My 12/05/14 Column

This morning early I ducked out into the laundry room to see if the clothes I had put in the dryer last night had dried completely. Nope. So I set the dial at 20 minutes and proceeded with the first order of business for the day: coffee.

It had probably been a half hour when I went out to check the dryer again. Much to my amazement, the dryer door was ajar, the light inside was on and, the clothes were totally dry and still warm to the touch. That dryer door doesn’t open on its own; in fact, it’s rather hard to open it and I’ve smooshed more than one nail when I’ve been too hurried. Nyel was still tucked in bed and, besides that, he has not been out in the laundry room since before his September 9^th surgery. And, it certainly was not I who had been out there a second time.

Cate’s Column 12/05/14

Obviously, Mrs. Crouch is on the move. I hope this is an isolated incident and she isn’t gearing up for a real rampage. I’m trying to think what set her off. Perhaps she feels that she is getting too much attention these days what with the publication of Ghost Stories of the Long Beach Peninsula. Or, conversely, maybe she is jealous of Mary Pesonen, the other ghost who was the focus of my column in the Chinook Observer on Wednesday.  It’s hard to tell with Mrs. C. – or with any ghosts, for that matter.

The Observer’s editor, Matt Winters, did tell me that my ghost column is ‘generating plenty of readership’ and, perhaps for that reason, or perhaps due to Cate Gable’s wonderful profile of me in the same issue, several people have commented to me on my ‘forthcoming’ ghost book. I’ve been pleased to tell these folks that the book has been out since September and have bitten my tongue with regard to their reading skills. I think, perhaps, many people just read the headlines and skim the articles… Not that I’m never guilty of similar reading habits!

However and whatever people are reading, I hope they are aware that I’ll be talking about Mrs. Crouch, Mary Pesonen and several other ghosts of the Peninsula at the Pacific County Historical Society Museum beginning at 2:00 p.m. next Wednesday, December 10^th.

(MRS. CROUCH, PLEASE NOTE: I WILL BE TELLING ABOUT YOU FIRST. YOU ARE STILL MY FAVORITE!)