... and it's not really all that cold here in the Pacific Northwest, it got down to about 27*F/-4*C last night with a promise of blue skies and maybe even some sunshine later today... I might even venture out today and cut down that worthless cottonwood in the backyard if it weren't for the fact I have an unreasonable fear of chainsaws...

... ice chips try to flow thru me, I want to stay up all night and sleep all day like I'm some sort of vampire, but I'm not really because blood makes me squeamish... I'm just addicted to my Roku, and they say, "what's a Roku?"

... "are you sleeping okay?" and I bluff my way through the barrage of questions, living alone in this 5-bedroom house like it's no big thing, spending money I don't have, drinking chai tea with microwaved milk before bedtime, lying through my teeth when I say there are no ghosts in this house...

... did I ever tell you about the time I saw a ghost?

... I know when I was a dAmn chatroom mod I told a few people about it, but I wasn't sure I'd spread it around for fear everyone would think I was a whackjob... now I suppose I've got nothing to lose...

... I think the year was about 1988, I went to go visit a friend of mine named Mark who was so addicted to reefer that he had a constant squint and a cough that sounded like 80-grit sandpaper... he had just moved "again" (like dope-smoking gypsies are known to do) and we were sitting in his living room amidst countless cardboard boxes as he lit up and began telling me how this house suited him better than most...

... I was about ready to comment when out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw a shadow but in full color, it appeared to me as a tall slender woman with brown hair sitting next to Mark in the garden window, she wore a red and green-striped sweater and black capri pants, her legs were crossed as she looked at me with a sly grin on her face like she was flirting with me...

... I blinked and she was gone... and in broad daylight no less...

... Mark contined to ramble on about things like how cheap it was for power and utilities, how the landlord was this cool guy when I interrupted him and said, "I don't know how to say this, but I just had this weird feeling like we were being being watched."

... "Where?  Was it in this chair?" and he pointed to the recliner next to him in the garden window. I could only nod.  "Dude, was she wearing a red and green-striped Freddy Crueger sweater with tight black pants and brown buckle boots?"

... I suddenly remembered the brown leather boots and had to take a sip of my coffee before saying, "Yup."

... Mark broke into an open smile.  "That's so crazy, man.  I've seen her, she sits on the basement steps and watches me do my laundry all the time.  Whenever I ask her a question she just disappears but I know she's watching me, and she's really into Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers!"

... over the years, Mark and I have lost contact but I will never forget the day he was able to describe with absolute clarity what it was I saw out of the corner of my eye...

... now I know my mom is not into Tom Petty, but whenever I roll the TV remote past General Hospital in the afternoons I could swear I hear the hallway floor creaking, like...

... well, you know what I mean...