Much Work Lies Ahead

In between all of the celebrations that my family and I have, I still must find time focus on what this blog is about…running a large ghost hunting group.

It’s true that in November, the group as a whole, underwent some personnel and strategy changes. As I sit here listening to Christmas music and writng this blog installment, I can’t help but reflect on all the changes and all the work.

We had a busy year. The last three months found us conducting three restaurant investigations, three residential investigations and a movie theater investigation. Busy indeed. And now, I am in evidence review mode.

Everyday in between taking care of ma, the house and my freelance writing work, I sit down in front of my monitor to watch footage streaming from the DVR in the hope that maybe the team may have actually caught something via camera during an investigation.

What always makes me laugh is the TV shows that depict investigators sitting around looking at video footage and listening to EVP recordings in what seems like a fairly short time. If only reality was like that.

Our team has a nine channel DVR system and on most investigations, we run at least five cameras at a minimum. That means that if we have a six hour investigation, it takes 30 hours to review the footage. Nope. We don’t look at all five cameras at once. We look at the footage for each camera-that’s six hours per camera per location in the building.

Add to that, there is the EVP work which, depending on what recorder was used, can be very time consuming. Why? There is a debate between investigators as to which technique works the best. I prefer using voice activation and a Sony recorder. It cuts down on recorder space and I have gotten excellent results but some investigators prefer letting their recorders run.  When you go through the recordings, it can take hours depending on how it was recorded.

Also you need a quiet area to do the review and a good set of sound canceling headphones. That always makes me laugh as I have friends who buy the really expensive headphones. Me? I have a set of RCA headphones purchased at Walmart for $19.99. I have had the same headphones for more than six years and they are great. I also have the gift of good hearing so I tend to pick up stuff no one else can thus finding those hard to hear EVPS.

Then there are the wireless mics that are recorded directly into the computer during the investigation and the hand held video cameras.

Did I mention the paperwork? In addition to all the evidence review there are also the reports that investigators turn in. Each report must be gone over and compared with other reports from the investigation in the hope of finding similarities in readings or impressions. As the team monitor, I also have my own reports to fill out and those include  weather temperature records taken every half hour, watching the indoor weather monitoring equipment and making notes on any changes, watching all the cameras, and constant note taking when I see what may be something of interest in one of the rooms.

In addition, as I do the evidence review here at home, I have forms to fill out whether I am watching video or listening to EVPs. I am a scientist after all and that means a lot of record keeping, classifying EVPs, looking at still pictures of the site, and looking closely at every anomaly that shows up on the video.

I also break away and do some investigating myself.

For those of you who see investigators on TV review their evidence in under six hours, it is very different in the real world. To do the evidence review for one investigation can take a week or more depending on how much equipment was used in the field.

And once the evidence has been reviewed there is yet another form called the Final Investigation Form and behind that is the Client Report.

Yes. Investigating the paranormal is fun but like any job, there is a lot of work involved and if we, as a group can help some person or family along the way then that makes it all worthwhile.

Holidays and Happenings

Merry Christmas!

It always fascinates me how the radio stations will stop playing Christmas music at midnight on the 26th. The reason being is that among most of the United States and the world, that is when the holiday ends.

When looking back over history it is interesting to note that the exact date of the birth of the Baby Jesus is unknown however, for years it has been celebrated on December 25.

As I was growing up, we had Turkish neighbors who celebrated on different days than we did and that is when I started doing research into Christmas and the days it is held throughout the world.

According to some sects of the Catholic religion, mainly in Eastern Europe, the holiday begins on the 25th and lasts until January 6. If you crunch the numbers, that totals up to 12 days. Sound familiar? That’s right. “On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me…’ and so on.

The days also mark certain feasting and religious occurrences that are celebrated as well.

The theory behind it is that although the recognized birth date is the 25th, the Magii and Shepherds did not arrive bearing their gifts until 12 days following the birth, which falls on January 6.

It is true that not everybody celebrates Christmas the same way and it is also true that not everybody celebrates Christmas so it obviously is not a one size fits all holiday but it is interesting to see how different cultures celebrate.

In our house, we always have an extended holiday. I think it stems back to the last few years when my father was sick. He always seemed to get pneumonia in December and was always getting out of the hospital after Christmas. One year, after buying a real tree, he got out in mid January. We had already taken our tree down but decided to buy an artificial tree on sale just so he would have a Christmas at home. We used the tree for years after as he always seemed to be sick during the holidays.

A couple of years ago both he and I got sick with pneumonia. He got well faster than I did as I had triple pneumonia. I slept through Christmas and New Year’s. We didn’t celebrate Christmas until February.

Last year marked the first year in a long time that my father was home and we made sure that he had a good one.

Anyway, as I return back to where I started with this blog, I have friends who think I amm strange because I tend to believe in the 12 days of Christmas thing. My friends and some family members feel it is all over on the 26th. I don’t but that is what I believe in and in a lot of ways it saddens me that people don’t embrace the old ways and thoughts.

This year, I received nice gifts from friends and family. My mother and I didn’t have a lot to spend for gifts but we are having a great holiday so far. We have good food, are enjoying the lights and other stuff. And, yes, church plays a big role in that as well. But for us, it’s all about being together for another year.

So as your Christmas celebrations wind down, mine are still continuing and my mother and I plan to have our official celebration with gifts next weekend. Nothing big but at least we will present each other with a gift from our hearts.

So if you happen to run into us shopping and playing our Christmas songs, don’t ridicule us or look upon us disapprovingly, we are simply following the old ways. Why not? What’s wrong with enjoying things a bit longer?

It Has Been A Long Journey

Amazing!

It is hard to believe that I last posted here in March of 2010. Saying that time flies is a cliché but to be honest it does go so fast. Sine the last blog, my father got sicker and required a lot of care. My mother and my focus was mainly on his well-being. Without going into a lot of detail, let’s just say it was very time consuming and at times could be frustrating.

The year 2011 brought changes that I did not expect. Some were for the better and others are still working themselves out. For example, I did do some traveling outside of ghost hunting to Hawaii, Arizona, New York, Los Angeles and other places. I also was able to increase my freelance writing clientele to three steady clients per month.

As all this was going on, my father grew sicker and my focus was more on him. If you have never taken care of anyone who is elderly and sick then you have no idea what a 24-hour job it is. I spent many months balancing his needs with my own and found out something I had never realized before. I am only human.

When I was younger and up until the time my father got really sick, I had built my life around multi-tasking and living as if there wearen’t enough hours in the day for me to complete my tasks. A typical day consisted of interviewing for my newspaper stories, making it to various doctors appointment, booking investigations  for California Haunts, making sure my father was changed, fed and taken care of and, writing late at night. It was also late at night that I would update the California Haunts Website and do whatever I could not fit in during the day. Most of the time I found myself sleeping four hours….five if I was lucky. And then I was filling the gaps with ghost hunting and the occasional trips.

At some point during all of this I did something that I had not done since starting California Haunts more than six years ago. I began to delegate leadership tasks. Looking back, I should have just shut things down until my father’s health either improved or….didn’t. Anyhow, without going into detail, things changed within my group very rapidly as I could not attend to a lot of the functions needed for running the team.

As the months flashed by, I neglected to keep a close eye on things and as my father’s life drew to a close,  I was blinded to all things except him.

In June, he died at age 85 and while I received a lot of support from team members and friends, the frist month or to after his death brought eye opening events that changed m outlook on the way things in my life and within my group were going.

Suffice to say, the group underwent some changes in personnel that I felt were necessary. Although it hurt as some of the people involved were people I considered friends and some had been with me since the beginning of the team, we had reached an impasse and they departed.

When I look back on it all, I am saddened that the events had to happen but I know my team is better off and I know my team members are better off as well. I have new members who are ready to hit the floor running and am excited.

New beginnings and continuing adventures.
Pictured are from rear left to front, Ma, Ruth, Karen, Sandy, Chuck, Tom, Charlotte, Linda, Kat. Not pictured: Veldena, Becca, Randy, Fred, Julie, Jerry, Lorna, Jose, Laura, Patrick, Kelley, Stefani, Trish, Dana, Susan, Susan, Richard, Wytnei, Janelle, Tammy, La Shia, Nancy, Irene, Rachel, Mia and James.

As I write this, it is December 23,  2011. Hard to believe that I am nearing 2012. California Haunts is continuing with a team of 35 and a future that is bright. We are booking investigations and are booked solid until April. I have brought aboard new members who will bring a lot to the group and I have restructured things a bit. Funny thing is….the restructuring consists of putting things back the way they were when this group started and the way the group has run for the five years leading up to 2011. (If it aint broke…)

Although my life is still busy, it has slowed down somewhat. I now take care of my mother, 80, but is nowhere as difficult as it was with my dad and she is our oldest ghost hunter. Yes. She does go out and investigates with us.

So. Looking forward, I am thankful for the friends and group members that have stuck with me. I am thankful for those who have offered to help my group better itself and look forward to working with them.

To all those who have supported me through this change, I thank you and appreciate your friendship. Now, I move forward and as things transpire, I will take you, the reader on the journey so you can see what it is like to run and maintain a paranormal group. I will be sharing results and investigative techniques. Hopefully you will see something that interests you.

Wow time does fly when you're having fun...not!

Sitting down to blog this past week has been hard. As you can tell, I didn't but that doesn't mean that I didn't think about it.

All week I was so busy, I hardly had time to eat let alone blog. Between writing stories and taking my ma and pa to the hospital for doctor and dental appointments, things were crazy.

Monday: Spent most of the day running errands and then headed to Placerville on assignment for the evening. Got home at about 11 p.m. and wrote the story. Went to bed at about 2 a.m. I sleep about four hours thinking I can nap in the afternoon-WRONG!

Tuesday: Got up extra early to put finishing touches on the story and then headed off to Kaiser with ma and pop  for one of his two weekly appointments. while he was in the office, I stayed in teh van with my mini HP and proofed and emailed the story off. Then my brother called and needed a ride to his own doctor. I was a little upset because I had scheduled another writing assignment for the afternoon and had to put that off until Thursday.So I take my brother to the doctor and then had a bout an hour to eat something. I was then off for an evening assignment in Placerville-my mother came along.

Here's where it gets interesting. So i finish my assignment and get into the pickup to head home and...nice...we have a flat tire. Problem No.1, the spare is already on the truck. Problem No.2,  am out of AAA tows. Problem No.3, now what? So I put air in the tire thinking that i may be lucky enough to make the 40 mile drive home...not. As soon as the air went in, it came out. OK so I call AAA and of course they said no tow so I had a service call come out for $65-the driver confirms that the truck is not driveable. Now, in order to get it home, it will cost me $235. YIKES! So I call my dad who has a card.the phone is busy-he tends to leave it off the hook...wonderful. By now it is 9:30 p.m. and starting to rain. I decided to have the truck towed and put in some more calls in the hope that someone will be able to assist us. Out of nowhere, someone did. about halfway home, the tow truck driver receives a call that says my AAA card has no restrictions. The tow is covered. WOW!

So we get home, it's now after 10 p.m. and I thank the driver profusely. I collapse from exhaustion.

Wednesday: I get up at 9 a.m. and write the story. I check my email and find out that the town we are doing our ghostwalk in would like me to do a presentation on powerpoint about what we do. Ummmm. I have no presentation. I have the projector but nothing prepared....so of course I tell the client , no problem. So that adds another factor to my already overfilld schedule. I begin gathering info for the presntation and then my sister wants to SKYPE-that's fine except I am horribly busy with writing, the presentation, towing the truck over )with pops card)  to have it worked on. The SKYPE lats about an hour and I know my mother has a dental appt. She said it wa ta 1 p.m. so I call to verify. WRONG! The appointment was a half hour ago so we rush off and spend a couple of hours there. We then head to the Tshirt place to pick up some shirts for the ghost team. When we return home I call a tow truck and have the truck towed to the tire store.We no sooner drop the tuck off then we find out a car we had in for reapirs is ready so off we go to pick that up. Finally I get home for about an hour break. While I wait, I call AAA about the tow the night before. They have no record of it. Bless whoever towed us. may good things come your way.

We pick the truck up at 5 p.m. and I get home and put the finishing touches on the story and prepare the photos and captions for emailing. At 7:30 p.m., I do my Blogtalk show. By 8:30 p.m., I email the story and spend the rest of the night working on the presentation. I finally get to bed at 2 a.m.

Thursday: I have an 11 a.m. in Placerville for the story I didn't run earlier in the week. I take my mini HP because now I will be writing on deadline and need to turn it in ASAP. My mom and dad decide to come along and I drive to the stop, interview and then the client suggests I see his pother store to add to the story. OKM fine, no pressure. we stop for lunch at a pizza place where I can write the bul of the story. At about 1:00 p.m., we head to the other store. I do the interviews and then rush back to the to finish writing the story. It is now 2:30 p.m.and finally I am done. we head back to Sacramento and I spend the rest of teh evening working on the presentation and preparing for a meetup meeting on Sunday.

Friday: Easy, simple morning. Looked like the day was going to be nice....wrong. we make a trip to Safeway for some shopping and then take the ruck to the tire store to put on a matching tire as I can feel vibrations. We head back to the house and then I decide to call Kaiser to see when pop's appointment is...here we go again...we had 20 minutes to get to Kaiser. woo hoo. Off we go.

By now, it's 3 p.m. and I need to get to the library to pick up a key for the meeting room so i drop ma and pa off at Kaiser and go to the library. I grab some lunch on the way back and then get a small 30 minute break until they are done. It is now pouring rain when they get into the van so we head out and buy them some dinner. we go home and they eat and then ma and I are off again to pick up the truck. I decide to go to Office Max to test the tires on the road and Ma comes along. I drop her off and head to Davis to finally relax. I get home around 11 p.m. and boy do I sleep.

Saturday: Another slow, easy morning. I sleep until 10 a.m. and then head to Davis for lunch/dinner. when I return, I do an equipment check and take ma out to get take-out at Applebees. I return home and do teh final preparation for the meetup meeting and answer emails and work on the presentation.I finally sleep at about 3 a.m.

Sunday: Up at 8 a.m. to do have my hair cut and other personal things. Out the door at 9:30 to load the equipment in tHe van..I head to the library and grab breakfast along the way. at 10:30 I arrive and with help from team members unload. The meeting begins at 11 a.m. we finish at 2 p.m. and I go home, iunload an pick up ma and pa for a trip to Walmart. we eat our dinner at woody's and go shopping. we get home about 5:30 p.m. and my neice stops by. O leave at about 6:30 to visit a friend in Davis. I get home at about 11:30 p.m. and waytch the closing cermonies of teh Olympice.

Whew. I am really tired now.

A couple days of rest

Wow! Time flies when you are having so much fun. It's hard to believe that it is Monday.

Saturday was spent with final preparations for the night's ghost hunt in Pleasanton. I also ,made the drive to the shirt designer to pick up some CHaunts blankets, sweatpants and a polo shirt. we had some luncha nd then it was back home to load the van and sleep.I have an ulcer so that was acting up. I purchased some TUMS at a gas station to alleviate the tummy pain.

I left at about 6:15 p.m. to pick up John and the at 7 p.m.,I picked up Caren, our lead sensitive. Then we made the 1.5 hour trip to Pleasanton for the investigation.

Once we arrived, we tried to order pizza but the kitchen was shut down, si for the first hour, we lived on the chocolate doughnuts that Caren had brought for us. Yum doughnuts and Mountain Dew. As we feasted and did a walk through to see where we should place our surveillance cameras, Fred and Julie arrived as did Kat-they are all part our  five person Central California team.

Our contact for the evening, Julie arrived and I interviewed here while the cameras were set up. Once that was done, I sat down art the control center and started attaching camera lines to the DVR and found that one camera wasn't functioning properly. That is disappointing as the camera is new and is one of our super cameras that allows us to see 135 feet in the dark. Hopefully it was just a malfunction and I intend to check it at a later date.

Julie, our contact graciously made us Ceasar salad and garlic bread. It was delicious.

After eating and replacing the camera, it was lights out at about 11:15 p.m.

The next few hours were spent conducting EMF measurements and EVP sessions. Towards the end of the investigation, I took a team down into the basement area to conduct an EVP session while at the same time utilizing dowsing rods. We seemed to be talking with a female spirit who had a sense of humor. LOL.

At about 1:45 a.m. we wrapped and I sat down with Julie the contact and gave her a preliminary overview of what we found.

No. I am not going to leave it at that and tease you.

We found high Elelectro Magnetic Frequencies (EMF) throughout the building and also found a plausible explanation for mirror that is thought to have some writing on it many think is paranormal in nature. Our answer? Aging mirrors tend to get certain marks on them that can appear as dark shapes when looked at from certain angles. Washing a mirror can also build up spots that could appear as shapes.

As far as the EMF goes, high EMF can cause paranoia ie: feelings of being watched, headaches and other stuff. The building is close to a street and the report of objects moving on tables could be the result of heavy trucks going by. The city also sits on an earthquake fault.

From the perspective of the sensitive, she detected one spirit, the spirit of a female who had lived about 130 years ago.

So now the research and evidence review begins.

I got home at about 4 a.m. on Sunday and slept most of the day. Today, has been slow. I rescheduled a doctor's appointment to tommorrow beause I have a writing assignment this afternoon. I went to Walmart this morning and now I am answering emails and writing this. I will unload the van later this afternoon and then visit a friend this evening.

So much to do....

Without sounding overly campy and cliche, I honestly believe that there should be at least three of me to keep up with everything.

It is about 1 a.m. and I have spent the day writing, taking ma to the dentist, running a family errand, taking pa to the doctor and then catching Avatar in 3D.

It doesn't seem much, I know but let me lay it out to you time-wise. I was up at 6 a.m. writing and at about 7:30 a.m. had a quick breakfast, then there was more writing. At 9:45 a.m. I took ma to the dentist and stayed there for about an hour before taking the pickup to have some tire work done. we got home at about 11:30, picked up pa because he wanted to do a little shopping and had some lunch. We finally got home at about 1:45 p.m.

After answering some emails and going over bills, it was time to take pa to the doctor, that lasted until 5 p.m. I got home, jumped in the pickup and headed to Davis for a quick dinner and a three-hour movie.

On Feb. 17, I spent most of the day designing a press release, placing the upcoming ghost walk on several online newspaper calendars, watching six hours of video from Saturday's investigation,did my Blogtalk Radio show, placing the press release on Facebook and Myspace and answering emails. I also sent out 67 emails to advertise my Blogtalk show.

At about 9 p.m., I finally got a break and sat in front of the TV watching the olympics and munching on popcorn.

Whew...makes me tired just thinking about it.

Keep on Truckin'

After having slept all of about fours on Sunday morning, I found myself unloading equipment out of the van and then loading up the family for a trip to Harbor Freight, a tool store. While I wasn't very happy about rushing off...you see I had what I thought was a 2 p.m. performance at the Mondavi to attend and the time of heading to Harbor was 11 a.m. so we would be cutting it close.

So off I drove to Harbor and it all oorled out anyway as I ended up buying a set of screwdrivers, some Velcro cable ties and a plastic organiozer box for the hundreds of batteries that we carry to investigations.

We stopped off for a quick lunch and then the second I got home, I hopped into my pickup for the 40 minute drive to Davis, which meant, if all was well with the world, I would arrive to pick my friend up at 1:30 p.m.

So as I head to Davis, I can see the Mondavi from the highway and the parking lot seems empty. I am thinking that maybe the show got canceled. I pick up ny friend, who has the tickets and we drivr to the Mondavi and notice that no one is going in. To her horror, my friend realizes that the tickets are for 7 p.m.

Now what do I do? I am exhausted and I don't want to make the drive back to Sacramento because I would have to drive back at 5:30 p.m. so I decide to go shopping. We drive to Dixon and go to Walmart where I buy some food items for my family and a tool box for the group. Then it wa back to my friend's apartment to stowe the gear.

By now, it's around 5 p.m., so we go to dinner which is followed by the show. I was so tired and fought my way through the performace but i made it and then headed back to her apartment where I reloaded the truck.

Luckily there is a gas staion enar her apartment and I was able to get a Rock Star energy drink for the ride home. I got home around 11 p.m. and didn't wake up until 9 a.m. but still felt exhausted.

My mother had a dental appointment at 10 a.m. so I went to that and then headed off to Office Max to make copies of some rebate stuff for my cell phone. We stopped off at subway and went home and had lunch. I fell asleep for about an hour then it was into my office to design a Webpage for our upcoming event in Downieville, call some merchants to finalize details, write a press release and then take another nap for an hour.

My evening ended in Davis, watching the Olympics with friends and then I headed home to write this blog.

Now...I MUST SLEEP.