery story that had her laughing.

Avery was just bugging the Hell out of Calvin. She was a little bored and really was just wanting someone to play with. He told her several times to leave him alone and quit bugging him, but the commotion was so loud, that my mom could not hear the TV.

"Avery," she said, "Just come sit right over here on the couch next to me and leave him alone."

Frustrated, she stood up and yelled, "FFFINE!!!" as she started stomping over. She was cranky.

"Tell you what," grandma said in a raised voice, "why don't you just keep marching to your room instead, so you can take a nap?"

"I will!" she screamed, stomping away.

She then stopped and turned back and yelled, "And I'm never speaking to you again!" with great defiance as she marched off again with her exaggerated stomps.

A couple stomps later she stopped again and yelled back at grandma, "Although I might yell at you!!!!"

It was all my mom could do to keep from laughing in front of her.

A few days later, grandma was looking at the family calendar on the side of the refrigerator and saw someone had taken a pen and scratched out the faces of Stacy, Madison, grandma and Calvin.

"Who did this?" she asked Madison.

"Avery did. She was mad."

But there were two faces she didn't scratch out in the picture and they had a circle around them.

What's that? You want to know who were the two faces she didn't scratch out in the picture?

It was Avery and Uncle Bryon. :)

Maid-Rite ... Not Quite

I traveled to Greenville on Wednesday to see my girlfriend and I got to visit, finally, one of the legendary landmarks of that little town.

There is a restaurant called Maid-Rite that is the local hotspot for all the surrounding counties. People will drive for over and hour to eat the "hamburgers" there. I call them "hamburgers" because they are not traditional hamburgers. They are the equivalent of "loose meat" sandwiches with the meat having been soaked in beer, topped off with mustard, onions and pickles.

I have been hearing about this place since Tammy and I started seeing each other. According to her, people either love or hate the sandwiches. When her ex-husband took her to the place the first time, he literally turned to her as the car pulled away from the window and asked her to eat the sandwich now in case she wanted him to immediately get back in line for another one.

All I knew was Tammy has gone on and on about these sandwiches since the first time I made the trip to Greenville.

I should also preface the story with the fact that I can at times be a germaphobe. It just sometimes depends on the situation. For example, I don't like to eat or drink after children since they slobber like a leaky faucet.

So we are slowing down on the road and sitting behind a pick up, waiting to pull into the drive through lane and Tammy says, "I guess I should've mentioned this earlier, but I didn't think about it until now. This may gross you out a little."

Probably not the best way to start a conversation when trying to get someone to try new food.

"Do you see the outside wall up there?" I glanced at the speckled wall.

"Yeah," I answered.

"All those little spots are chewing gum. It's a tradition on the building that you stick your chewing gum on the outside of the wall as you go through the drive through."

I think I started gagging when I heard this. I threw up a little on the inside.

As we pulled into the driveway, it looked something akin to this picture, except it covered the entire front and side of the building from the ground to six feet high. This picture is only about a 15 foot section.


I thought I was going to be sick.

I had to shield my eyes from looking at it. According to a link I found online, this has been going on for at least 50 years.

What the Hell is wrong with you people?

I thought I would be sick. Tammy handed me to food as I stopped trying to accidentally glance at the 10,000 pieces of gum stuck EVERYWHERE.

"Sometimes they clean it off with a power washer and it just starts all over again," she tells me.

We picked up her daughter and spent the early evening together when Tammy remembered to tell her where she took me.

Chloe's face lit up. "It's so cool! You go through the drive through and you find yourself searching for the piece of gum you stuck up there before."

I thought I might hurl.

The food was mediocre. It wasn't anything I would drive 54 miles to have.

And the outside decor, while being truly original, was the most disgusting thing I have ever seen next to perhaps a booger wall.

YUCK!!!!!

Indianapolis 2008

Every once in a while I posted a Springsteen review to one of my online groups. This was a review for Indianapolis (3/20/08).

Chris and I left town at noon after I paid a speeding ticket at the Dublin Mayor's court. My day had not started off well. That lunch cost me $100.00; $8 for the Chinese food and $92 for the ticket. Still, it's cheaper than lunch with Eliot Spitzer.

The ride was uneventful on the way out. No discussion topics or debates (like the Discount Renaissance Faire Tickets from our Philadelphia drive last fall,) just typical chatter in anticipation of the show.

We arrived at Conseco Fieldhouse and found a parking lot about one block away. There was a sign that said "EVENT PARKING - $5" so we jumped on it. The parking lot was packed. As we got out Chris asked me what our parking spot was. Now Chris is one of the smartest people I know. He has a doctorate in Sociology and teaches at OSU, but I gave him a real funny look and I answered. "Dude, there's only 50 cars in the parking lot. I think we'll be able to find the car after the show."

I walked up to pay the attendant and it was then I realized it was automated. "Oh, that's why you asked me what our parking spot was." I needed it to pay for parking cause I had to punch it into the machine.

He didn't have to say anything. He rolled his eyes and shook his head at me. I was blond until I reached the age of six, so maybe there's something recessive that affected me. :-)

We had GAs and needed to get wrist bands for the lottery. The plan was to wait until late as the number tends to be a high number because of the person pulling the number out pulls from the top.

A lady walked by and I asked her, "Did you just get your wristband?"

"Yeah, right through that door?"

What number are you?"

"215." That's a low number for that time of day. That bode well for our chances to get in if they did not give out more than 600.

We talked with Lisa, the woman who had #215, for about 90 minutes. She was an attractive woman and came across as intelligent in general and pretty knowledgeable in the world of Springsteen. As it turned out, she knew a couple of the people from my work as she was an attorney in Ohio and worked in workers' compensation and I was in IT at a WC company.

She said, at one point, "My husband has nothing to worry about my attending shows alone because I said most of the Springsteen fans are more interested in the show that hitting on a married mother of two with a third one on the way."

Without thinking, I responded, "I can kill two birds with one stone."

Yep. That filter is lying in a ditch somewhere, hopefully wearing clean underwear. After I said it, I thought to myself, wow, that was kind of rude.

Eventually Bernie, Richard, Todd and Carol show up and we get our wristbands for the drawing.

We watched the show 25 feet from the stage in the pit.

Lauren and Pat were next to us. I've seen 20+ shows with Lauren over the years and she is the VP of Education at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. Talk about a dream job for her.

Lauren told me, "I don't care what he plays tonight, I just want them to be ON." The show reports have been detailing how great the band has been in recent performances. Of course Lauren had no idea what would get played!

The lights went down at 8:33 and the band comes out.

It's like a freight train or a sudden tornado sweeping through the trailer park.

The drums build up and Bruce is building it up. "Good evening Indian-a-plus." He pronounced it like a Midwesterner.

"Is there any body ALIVE out there?" Drums and guitars building up like rain and thunder.

Crowd goes crazy.

"IS THERE ANYBODY AAAAALLLLLLIIIIIIIVVVVVVEEEEEEE OUT THERE?" Drums and guitars building up like it's hailing.

And then the "Wall of Sound" blows through as the tornado hits with the rat-a-tat-tat machine gun fire of the drums and sax as the band tears into "Night."

There were a couple audibles tonight as well from folks holding up signs. One requested "Prove It All Night" and that was the fourth song of the night. It replaced "Candy's Room" which was on the setlist.

The real surprise was the audible by Bruce, "Let me see some of those signs," after "Reason to Believe." We got "Rendezvous" and it was a fun version.

The only minor issue, since they had not rehearsed it (I don't think) was trying to end it and they did not end it into the segue for "She's the One" properly. Everyone just stopped, awkwardly. Bruce looks over at the piano and Roy, the piano player, made a motion that signaled, "I screwed up."

I said to Chris, "He's gotta play something else now so they can segue into it."

Bruce seemed to agree as Roy played the opening notes to "Because the Night." It smoked. Nils's solo was insane.

Dan Federici came out to play on the three songs "Promised Land," "Spirit in the Night" and "Sandy." Danny's last show had been in November when it was announced he had melanoma and was leaving the band to get a treatment. The crowd cheered as Danny took his seat at the organ.

"Spirit in the Night" was an audible called by Danny actually. The written setlist had "Growin' Up," but Bruce walked over to the microphone and commented, "He's taking me old school tonight," and the organ led off into the song. It was a fantastic version. The audience embraced the song and Bruce really nailed it on the third verse sliding down the microphone with his back. Bruce finished up next to Danny, encouraging him to finish the solo, stretching it out a bit at the end of the song.



With Danny there, it changed the complexion of the setlist of the show. Two songs from the 1980s, zero from the 1990s, two songs off "The Rising." Everything was off the new album or from the 1970s.

Danny came out for the all five encore songs as well.

I was looking forward to "Girls in Their Summer Clothes," but we get the long overdue (for me) piano intro for "Backstreets." It may be my favorite song, depending on what day it is. I actually knew someone (Laura in Chicago) when she got married, she walked down the aisle to the piano intro of this song rather than "Here Comes the Bride." :-)

Then the guitar screams out the opening to "Kitty's Back" and I am laughing. Lauren turns to me and screams "You've got to be kidding me!"

How in the world do I live my life like I do and be so fortunate to see such incredible songs at one show? Karma was catching up on a lot of payments it owed me.

Another highlight was a sign held up by a little girl during "Dancing in the Dark" as Clarence did the sax solo that said "Dance With Me." Bruce held up the sign and pulled her onto the stage and danced with her as he did with Courtney Cox in the video many years ago. I think the last time he pulled someone up was, oddly, in Indy in 2002 when a woman held a sign up that said "Courtney Cox" and a big arrow pointing to herself.



She started doing this little dance move that was cracking everyone in the band. Bruce mimicked to Stevie her little move and they were all busting out laughing. He put her into the crowd again and finished up the song ...

"Hey Baby!, Hey Baby!, Hey Baby! Owwwwww!"

Then Bruce ran over and pulled her up again and they did the little dance move, going about 30 feet to the right, she was watching Bruce, dancing next to him as they moved, and the Bruce motioned to go back with his head and they moved back across to the center of the stage. It was hilarious and she such a cute little girl that everyone was absolutely dying laughing.

After the show we walked back to my car. We're 40 feet away from the parking lot and Chris says, "Hey, do you remember our parking spot? I don't want us to have to be searching all night for your car." I ignore his witticism and notice I have a little envelope that was a ticket saying I had not paid. I was fired up from the show, so I overreacted. I stopped as I left and shoed him a receipt that I paid $5.00 and it was good until 11:59 PM on that day. I got more defiant and said if the owner has a problem, I'll let him communicate with my lawyer.

I told them I was not paying and that I'll mail a copy of the receipt to the address. He argued that it was a "special event" and I pointed out that there was no sign and no attendent and I acted in good faith and that was the end of it. He gave me a phone number, but I'll just fire off a letter or just ignore it.

It should've said 5:59 PM, not 11:59 PM. (Bryon - let it go.) It's not a city ticket, it's a company ticket, so I really don't think I need to worry about it.

What an unbelievable night.

A month later I was flying into Florida when Danny Federici died. I was going down to see three shows and as a result, the shows were canceled. When Danny played that night in Indianapolis, the general feeling amongst us was excitement because we all thought Danny was getting better with his cancer treatments. It turned out there was a distinct realization that the end was coming soon and Danny was brought out to play one last time with the band before he prepared to die. It made what was a phenomenal show into a more meaningful one.

There's a fund set up for Danny and the contributions go to melanoma research.

You would think she was a blond and not a redhead

One day I was asked what I am working on the next couple of days, they need a report completed that is due in 14 days.

Julie said, "It's for California."

I said to Julie, "California? Cool. I'll get 14 days and 3 hours to do it."

She looked at me blankly for a few seconds. Julie does not fully appreciate a dry sense of humor.

I told her, "It was a joke. Get it?"

She said, "You didn't even say it like it was a joke."