To be amused rather than freaked out? (Woo!!)

[Elphame]

Ok to get the mundane stuff out of the way

No one but DP and me have been in the house since Friday

We’ve lived here 20 years and are the only ones with keys. All spares are where they should be

We have 2 burglars alarms which we set when we go out. They have not been activated.

We have cctv camera front and rear covering all entrances to the house and garden. The only comings and goings recorded are DP and me.

We have 2 dogs

DP never plays practical jokes.

Now the mystery. My lovely heirloom grandfather clock stopped sometime since Monday night. I can’t say exactly when but I noticed this afternoon and asked DP to wind it.

5 minutes later he came into the kitchen looking rather pale and told me that the clock has stopped as the winding chains are missing. Both of them. They are some 8ft long with heavy weights on the ends and to remove them requires some dismantling of the clock as well as knowing how they are fixed.

They are not on the floor of the clock case. They have quite simply vanished.

We’ve gone from WTAF to freaked out, annoyed and now somewhat amused. Clearly something doesn’t like my clock!

I am totalling unable to come up with a rational explanation for this. There just isn’t one that either of us can come up with

Is there a gap at the base of the clock that they could have slipped down through? Could they be under the clock? Have you moved it? Looked under, down the back?
@Elphame

Explains it all. Sadly, you’re not being welcomed as the new residents of the Spirit’s house.
You need sage smudge sticks, one per room, light one, move around the room, waving it side to side, go into each room corner. Make sure you cover the landing, stairs and hall carefully. Ask the Spirits to leave and pass over to the other side. OR
Ask the Spirits to make you welcome, say you welcome them, you’re happy to live together peacefully or if you don’t want that contact a church and ask for an exorcism , I was gobsmacked to find vicars actually do this sort of thing.
You can also contact your local Spiritualist church and ask them to visit and perhaps send the Spirits on their way.

One of my favourite “Singing Together” songs from my 70s school days!

@Andthereyougo they aren't new residents they have lived there 20 years

Yes I have.

Did you lose an ironing board a few years back? Or maybe that poster moved and you got their house! https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3513499-AIBU-to-ask-you-to-explain-missing-ironing-board

Hate to tell you op, your dh hates the bloody clock with it chiming all night . I’m with him there🤷🏼‍♀️
decided to remove them in middle of night and create a paranormal explanation so he didn’t have to fess up he hates the clock and just wants to sleep without the bloody gong going off
he must also know you’ll be happy eventually with the paranormal explanation
if I were him I’d be making sure the chains were taken a very long long way away.
🤷🏼‍♀️

Ask for them back and see what happens!

No. Haven’t lost an ironing board yet! It’s usually jewellery, embroidery thread (usually returned the next morning on top of my sewing box) and once a brand new pair of black high heels. Those came back 6 months later but completely worn out! My ghost is definitely female.

@Andthereyougo We’ve been here 20 years now. There was a lot of activity when we first moved in but it rapidly quietened down. I have already threatened manor repercussions if my chains if the chains don’t reappear smartish. I won’t be messing around with sage though. I’ll be going for the serious stuff. They got a sharp warning last night. Phase 1, a good physical clean and tidy will start today and I’ll be breaking out the fish guts and asafoetida afterwards if I have to.

Could the weight of the chains have made them fall through the bottom of the case and out of view?

@Elphame you should contact the makers of the Uncanny podcast on BBC Sounds. This sounds like their area of woo expertise.

😂 You forgot the ham

Is there any significance in what time the clock stopped that you can think of ?

New theory.
It started with the fabric.
It was the fabric of time and space.
It most certainly had a small rip in it and the clock chains fell through it into another dimension. Not sure as to the retrieval process in these cases. I’d contact your nearest astro physicist for advice.

Its similar to a story arc in Doctor Who where there was a crack in a bedroom wall or a fireplace (forgotten which), which was actually a gap in the fabric of time. It obviously happens more than we realise.

@Elphame I am so intrigued by the missing chains - absolutely love a supernatural mystery, especially on a dark rainy day 😁

Your lampshade incident reminds me of something that's baffled me for a few years since it happened (albeit not terrifyingly dangerous like yours).

Like you, I thought of and explored every possible explanation but still nothing makes sense.

I had a bathroom light cord like the one I've (hopefully) attached, but instead of a single 'crystal' there were 2, one above the other.

I was brushing my teeth one evening when the top crystal leapt off the string. I thought it must have dropped off the end at first, but a) try as I might, it was impossible to get the remaining crystal off - i couldn't even move it up the string, it was just stuck there, with a sort of screw at the bottom making it too wide to fall off.

I studied the one the had fallen off SO MANY TIMES and there was NOTHING- no tiny slit even that could've made it fall off sideways - nothing! I kept the damn thing for a good couple of years and looked at it closely every now and then to try to make sense of it.

Some things just can't be explained I find. 👻

it was me. I did it

Are you a Limmy fan? I quote "it was me! I did it!" from the Mr Mulvaney secret santa sketch all the time

@Elphame..... @HeatherMoores suggestion sounds reasonable. Is it worth calling whoever did the service on the off chance?

We need to know more about the shoes.

I can't offer suggestions but in the words of Sherlock Holmes "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth"

Which according to Philosiblog it means, "this is all about logic. If you start with everything you can think of, and then eliminate those that are impossible, you are well on your way to a solution.

That’s the first stage of solving any mystery, whether it’s a murder mystery in a book (or TV, or movie, or…) or something you expected to work, but didn’t. You have to eliminate all the things that it couldn’t possibly be, or you will have too many distractions.

Once we clear out all the distractions, we can focus on what remains. Sometimes what is left is easy to believe, other times it can seem highly improbable. However, with the impossible eliminated, what remains are the only possible solutions. And one of them must be the truth."

😆

Is the bottom of the clock hollow? Could the chains have fallen down in there?

It’s only been there for two months. The chimes are awakening the spirits. They don’t like it. 👻

You’re obviously haunted. I wonder how much a ghost affects the sale price on a house.

Did you come down the chimney?

That's the latest improbable solution that has just occurred to me. You'd need to be very thin though to squeeze down the chimney pot.

With regards to the lampshade @Elphame is your wiring earthed? There could be an electrical fault causing an overload and the glass to shatter. I've had lightbulbs and fittings shatter in our house with a bang and it was due to the electrics not being earthed. I know you say your lightbulb didn't shatter, but it may be worth considering if your wiring isn't earthed.

I'm pretty sure there is a scientific explanation for 'woo' but it shouldn't take the magic away.

"All in all, isn't it amazing how these things relate? It's a fundamental scientific truth that things are often not as they seem, or at least, they are not as we perceive them to be. It throws everything we think about the universe into a new light." https://futurism.com/why-you-can-never-actually-touch-anything#