Recalling the Wasp Nest
Monday, August 26th, 2024 10:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snoozefestaudio |
82F and clear tonight, with muggy air outside.
It peaked around 95F today, but it wasn't horrible in the building.
I still did a lot of sweating in certain areas but... no more than I've sweat since I started there.
I also noticed last Friday that there are still old handset phones floating around the building, that are no longer in use... and today I saw one and immediately snagged the mike element!
In case I didn't mention it, I did wire up that soviet mike element, but I got no signal from it when it was plugged into the guitar jack of the interface box.
So either it didn't work, or it needed to be plugged into the three-prong mike input... for which I didn't have an adapter.
So I snagged my little Fender amp from the house (that's how long ago it was) to test it with, but last weekend, when I turned that amp on... it's now making a horrible staticky sound, and doesn't work at all!
Pretty absurd, given that it's brand new, and worked fine the only other time I used it last November.
Since about December it's been unplugged completely!
So... well, now at least I have an Amrican carbon mike element, and I'm gonna see if I can collect a few more just in case.
I feel like, Never Rains could really use that phone mike in the verses, so I need to get one working again.
Guess I need to order an adapter on Amazon... XLR!.. that's what they're called.
Okay!.. ordered!
Weird about the amp though!
And weirder is that the headphone jack issue with the studio computer went away!
"You see, it was right after my optical migrane episode, that I went back to play my music, and suddenly the speakers sounded like they were completely fried!
At first I thought the two incidents were related, like... some ethereal pulse of ball lightning passed through the room and fried both my brain, and the speakers at the same time.
But I replaced the speakers with identical ones from upstairs and they still sounded fried, which meant it was the sound card... or at least the audio jack.
I then got a pair of USB headphones and plugged them into the new computer and... thankfully, through those... the sound is perfect!"
That was from the July 1st, 2023 entry, talking about the events of June 30th.
That audio jack, and the onboard speaker of the studio machine itself remained fried for the entire time the computer remained in that house... but as soon as I set it up here, the problem is gone!
And now I ROUTINELY monitor in headphones, using that audio jack with no problems.
Earlier in that entry I'm talking about how whenever I turned my little fan on and off, the computer would make that sound, like when you plug in a new device, or unplug it.
At the time, that fan was plugged into the same power strip as the computer (and I didn't have the amp yet).
The power strip was brand new, as was the basement circuit everything was powered from... a clean, grounded circuit with proper polarity.
However!.. between that basement receptacle, and the power strip, was an orange extension cord I'd grabbed from the shed!
It was a heavy duty, 3-prong extension cord, that had belonged to Dad!
And, of course!.. it had a loose connection somewhere along it's length!
I reported in that entry that every time I went to plug something into that power strip, there'd be a spark!
And the same must've been true whenever I turned that fan on or off!.. enough of a bump to make the computer, on the same power strip, detect something!
Okay, so, using a new extension cord did fix those problems, but that audio jack did remain fried!.. until I moved here, and now it's magically healed!
And of course, a dodgey extension cord doesn't explain how the electrical connection in my left optic nerve could've gotten fried while using that dodgey setup!
Unless!.. it wasn't really Dad's extension cord at all... but Dad!
"I'm writing on my phone from Dad's room. The power is on right now, but we have had about seven power bumps in a row, over the past 40 minutes, with everything off for a good minute at time, before coming back.
My computers, AC units, central air, and WIFI are all off, to prevent them from frying out, or putting too much strain on the grid... and I have a flashlight within reach.
The last time it went down, I had time enough to get outside and see that the whole block, including the street lights are being affected... so, it's not just my own house."
That was from a week later, in the early hours of, Saturday, July 8th, 2023... my birthday.
Again, I had been in the studio recording when the bumps began.
The first one hit just as I was walking back into the room after taking a pee, and as the house went black, I saw the glow of the plastic stars stuck to the ceiling.
Earlier that same day was when I first got confirmation that the HELOC balloon was real (and apparently not some computer glitch), and made my 1st call to BMO about it!
AND, the same day I walked out the door to go to work and got stung in the back of the neck by a WASP!!!
Because there was a WASP NEST under the awning!
So... weird eye glitch and fried audio jack on Friday, June 30th in the studio...
Then the next Friday, July 7th... first realization of the Balloon threat... got stung by a wasp outside my own front door... and then crazy power bumps when I sat down to record that night!
Also in that entry, I mention how I finally got the back room's WIFI repeater to stop overheating, by using a WIFI adapter back there, bypassing the onboard WIFI chip of Dad's computer!
If you'll recall, the overheating repeater was a huge problem all spring, into summer, and that damn computer would also refuse to connect to the main house WIFI.
Back at the time, I did not see any connection between these different things, or think they were bad omens.
Even when it became clear that BMO really did want that balloon payment, I thought there'd be some way to work it out!
It's only in retrospect that I see that it starts in May, with the wifi-repeater always overheating... which turned out to be caused by Dad's computer.
The balloon also hit in May... I just didn't think it was for real yet.
Then in early June, that storm window mysteriously fell out and broke on the ground.
And I got the studio together in Dad's bedroom later in June... with the real cursed bullshit kicking in at the end of June and into july, with the crazy electrical shit, and the wasps!
I did manage to complete that first test song and get it onto SoundCloud, but then I voluntarily abandoned the studio for the rest of the summer and fall, because there was still too much home improvement prep work to do before October.
And then in November, I flipped that entire room before I finally sat down to start working on the album for real.
And by that point I had everything in the house plugged into surge protectors, and had updated the electric in that room... careful to keep the computer stuff isolated on it's own circuit.
But no sooner did I start piano-rolling drums and bass tracks... than the refi failed!
That was followed by the insane arctic blast!
Then the foreclosure crisis began, and Snoop disappeared!
The final nail in the coffin was when AmEx slashed my credit limit on May 1st of this year... ending my ability to pay for defense lawyers.
And they didn't have to do that!
No other card with a high limit has done that to me since then!
Nobody ever warned me, Yeah!.. watch out for AmEX!... they'll slash your credit limit if they see your credit score falling!
I've never heard of that in my life!
Okay, but then, after giving Yvette away, I had that asshat Tony into the house... Mr. King's partner... to just have a look see.
And he was freaking out... losing his shit... tanked that deal... and left me thinking the house was worthless and I'd have to just abandon it, or deed it to BMO!
And by then, I really was worried about some kind of curse on the place... and because I'd discovered a fucking crucifix in the glove compartment of my own car that same week... which must've been planted by Dad, when he was alive... I went looking to see if there were any more hiding in the house that I'd missed.
And I turned up an ugly wooden rosary in Dad's dresser, in the music room, and walked down the block late one night, to drop it into the storm sewer grate at the corner of Hoyles and Jackson... ya know... to get it away from the house, but make sure it wouldn't come back.
And the next week they had that entire intersection torn up, digging up the sewer lines!
And like, I knew the city had been planning to do some work in the neighborhood, but... that particular intersection has remained in various stages of construction for three months now!
And just tonight, driving past it, they've closed Hoyles Avenue all over again!
Like... what is the issue there, that three months later, they've closed the entire street again?
All the other places around town where they've done sewer work, it's been a couple weeks max!
I submit, it was that fat, ugly, wooden rosary, and the massive dark charge that it held!
I then scoured the rest of the house and turned up TWELVE more rosaries, hiding in different drawers and little boxes.
And the night they were all in the garbage bin on the curb there was a huge windstorm that lasted for hours, and kept blowing the lid of the bin open, like they were trying to get out!
And in the morning, after the garbage truck had been by, that bin was sitting on it's side in the middle of the street and there were branches down all over the place, like some kind of war had happened!
But after they were all gone, I signed with Mr. Taylor, and he sent the sober, professional inspectors who found that it was sound and worth buying.
Circling back around to the fact that the Fender amp, which sat in the music room through June and July, with a lot of other stuff I'd separated out to sell... and then intended to just abandon... somehow got electrically fried in that time...
And that the studio computer which was fried, somehow healed...
I mean, this all draws the picture of Dad's malevolent spirit wanting me out of his house as early as April... fully intending to use BMO to eject me... but then getting REALLY enraged about the recording studio!
Like, as soon as I had that idea... he ramped that evil ghost shit UP, hardcore!
Wasp attacks?... Come on!
But I know that man, and he did NOT care much for music!
Church hymns?.. fine.
Old Irish dirges?... okay.
Ancient Christmas Carols?... sure.
But ROCK AND ROLL?.. Hooo boy!... that was the HIPPY MUSIC! [slams fist].
I bet you expected me to say he'd call it the Devil's music, but he actually hated rock music more on political grounds!
But then again, his conservatism and catholicism were pretty much fused together.
He tolerated a lot of liberal and agnostic bullshit from his kids while alive... fuming below the surface about it... trying not to loose his cool.
But once he was a ghost?... Nooo!.. the gloves came off!
NO HIPPY MUSIC IN MY HOUSE! [induces ghostly magnetic pulse that brings the block down].
GET OUT!
And isn't that what pop culture tells us all malevolent spirits attached to houses really want?... for us to get out?
This is an interesting case, because I'm his son, and I lived with him there for eight years before he passed, really bending over backward to keep him happy, safe, and to be a good companion!
But... you know... I'm just his useless spinster son, so that was just my duty!
I think he did have genuine love for his kids when we were younger?.. but by the time we were in our 40s and 50s... I think he started to see us as just other adults on the opposite side of the culture war.
I mean, don't forget that Father Leake, who knew him well, because Dad served as a lector and extraordinary minister in that church for decades... presided over his funeral mass and told us six gathered children, and the grandchildren... we were all going to Hell.
We were all shocked by that, but he was speaking for Dad!
On our side, there was love.
But on Dad's side... there was no love left.
Donald Trump stamped out the last embers of that, in his heart, I'm sure.
The night he died, after his body had been taken to the morgue... the first thing we did was throw away all the Trump photos... and peel off all the Trump stickers from the windows!
Tim and I would root out and pitch massive amounts of hardcore propoganda literature and correspondence, both political and religious, from that house over the next two months.
Four or five garbage bags worth of the stuff a week!
That livingroom bookcase was nothing but Catholic propoganda from floor to ceiling... just book after book instructing you what to do if you ever doubted your faith, or explaining why the outsiders were going to Hell, and so it was okay to judge them... even though Jesus said, "Judge not."
I got mail for months, from political and religious charities begging Dad to send them more money, because he'd always been so generous in the past.
And they'd say shit like, Overturning Roe was the first step but now we must push for a national abortion ban!
The man died... full of contempt and hatred for anybody outside that circle... fully calloused against any feelings of love... even for me.
He pretended to love us back, of course, because in his old age it would be too awkward not to.
But the second he got free of that 88 year old body... he was just waiting for spring, and some wasps to chat with!
Look at this hippy taking down the flag and tearing down my lawn building! Oooh!.. just you WAIT!..
Once, a very long time ago... when I was about 12... still in Catholic grade school, including being an altar boy... I had a conversation with Dad out on the porch about Heaven and Hell.
He told me not to worry about Hell being about literal burning in fire.
He said that the people in Hell were just people who were so full of anger and hatred after they died, that they'd do nothing but seethe with rage for eternity, about everything.
He said that's what the biblical references to, "a great weeping and gnashing of teeth," were all about.
They weren't in a fire... they were in the same world as the rest of the spirits, but totally divorced from any love or joy, because in life they'd given themselves over to spite and disdain.
And that was really a comfort to me!
And it made sense!
And him saying that, was actually what put me on the path to NOT being that way!
But as is so often the case... those who speak wisdom in youth (he was in his early 40s), who are confident in their authority (he was the father of six kids and his own dad and step dad had been dead for decades), almost always lose their way!
And I don't know why that's true, but it is!
Still, I think Dad was on to a cosmic truth that day... and then went on to become exactly the tortured spirit he was describing, in the end.
He was subsumed into all of that loathing he'd been storing up for a lifetime.
And perhaps this is the meaning of our life on Earth... that our bodies allow us a buffer between the energy we pull... and our humanity.
And when the body dies... you become the sum of that energy you stored up... without the human buffer.
And if the sum of that energy amounts to a monster... that's what you are!
And maybe you can fix it by reincarnating... but you've got to admit there's a problem befor you can do that.
So that's how you get malevolent spirits haunting houses... all, Poltergeist style!
And it could take Dad another century to give it up!
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