WTF??

I was planning to write about our time in Rome today, but that has been trumped by a very bizarre incident that has just taken place.  An incident that I'm hoping maybe the internet will be able to explain away so that I am able to sleep tonight.

Because you see, I have just discovered that there is a very strong possibility that I am being haunted by a coin collecting ghost.

I suppose out of all of the different variations of paranormal phenomena to inhabit ones house, the spirit of a numismatist with a penchant for 19th century coinage would probably be one of my safer bets.  But still, y'all, I am more than a little weirded out.

Let me explain.  I spent the early part of the afternoon catching up on season 3 of Weeds on my computer, and when I got to episode six, the video was taking a little longer than usual to load.  Instead of sitting around, watching the percentage bar increase, I decided to do a little much needed housework.  Well, before I knew it, an hour and a half had gone by, it occurred to me that Weeds had probably finished loading.

So, I finished wiping down the counters and then moseyed back over to the sofa to resume my previous Weeds watching position.  Before I hit play I did a quick email and Facebook check, and that's when I saw it--a secondary window hiding behind the Firefox window I was using.  I clicked on the window, mildly curious, but mostly thinking it would just be an ad, and what to my wondering eyes should appear?  No, not an ad--an eBay search results page.

The search term?  Morgan Dollar.  And in case you're wondering, like I was

The Morgan Dollar is a silver United States dollar coin. The dollars were minted from 1878 to 1904 and again for one more year in 1921. The Morgan Dollar is named after its designer, George T. Morgan, who designed the obverse and reverse of the coin. Morgan's monogram appears near Lady Liberty's neck on the obverse. The dollar was authorized by the Bland-Allison Act of 1878. It has a fineness of .900, giving a total silver content of 0.77344 (24.057 grams) per coin.

Thanks Wikipedia!  Also, HUH???

Fortunately, it does seem that my coin loving ghost is not a permanent resident of my house, as he (or she!) set the shipping calculator to a different zip code.  However, if you happen to live in or around Carson City, Nevada, you may want to keep a close eye on your change, or at least any Morgan Dollars that you happen to have lying around.

Thank God Colby is coming home tonight and I won't have to go to bed alone, because for the next few days, every single noise I hear in the dead of night will have me convinced that a being from another world has come to raid our change bowl or use my computer.  And I mean, I know that my shiny white MacBook is very pretty, but seriously ghost, use some of that change you love so much to buy your own!

Comments

[Erin]

I am officially creeped out for you. I wouldn't be able to sleep in my house for weeks if that happened to me!

[katelin]

that is so weird, eek. and i love your new pic, very cute! :)

[sophie]

I didn't think ghosts liked technology, so this is quite the sophisticated haunting.

[Tipp]

AUGHHH, I am so freaked out. Is there a message involved? Omg, I love gost stories!

[E.P.]

I'm freaked out for you, too. At least the coin collection ghost didn't pop out and spook you... Right?

[Jass]

That's creepy.

But I have to ask, when you say in another window in Firefox, do you mean a totally separate page or one that is inside the other but waiting on there? Rob uses mostly firefox and I have noticed that you can store different pages that load up automatically within the same page, so it's more like another layer to the page that you can click on. Could it be that Colby was maybe using it to search the coin? And it somehow got saved to load each time you use firefox?

I hope it's that, and not an internet loving ghost!

[Brittany]

Maybe it was just Doctor Who... he popped into your house to use your internet while you were cleaning... to do some research.

It's very VERY plausible, and much less scary.

[Shelley]

My guess is that it was Jack or Ellie. They were sitting behing the couch laughing the whole time;)

[Miriam]

Oh wow! That is too freaky. I would not be able to sleep a wink!

And Season 3 of Weeds is amazing, no?

[LK]

Well, if it really is a coin-collecting ghost, that bad boy won't spend one red cent of his or her special stash on a new computer, especially if yours is right there! Haha, I know it's kind of freaky, but if I had my choice of cohabitating with a coin collector or a murderer, give me the coins any day! Oh, and leave out a few leftover Euros for the poor thing--it'll be a nice addition to the collection :-)

[Celia]

That is super spooky. At least the ghost is respectful and only uses your computer when you are off doing other things.

[Operation Pink Herring]

That's so strange. Can you blame it on the dogs somehow? Every so often, I will come home from work and find our big TV on. We blame this on the cats, but I have no idea how they would turn it on. The power button is at the top of the plasma screen, and I can't imagine how they could get up there without knocking the whole TV over.
Our house is 107 years old, so I totally think it's a ghost.

At least your ghost seems friendly. He/she just wanted to do a little eBay bidding while you weren't using the computer!

[slynnro]

Spooky.

This is exactly the kind of thing I would spend 5 hours explaining to Aaron as to why I should be terrified.

[Michelle & the City]

first of all, that is weird.
second of all, weeds season 3 online? where?!!

[TasterSpoon]

Are there any unusual charges on your credit/debit card or anything? Have you checked your credit report lately?

I pretend to be comfortable on the Information Superhighway ("Aw, Dad, don't be such a square - just PayPal it!"), but really I'm not that far off from my grandmother who assumes that turning on a computer is an invitation to be robbed.

So weird. I just googled Morgan Dollar and the top sponsored result is the e-Bay search page. But I realize that's not the weird part.

Another possibility: you know how sometimes websites and email providers these days put a dotted line under "key words" so that an inadvertent click takes you to some info page on Elisha Cuthbert or whatever...maybe it was an accidental key word click? Although the shipping zip code I do not get.

[Girl, Dislocated]

Too creepy!!! And the fact that you haven't posted since the incident just adds to the creepiness factor!

[Fraulein N]

Well that's 80 kinds of weird. Seriously, check in. The internets is worried your coin-fiend ghost might've gotten ya!

[RisibleGirl]

That is HILARIOUS! Knowing my luck, any ghost I have in the room would use my email program to send naughty email to friends and family.

[Boo]

Boo!

[Boo]

I am a friendly Boo!

[Boo]

Good ghosts make lovely dinners and lovely lovely love to those who we love! :}