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How I Got A New Car For My Birthday

8/28/2020

This past July I hosted my writing critique group every week at my house.

The first week my husband invited the ladies, who always park on the street and walk up our moderately steep driveway, to park in the driveway.

The following week, three of us were chatting in my living room, waiting for the fourth to arrive, when we heard a horrendous clunk. The house shook. I thought maybe the cat had knocked something off the rafters and went to look.
Instead, our fourth member had arrived, coming up the driveway too fast and rammed into my garage door, hitting the back of my car, and sending it bashing into the refrigerator we keep out there. We couldn’t open the refrigerator doors, we couldn’t open the garage door, and we couldn’t get the car out.

My friend filed a claim with her insurance. Two and a half weeks later we got someone to come replace the garage door so we could get the car out.

During that time, we searched for a new refrigerator, to no avail. None of the stores had any in stock, and we would have to wait at least a month for a delivery. We bought one, but August is almost over, and we’re still waiting for a delivery – delayed by COVIC-19 disruption of shipping.

When the garage door was operable we got the car out, made an appointment for an estimate, and took it in to the repair place. On the same day, I picked up the rental car the insurance had promised. Then it turned out the appointment was only to take pictures of our car for an estimate. So we went home – with the rental car.
I made the mistake [or not] of calling the insurance company, and when the agent found out we had the rental car but had not left my damaged car to be fixed, he started acting like I was trying to embezzle millions from the insurance company. I offered to take the rental back and pay for whatever the cost was for 24 hours. He kept telling me I couldn’t have the rental car if the other wasn’t being worked on. We ended up in a yelling match…I’m afraid I did most of the yelling.

My Bad!

I took the car back and it cost me $30 – Wow! But somehow my intent was to take them for millions. Who knew?

The estimate came back at a reasonable prince, the appointment made to bring it in. We did, and got the rental car back. Luciano and I had been talking about buying a new car so I had all the safety doo-dahs on the newer car. Peripheral vision is not a strong point for most older people. When I had the opportunity to drive a Rav4 2020 as a rental, I jumped on it – well, let’s say I selected that model. I can’t do much jumping these days.

The long and short of it is that the insurance company totaled the car – I’m not sure why they didn’t find the extent of the damage when they did the estimate, but what do I know? I took the rental back, and we were without a car.

With my son Aurelio doing the foot work, I purchased a 1-year-old 2020 Rav4 with only 14,000 miles on it. [Thanks to Hertz selling off their vehicles]. We got a new garage door, which was covered by the insurance, and a new refrigerator, which was covered in part.

Just in time for my 80th birthday. Happy Birthday to me. I love it!

P.S. What I don't love is having a car payment again.

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The Eye of the Sahara

8/21/2020

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IT LOOKS DIFFERENT FROM SPACE
Beginning in 1968, when Apollo 8 set out for the moon, the human vision of the earth changed and will never be the same again. Satellite photography has shared many new visions of our world with the general public.

Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders said it all. "We came all this way to explore the moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth."
Image Credit: NASA - Photo Source: spacecoastdaily.com/apollo-8-pilot-bill-anders

Whether or not objects on earth are visible from space depends, of course, on the distance from the planet. At several hundred kilometers from earth, we have seen things about our planet not visible from the normal human perspective. The Eye of the Sahara is one of these features that remained hidden until the advent of space photography.

THE EYE OF THE SAHARA
Officially named the Richat Structure, the Eye of the Sahara was first described in the 1930’s. The geologic structure is a prominent circular feature in the Sahara's Adrar Plateau in west-central Mauritania, in North West Africa.

Because the location is remote and inhospitable, no one had paid much attention to the geological find since the 1940s until it was photographed from space. These photos rekindled interest. At first geologists thought it was a crater, but the more recent and accepted theories suggest that it is, in fact, an eroded dome 25 miles in diameter, exposing sedimentary rock in layers which appear as concentric rings. A product of erosion that took place in geological time. Photos of the area may flutter the heart of a geologist, but they don’t impress the average person. ▼Photo Source: excitementnnet.blogspot.com/eye Photo Source: en.wikipedia.org/Richat_Structure ▼

This is not supposed to be a geology lesson. It's enough to say the geology of the area is volcanic, and the cooling of the rocks dates back to between 94 and 104 million years ago.

ARE YOU IMPRESSED YET?
I didn’t think so.
Apparently, no one else was either – at least enough to do more research in such an inhospitable location.
Seen from space, however, the photographs look like this.

Image Credits: NASA Image Credits: Sentinel 2B on 2017-07-26 Image Credits: NASA
PhotoSource: express.co.uk/Atlantis-found Photo Source: earthstartsbeating.com/the-eye-of-sahara/ Photo Source: Wikipedia Commons

Image Credits: NASA Image Credits: NASA Image Credits: NASA
Photo Source: dreamstime.com/richat-structure Photo Source: youtube.com/watch?v=jfpeM0ehRf8 PhotoSource: earthstartsbeating.com/the-eye

WHAT WILL WE PHOTOGRAPH NEXT?
Now that there’s a realistic movement and investment to send tourists to space [not in my lifetime – Boo-hoo!], no doubt humans will discover many more mysterious and wonderful things about our planet. Unfortunately, The Eye of the Sahara will not be on anyone’s bucket list for a while – at least until there is tourist travel in space.
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Image Credits: NASA - Photo Source: mysterioustrip.com/eye-sahara

Sources
http://excitementnnet.blogspot.com/2012/10/eye-of-sahara.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richat_Structure
https://www.thoughtco.com/eye-of-the-sahara-4164093
https://www.businessinsider.com/the-eye-of-the-sahara-is-still-a-mystery-2016-7
https://www.zmescience.com/science/geology/the-eye-of-the-sahara-05102010/
https://www.dw.com/en/our-beautiful-planet-the-eye-of-africa/a-41517470
https://www.earthstartsbeating.com/2017/08/04/the-eye-of-sahara/
https://www.science101.com/scientists-find-mystery-ominous-eye-of-africa/
https://www.express.co.uk/news/weird/1042776/Atlantis-found-lost-city-Sahara-desert-atlantis-eye-of-sahara-location-conspiracy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfpeM0ehRf8
https://gizmodo.com/the-eye-of-the-sahara-is-an-enigmatic-desert-landmark-1607604961
https://www.dreamstime.com/richat-structure-mauritania-circular-feature-under-clouds-collage-richat-structure-mauritania-circular-feature-under-image139318462
https://mysterioustrip.com/eye-sahara-richat-structure/
https://www.eorc.jaxa.jp/en/earthview/2003/tp031015.html

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Fingerprint Island

8/14/2020

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LAND OF THE GIANTS?
The coast of ancient Croatia must have been inhabited by giants…and one of them left a thumbprint.
▼Photo Source: amusingplanet.com/2017/croatian-island

▲Photo Source: total-croatia-news.com/fingerprint-island

From the air, the thumbprint, a tiny island named Baljenac in the Adriatic Sea, really does resemble a fingerprint. Humans have discovered many things about our earth since the advent of space photography.

Undoubtedly, locals may have made the observation about the shape long ago, but pictures from above brought the novelty to the attention of the public in general.

RIDGES AND GROOVES
Part of the Sibenik Archipelago off the Dalmatian coast, this one-half square mile speck of dry land seems a strange place for someone to construct the ridges and grooves which create its visual similarity to the thumbprint. A closer look at the photo reveals the uninhabited islet is covered with 66 miles of low stone walls.

Credit for Photos: sibenski.slobodnadalmacija.hr
Source of Photos: amusingplanet.com/2017/croatian-island

Many of the walls were built centuries ago by residents of the nearby island of Kaprije, who have been exploiting the area since ancient times and continue to do so. Kaprije, currently inhabited by only 150 people, and other islands in the archipelago also contain similar walls, but at a much lower density. The barriers defined ownership boundaries among three hundred farmers of agricultural plots of land, and for protection from the wind.

Since the coastal soil is very rocky, local material was abundant and the rocks removed from the land were utilized by the farmers for the dividers. The walls have no mortar holding the rocks together. As in other cultures, stone smiths selected rocks to fit together like pieces of a puzzle and piled them one on top of the other, together forming a grid of sorts of ridges and grooves.

AGE
Some of the walls were built as late as the 19th century, but they were probably erected at various times over the past several centuries. Several islands in the archipelago served as a refuge for Christians during the Ottoman conquest in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, so it is possible that the walls began to rise at that time.

Croatia recently requested its inclusion in UNESCO’s list of World Heritage sites. I don't know if this island will make it onto the UNESCO list, but it's not particularly good for your bucket list unless you are flying very low over the Adriatic.

Just Sayin'
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Sources:
https://www.total-croatia-news.com/lifestyle/28319-croatia-s-fingerprint-island-gets-spring-makeover-and-some-international-attention
https://labrujulaverde.com/en/2019/09/the-tiny-croatian-island-that-has-more-than-23-kilometers-of-walls-and-looks-like-a-fingerprint-from-above-the-air/
https://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/hr
https://www.amusingplanet.com/2017/03/this-croatian-island-looks-like-giant.html
https://interestingengineering.com/croatian-island-looks-like-massive-fingerprint

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THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE OF TRANSYLVANIA: The Haunted Hoia Baciu Forest

8/7/2020

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THE ULTIMATE HAUNTED FOREST
When one speaks of mysterious or haunted places, the first location that comes to an American’s mind is not the Hoia Baciu Forest in Romania. In fact, most Americans have probably never heard of it, although the word Transylvania no doubt rings a bell. In parts of Europe, however, the 729 acre forest near Cluj-Napoca, Romania, is considered the Eastern European Bermuda Triangle.

Image Credit: Brian Dunning ▲
Photo Source: https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4520

Bustle.com names it as one of the ten creepiest places in the world.
“There are many rumors regarding exactly just what (or who) resides within the trees of Hoia Baciu. Some say it's the spirits of murdered villagers, others have claimed to have spotted UFOs. While many believe those who enter risk never leaving, those who've trekked the forest and lived to tell about it have reported suffering from unexplained physical symptoms like scratches, burns and nausea.”
Even the Discovery Channel sent a team in to investigate and make a documentary.

THE REAL DEAL
Hoia Baciu Forest is located northwest of the city of Cluj-Napoca, Transylvania, Romania, near the open-air section of the Ethnographic Museum of Transylvania. The area is used for recreation, such as biking, paintball, airsoft, archery, and similar types of outdoor activities.

The forest covers about three square kilometers, or roughly 729 acres. [There are minor discrepancies regarding size provided by various sources.] Its southern border is east-west and to the north the forest ends on a smoother slope, which meets the Nadăs River.

Archeological evidence has been found of a Neolithic settlement in the Hoia Baciu forest believed to have been established around 6500 BC, the oldest evidence of permanent habitation found in Romania.

Photo Credit: HoiaBaciuForest.com
Photo sources: pinterest.com/510666045220294833/ and
thesun.co.uk/archives/missing-people ▼

Within the forest, there are groves of odd-shaped trees, and local folk-stories about paranormal events in the forest date back many generations, but this is the extent of any “real information” unless you want to get into demographics, geology, etc. Science stuff. None the less, the legends have fueled many movies, stories, and rumors about the forest.

LEGENDS AND FOLK TALES
Most of the tales are unverified, anecdotal, and lack details and dates. Still, even today, many visitors who go into the forest report coming out having experienced strange sensations or seen weird things.

● Strange Disappearances
The forest is supposedly named after a shepherd who went missing in the forest with a flock of 200 sheep. No dates or names other than Hoia Baciu.

Another urban legend tells of a five-year-old girl who disappeared in the forest and was never found despite intense searches. She emerged five years later dressed in the exact clothes she was wearing when she went missing and with no recollection of the five year interval. Tales diverge here, some saying she was still five years old with her clothes in perfect condition, others claiming she was ten and the clothes stretched and broken to fit a ten-year-old body. [That seems a real “stretch”.]

One legend reports a woman disappearing in the forest who later [nothing said about how much later] returned with a genuine 15th century coin in her pocket.

Photo Source: mysterioustrip.com/hoia-baciu-haunted

Photo Source: romaniajournal.ro/hoia-baciu-forest

● Strange feelings and sights
Visitors to Hoia Baciu and locals both attest to unusual feelings of anxiety and the sensation of someone watching them. They report unexplained apparitions, ghost sightings, appearances of light orbs, breaking of drop-dead silence by shrill giggling of females, and emergence of unexplained faces in photographs that were not visible otherwise to the photographers. Electronic devices and cell phone often malfunctioning inside the forest, but when outside work normally.

● Strange rashes and illnesses
Tourists and locals have reported developing unexplained rashes, scratches, and illness after having entered the forest. Others have sought medical treatment for burns and high fevers.

Photo sources: essentialhome.eu/inspirations/ fanwave.it/en/mysteries/hoia-baciu

Photo source: pinterest.com/pin/ 774126623422692389

THE UNEXPLAINED
Believe it or not, there are a couple of things about the mysterious forest that are not explained by a good imagination or paranormal events.

● The Circle
Within the forest there is a perfectly circular area where no trees will grow. The soil of this vegetation-free area has been tested scientifically. Soil samples revealed no anomalies that would prevent the growth of any plant life, including the kind of trees surrounding the clearing. According to one legend, the clearing is protected by the spirits of murdered peasants, who are guarding a gateway to other spiritual dimensions.
Photo source: express.co.uk/Missing-people-ghosts-crop-circles ▼

● UFO Sighting
Over many years, residents of Cluj-Napoca and the Transylvania area have often reported seeing strange lights and lights in the sky. A flurry of such reports in the early 1960s captured the interest of biologist Alexandru Sift who began to study the unusual phenomenon associated with the Hoia Baciu. Over years of study he amassed over 60,000 photos.

In 1968, Emil Barnea, a military technician, took photographs of what appear to be flying disc-shaped entity in the sky, the first photographed UFO sighting in the area.

◄Image credit: Emil Barnea, 1968
Source:nzherald.co.nz/travel, https://eldritchstories.wordpress.com/tag/ufo/ and others

The last reported UFO was filmed over Baciu Forest in 2002 by two Cluj residents who lived on the top floor of a building on the outskirts of the neighborhood Manastur. The UFO’s were caught on film for 27 seconds and were described as an evolution of a bright object in the sky that was shaped like a cigarette and a length of about 50 meters. The UFO rose and went across the sky until it went into a mass of clouds and disappeared.
▼Photo source: horrorfuel.com/2018/hoia-baciu

Sift continued his studies until he died in 1993, shortly after spending a couple of weeks in the forest. He supposedly had burns all over his body and a high fever. He allegedly discovered areas within the forest of high radioactivity, and the symptoms of his illness are consistent with keratosis, a sickness caused by over exposure to ultraviolet rays. Studies conducted after his demise did not corroborate his theories about radioactivity.

Although Sift photographed many phenomenon, and shared those photos with other scientists, most of his collection disappeared within three days after his death and most of his notes were burned. Those salvaged each ended with the sentence, “Knowledge if harmful; ignorance is bliss.” creepy cre pasta.fandom.com/Romanian_Experiment

The few photographs and notes left were published in a book entitled, Fenomenele de la Pădure Hoia-Baciu, written by Adrian Pătruț, professor of chemistry and a friend of Alexandru Sift.

Pătruț has continued Sift’s research and states that what happens in Hoia Baciu Forest is not paranormal at all, but natural phenomenon yet unknown to science. The people who suffer illness after coming out of the forest may be EHS which is Electromagnetic Hyper Sensitive, a hotly contested topic in both medicine and science. The “unofficial” list of symptoms of this hypersensitivity closely replicate those complaints and illnesses of those reacting to time in the forest. He believes that as we learn more about electromagnetic fields, the explanation will come to light.

ENTER DRACULA
There is no real connection between the fictional Dracula character from Irish writer Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula and Hoia Baciu Forest, other than both of them are located in Transylvania, Romania. The time between locations is four to ten hours, depending on your choice of transportation. Somehow the tourist trade has made an erroneous connection.

Tales of the supernatural had been circulating in Romanian folklore for centuries. Regardless of specific stories about the haunted forest, it was Stoker’s novel that brought Romania’s recognition of and reputation for the paranormal to the rest of the world. Stoker never visited that country, but threw himself into learning all he could. “To research his immortal tale, Stoker immersed himself in the history, lore and legends of Transylvania, which he called a ‘whirlpool for the imagination.’"
romaniatourism.com/dracula-legend.html
Strangely, his Count Dracula novel was not published in Romania until 1990.

Stoker’s character Count Dracula was inspired by a well-known figure in Romanian history, Vlad Dracula. Vlad, nicknamed Vlad Tepes [Vlad the Impaler, a title he came by honestly], ruled Walachia at various times from 1456-1462.

He was born in 1431 to a noble family at the point in history when the Christian Holy Roman Empire was fighting with the Muslim Ottoman Empire. Wallachia was caught in the middle. Vlad III's father, Vlad II Dracul (meaning ''dragon''), was a member of the secret order of the dragon, created by the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Dracula means ''son of Dracul'', which is why Vlad III is called Dracula.

He lived his adult life in Walachia, which is not even in Transylvania, and is now called Muntenia. There were periods when he was imprisoned Pest and Visegrad [in Hungary]. The name Dracula is literally translated in Gaelic as Drac Ullah meaning bad blood.
Stoker selected Bran Castle to be the setting for his novel, Bradsov, Romania
Photo source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bran_Castle ▼

Bran castle was not the home of Vlad II Dracul. Stoker depicted the imaginary Dracula’s castle based upon a description of Bran Castle that was available to him in turn-of-the-century Britain.

The imaginary depiction of Dracula’s Castle from the etching in the first edition of “Dracula” is strikingly similar to Bran Castle and no other in all of Romania. Stoker is widely purported to have used the illustration of Bran Castle in Charles Boner’s book, "Transylvania: Its Product and Its People", (London: Longmans, 1865) to describe his imaginary Dracula's Castle.

The mansion is currently owned by the Archduke of Habsburg [who got it back from the Romanian state after the Communists confiscated it from his relatives in 1948]. It’s a museum and a major tourist attraction, but there is an article on the internet claiming that it is for sale. Built in 1388, the huge edifice has no bathrooms and, while the current asking price is undisclosed, the 57-room manor situated on 22 acres was listed previously at $135 million.

BACK TO THE HAUNTED FOREST
My take-away from all the research is that Bram Stoker’s novel focused attention on Transylvania and its penchant for the paranormal. The 1968 UFO sighting rekindled interest, and tourism took hold, ramping up the old legends and using the Transylvania reputation to concentrate interest.

Whether or not the forest is haunted … who knows? Some of the more recent firsthand accounts are compelling, but I’m guessing Adrian Pătruț’s theory about natural phenomenon will eventually pan out.

Still, if you’re traveling in the area, a visit sounds like a fun adventure.
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Sources:
http://romaniatourismhttp://romaniatourism.com/dracula-legend.html#:~:text=Count%20Dracula%2C%20a%20fictional%20character,various%20times%20from%201456%2D1462.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/news/article.cfm?c_id=7&objectid=12281492
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoia_Forest
https://www.eonline.com/news/542246/dracula-s-castle-is-for-sale-but-you-ll-have-to-pay-a-very-pretty-penny-for-it
https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/draculas-castle-airbnb
http://foryourgadgets.com/bizarre/20-creepiest-abandoned-places/20/
https://www.bustle.com/articles/180956-20-of-the-creepiest-places-on-earth-to-send-chills-down-your-spine
https://hoiabaciuforest.com/truth-about-the-hoia-baciu-forest-an-area-on-earth-created-55000-years-ago-by-atlanta/
https://www.express.co.uk/travel/articles/688418/Missing-people-ghosts-crop-circles-World-s-most-haunting-holidays-hoia-baciu-chernobyl
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g298474-d3822459-Reviews-Hoia_Baciu_Forest-Cluj_Napoca_Cluj_County_Northwest_Romania_Transylvania.html
https://mysterioustrip.com/hoia-baciu-haunted-forest/
https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-ideas/weird-and-wacky/ufos-ghosts-and-missing-people-is-this-the-creepiest-forest-in-the-world/news-story/6018ad7b5d2ae27d61f2def7666491dd
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoia_Forest
https://mybestplace.com/aroundtheworld/en/hoia-baciu-haunted-forest-of-mystery-in-transylvania/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiluLXrliZM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crooked_Forest
https://www.stefsjourney.com/exploring-romania-haunted-forest-hoia-baciu/
http://www.longshadowofchernobyl.com/photos/the-abandoned-city-of-pripyat/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/324048135670142506/?lp=true
https://factslegend.org/20-interesting-mysterious-hoia-baciu-forest-facts/
https://www.history.com/topics/folklore/vampire-history
https://www.livescience.com/24374-vampires-real-history.html
https://www.livescience.com/40843-real-dracula-vlad-the-impaler.html
https://blog.continentalcurrency.ca/vampires-transylvania/
https://hoiabaciu.wixsite.com/project/about?lightbox=dataItem-ji4m2faz2
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/news/article.cfm?c_id=7&objectid=12281492
https://eldritchstories.wordpress.com/tag/ufo/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/177188566564543395/
https://www.romaniajournal.ro/travel/the-obscure-secrets-of-the-corvin-castle/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/510666045220294833/
https://www.thesun.co.uk/archives/news/871264/ufos-ghosts-and-missing-people-is-this-the-creepiest-forest-in-the-world/
https://www.essentialhome.eu/inspirations/lifestyle/haunted-places-visit-spooky-halloween/
https://www.romaniajournal.ro/travel/hoia-baciu-forest-one-of-worlds-most-frightening-places/
https://creepypasta.fandom.com/wiki/Romanian_Knowledge_Experiment
https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/europe/hoia-baciu-transylvania-haunted-trees-ufo-ghosts-how-to-visit-camping-alex-surducan-marius-a8023136.html
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/poenari-castle-vlad-the-impaler
https://mybestplace.com/aroundtheworld/en/hoia-baciu-haunted-forest-of-mystery-in-transylvania/
http://horrorfuel.com/2018/01/15/supernatural-natural-hoia-baciu-forest/

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How I Got A New Car For My Birthday

The Eye of the Sahara

Fingerprint Island

THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE OF TRANSYLVANIA: The Haunted Hoia Baciu Forest

Author R. Ann Siracusa

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