I was shocked when I first drove in Boston and its surrounding suburbs on how drivers totally ignore the basic driving laws. Laws, such as no left turn on Red. Stopping on red or for a stop sign. Turn signals don’t exist and if you are a pedestrian, good luck..its open season on you…because crosswalks don’t mean anything! I went so far as to ask a State Trooper what the deal was with the drivers. He point blank said “red lights don’t mean nothing, stop signs don’t mean nothing, speed limits don’t mean nothing!”  And what about the pedestrians running across the street like a flock of wild game? “oh, the drivers expect to get sued if they hit someone!” WHAT?!?!?!?

I’m in New Hampshire now, which is definitely more laid back than other places I’ve been to in New England. What stuck me as odd when I first drove here was a sign that greeted me on the state line…it said “Drive with courtesy, its the New Hampshire way!“  I remember thinking “odd, but OK.”  Then I got my lesson on why they have that sign there. New Hampshire got tired of the lousy, rude and obnoxious drivers from Massachusetts.  To be honest, I can’t blame them.  I am used to the rude driver who won’t let you into the lane, as if being 10 feet back behind you would me a major incident and ruin that person’s day.  We have the same issues in California, however, they also shoot people on the freeways and highway because of people cutting you off or not letting you in.  Those who live in New Hampshire talk about what’s it like to have drivers from Massachusetts drive into the state because of the no sales tax and cause accidents or road rage incidents. This is when I learned a new word MASSHOLES.

Massholes are what everyone who calls drivers from Massachusetts. It does pretty much sum it up. I never really used that word until this past weekend. I was driving from Pheasant Lane Mall on the NH/MA border heading towards the highway. It was a merge lane, 2 lanes into 1, no big deal right, except if you are from Massachusetts.

As my vehicle moves to the left and is in the middle of the now 1 lane I suddenly hear a loud vaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrooooooooooom coming from what I know is a v-8 engine. All of a sudden I look to my left and see an older model 4 door vehicle illegally passing me on the left. Within inches of striking my pickup truck. Shocked and dismayed, once the vehicle was directly in front of me, i raised my hand and flipped him the bird, just to let him know I thought he was #1 in my book. The driver, seeing this, merely raised 2 of his fingers together and saluted me with a boy scout salute and just continued on his way. Where was this driver from? You guess it, Massachusetts.

Perhaps if law enforcement would make a better effort in policing these massholes, not only would we all be safer out there on the roads, but  with enough moving violations, high fines and the loss of their driving privileges, it would make them think twice about doing something so stupid as to risk the life of someone else because they want to get home 30 seconds earlier.  I’m just glad I had emergency vehicle course training as a cop, at least I have better odds out there driving with these guys on the road!

My friend who is a “professional psychic” and who’s house I’m living in while he is away, explained to me he and his partner made an agreement with the spirit, he is welcome to stay in the house, but he is to stay out of the bedrooms…fair enough…but I would also hope this would include the bathroom as well. The last place I would want to have a strange feeling someone is there with me is in the shower!

Now, I am a practical person, a former police officer who is used to justifying things, but I do have a belief in spirits and the afterlife. I have a saying “you will believe it when it happens to you.” I am the first to say there are logical things that happen at a residence, normal noises or bangs, however there are times which a person can not explain things away. Plus working the graveyard shift as a cop, you begin to have experiences which you can not logically or rationally explain.

Here at my house, I have seen shadows moving about, and a golden/white light ball coming and going from time to time. I even had a kitchen cabinet door open by itself. Today’s incident I found cool but a little un-nerving.

I was sitting at my computer, getting ready to play my daily slots game on Facebook,  when I kept hearing something that sound a lot like papers moving about. I looked around and thought at first it was coming from outside but I didn’t see anything. I kept hearing something, but for the life of me I didn’t know where the paper moving sound came from.  I was soon to find out though…Less than a minute later, I noticed my pen/pencil holder, which is next to my computer monitor on my desk,  was moving…by itself!

I have a flower pen inside this cup along with a clear plastic ruler and numerous automatic pencils and highlighters in it. There are also several business cards and such stuffed inside the cup so I wouldn’t loose them. I saw that the pen with the flowers was moving to the right. Now, I honestly thought it may be just shifting, as it could have been placed in there wrong or off center. But  it moved back to where it was, then the whole cup twisted back and forth. It did this several times. I have to admit, it startled me and I could feel my heart race and a chill go up my spine. Believe me when I say its takes a few seconds to register in your mind of not only what is going on, but what you are actually seeing is real.

Being at first taken aback I said “do you mind” and I started laughing. Then I quickly realized it was only the spirit’s way of not only letting me know he is here, but saying a hello to me. So I quickly said “hello, good morning to you too!” I also told him that he put me off just a bit as I was not expecting the cup to move like it did, but thank you.  I also told him that it was kinda fun and cool he did that with the cup.

Now, the reason I refer to the spirit as a him and not a her (besides what my friend said) is that of the people known to have died here, they have been both males. The noises I hear, such as the footsteps have been heavy, like with boots rather than the sound of heels…and lastly when I was outside in the back yard walking Ruthie one morning not too long after I arrived, I saw an old man staring down at me from the window in the attic. (Its just me and the dog living here).

As a child, I thought it would be cool to live in a haunted house…guess this is a case of be careful of what you ask for. But as far as hauntings go, I’m glad I have a pleasant, amusing, respectful spirit to live with.

I am taking care of a very adorable chihuahua mix named Ruthie. She is a little over a year old and was a rescue from Tennessee. Ruthie is a spitfire for sure. She has way too much energy for a 10 lb dog! Little Ruthie, as I like to call her, has such an innocence about her. She fills my heart when she is around.

Ruthie likes to sleep on my bed. Sometimes she hides under the covers, other times its some weird spot that I don’t find until I either roll over her or sit on. This morning, she was right next to my head, partially under the covers. Now I should explain that when Ruthie gets up, that means I have to get up.  After Ruthie did her big morning stretch-which makes her foot long body grow to two feet, she decided I needed some puppy love.

Ruthie started to lick my cheek, then my lips (ick) and my ear. She then moved to smelling my hair, then back to licking my face. I couldn’t help but laugh.  Ruthie obviously thought this was a game because she kept doing it more. The more I laughed, the more she loved it and continued to give me licks and kept jumping around. For several minutes I played with her like this. For this short time, I felt as though I was 5 years old, playing around with no care in the world. It was a fantastic feeling.

I forgotten what It is like to be a kid. Waking up this way, I got a chance to live it again. I also realized something about life too in this simple act of puppy love. Despite what is going on in our lives, that we can all take a few minutes to be free, without worries…to just be a kid again. If we allow ourselves just to laugh and take pleasure in something simple, the world won’t feel so heavy around us.

What can you laugh about today?

I enjoyed seeing the natural beauty  of our country. Driving through the mountains of Utah, the breath taking views of Wyoming, where i spotted an American Indian, sitting along side of the highway, staring out over the hills, hands palm up, in meditation. He had no vehicle with him, no backpack as if he was hiking, just him and the view. His image was stuck in my mind for many miles. He was on his spiritual journey as I felt I was on mine. I continued through the heartland of America, with endless corn fields, seeing how many states i could drive through before I would have to stop for the night. Until finally, I made to my destination, New Hampshire! After five days, I made it…in the pouring rain!

Not soon after my arrival in my new town I got to meeting my fellow New Englanders. The first person was at the U-Haul where I had to drop off my trailer. After my warm hello, how are you today, he asked where was I from. I told him I just came from California. He said “Really! You do know it snows here in New England?” I of course looked at him like he had a tree growing out of his head and said “Yes, I know it snows here, it also snows in California too!”

No too long afterward, just about every New Englander, once they found out where I was from, all kept saying the same thing…”you know it snows here in New England.” This is when I learned that most people here believe that all of California is like an episode of Baywatch. That Californians spend their time running up and down sunny beaches in our red swimsuits with Pam Anderson (or someone who looks like Pam Anderson) on a daily basis then head off to the club scene. While I know that in Southern California has the best weather, sunny most days of the year, I myself was from San Francisco where cold, damp and foggy was more the norm. Not to mention there was no way that I was ever going to get into one of those Baywatch swimsuits!!

But soon those comments stopped, once the snow started to fall. By this time I had started a seasonal job with the postal service in town. My nickname was California and my coworkers couldn’t wait for me to learn about snow. The first snow of the season I thought was so cool! I enjoyed it and thought it was great. I drove to work with no problems as the plows had already done their thing so no issues there. But as soon as I stepped foot into the building- “Hey California! How do you like the snow?!?”  Everyone that night kept asking me about the snow. I couldn’t help but think there isn’t anything for New Englanders to do but to wonder what the Californian was going to think about the snow? This was now the new phase I get to hear for the rest of the winter.

I did learn however, that the all season tires I had on my truck were all season for California – NOT New England.  I learned this when I had to drive on the roads before the plows arrived. While I thought I was doing OK by going slow  that was before I tried to stop. I went to hit the brakes, but I kept going…and going…and going…then turning around and around…and around….I was on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.  Unfortunately, this would not be the only time I would go on this not so fun ride over the next couple of months. While I finally had to come to the realization that I need to replace perfectly good tires for the all season snow tires, I reluctantly did. Much to the relief of my neighbors, though amused, they did get tired of me spinning into their front yards when I tried to turn into my driveway.

That’s a Californian for you.

I hope you enjoy reading my entries. Until next time!