"Ship's Log, Stardate 94417.53:
Even the temperate parts of this planet are prone to atmospheric mood swings... This has necessitated some additional bundling.
Behold. The Humble Bundle... Bundle.
Socks: AatP, AP, Chantilly, and Putumayo
Muffs: Rose Marie Seoir, BtssB, and Arpakasso
OTKs and statement earmuffs are probably some of my most loved fall and winter items. Don't get me wrong, I love scarves, gloves, and jackets too, and I have a few of them. But I wouldn't call them a collection. My OTKs and earmuffs are a different story and there is no such thing as too many.
 |
| Halo muff and cross embellished OTKs |
And because you can never have enough monochrome in your life...
My favorite (offbrand) oversized earmuffs are back out of storage, and I picked up some new, somewhat nondescript OTKs for more casual looks (and also to spare my good socks from mud splatter, because when it's cold here, it's also wet.)
It's also a great time of year for fur accessories and boots!
JSK - AP's "Melty Ribbon Chocolate"
Tights - AP's "Lucky Key"
Hat/Gloves - Fanplusfriend
Bag - Swimmer
Boots - Offbrand
Blouse - BTSSB
Capelet/Collar - Miss Lonely Lolita
What are your favorite ways to warm up a coord for winter?
1 x black, vinyl shower curtain liner - check.
1 x spool of black, heavy duty thread - check.
1 x 7mm scallop pinking sheers - arriving Tuesday!
1 x 7mm scallop pinking sheers - arriving Tuesday!
See, it has been raining lately. Not dainty cute rain, but rain rain. Gross rain. And the umbrella I grab for that is a big, black, double canopy, storm proof Totes. It get's the job done. But it's rather utilitarian in appearance.
My plan is to cut 2" and 3" wide strips (for the edges of the top and bottom canopy) with scalloped pinking shears (much cuter than cutting the strips in a straight line, imo) along the length of the shower curtain. Then, using the heavy duty thread, I'm going to hand-gather the strips.
Once I measure out how much length I'll need for each edge of the umbrella, I'm going to carefully sew the new ruffle trim to it (the top canopy overlaps the bottom, so if I'm just sewing it along the very edges, I am not concerned about dripping, but I will wax my thread regardless.)
Wish me luck. If this works, by next weekend, I should have one beast of a parasol!
Also, I'd like to quickly revisit a recent D.I.Y. project. The mini curtains got a quick toss in the wash while everything was getting dusted off and rearranged, and still look great!
Just a quick refresher on how I made these - the cubbies are about 12x12", so I purchased mini tension rods (they extend between 10-18"), and a couple of double layer valances (the frilly part that only covers the top of the window) that were a foot long, 5 feet wide, and made of a lace that wouldn't fray when cut (otherwise I'd need to hem the edges).
I cut the valances into pieces that were ~1.5x the width of each cubby, so they would still cover the entire width when lightly ruffled on the tension rod, and then I carefully cut a straight line up the center of each individual curtain, making sure not to cut through the tunnel that the rod goes through. If you do, it's not the end of the world, but I think it looks tidier when they are connected in the center and it becomes a pain to completely close them if the pieces are separate.
After that, I tacked in a few tie backs at 6.5" down on each side for the curtains I wanted to remain open (the others stay closed to hide my dog park clothes!) and that's it! Tiny windows!
I hope you enjoyed this week's report! With any luck, I'll have a new D.I.Y. item to show you next Monday. Without... well, I'll probably get rained on.
Until next time, Bear singing off!"
This frequency will remain open for response.
. . . . . . . . . . 👾
*Bonus Content*
I'm keeping these under a cut because things are getting progressively more alarming. If you just want a nice, simple, once-a-week lifestyle blog post, then don't read any further. Get some sleep, and don't get yourself involved.
If you need to know what's happening with Rebecca and the rest of the group, or are just up for this scary ride with us, then keep going...
If you haven't read the first two emails I got from Rebecca, please find them and my brief explanation here (everything after the Bonus Content cut).
Since this involves more than just myself and her now, let me give you some background on the other people, at least the ones that I know. Rebecca and I met on a penpal thread over a year ago and have become pretty close. Meagan is one of her best friends from college. Rebecca, Aleksandra, Nasheed, Red, and Byron all work together and are close friends, and several years back, Rebecca and Byron worked together at a previous job, so they've been friends and coworkers for an even longer time. So he's more than just a coworker or a recent friend that they can't recover right now. The six of them went on this trip together.
Everyone else, and everything else, I'm learning about as you are.
Below are our latest emails, and some of the relevant text messages:
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FROM: coastalgirl@********
TO: lordbear@******
Oct 18th, 2016
I need to slow down and start from the beginning, I didn't tell you everything yet.
When we first got here, a state trooper pulled us over about 5 miles out. Officer Davies, Davidson or something, and I got a weird vibe from him. I didn't say anything at the time because Meagan thinks my creep radar is too sensitive but I didn't feel right when we told him where we were staying. That's all, I just... we know we're not just imagining everything, there is physical evidence. But I'm also still trying to hold on to the belief that people are behind this, that people killed those wolves, so I don't absolutely lose it, and it would take people with some connections to pull this all off. He wanted to see what we were doing there and offer recommendations... We weren't in any trouble, no warning. And the recommendations made no sense like lodging (wtf, our gear was on the roof) and restaurants we would have to drive into town for, and if I had a suspect list, he'd be on it.
I told you pretty much everything that matters up to the point where we rushed back to the stations to tell the rangers about the wolves, I think, so I'll start after that, but really fast, that story we heard from the locals a few nights before, the one where the kids were dead/not dead? I think it actually happened, I think the kids were found dead and that the local authorities covered it up, and I found proof. Maybe nothing about supernatural happenings, but something happened. There's a whole bunch of court documents online and autopsy requests, and a satirical underground local news site that published an apology for having mistakenly posted the obituaries, having been corrected by local police... Their wording makes it sound like the article is giving a subtle "read between the lines, the obituaries themselves were not the mistake, letting the public know was the mistake..." I think there is something sinister about the authority up here, and that comes into play later.
Okay, I told you we told the rangers... but I'm looking at the last email I sent you and some stuff is missing, a lot is missing, I think I was still really messed up. Wow.
I actually have to grab my journal for this and check some dates here...
We got here on the 5th and stayed the first two nights in the cabin and crossed off a bunch of stuff on our checklist. The third morning we tried rock climbing but then spent most of the day driving around looking for what we could do, met Mitch and Beetle (they didn't give me weird vibes at all, but I still have to consider them. Red does not trust them at all, he thinks my first hunch was right.) [My edit: she is referring to our earlier texts - she was certain, and even I conceded that it looks that way, that the rangers are part of this coverup. She explains why better than I can below.] and got permission to drop by Mitch's station to use the guest computer. We met Royce at the mini Sasquatch museum and we exchanged our info with him there. That night is when we went to the little town and local bar and heard the story about the children that died, and we stayed in the little inn. I only found out later that that's the place the trooper had mentioned, it made me feel a little gross, I don't know why.
Saturday we went squatching [she means Sasquatch "hunting", where you go on touristy trails to find him just for fun, not seriously] and that evening is when we coordinated with Royce. We agreed to meet him on Sunday and we would be camp together as a group for the entire week while he taught us tracking. To make sure all of our gear was in working order we did our first night of "real" camping, breaking in the two four-sleeper tents just in case Royce's sucked, he could crash with the guys and they'd have enough room. We were going to meet with Royce on Sunday morning and spend the week learning basic animal tracking from him. We planned to drink, do s'mores, everything (I mean, safety too, we had a bear box and kept a clean camp, but those first few nights we packed to impress, and also thank, Royce.) so we needed the outer canopy storage room anyway.
Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday were normal. And fun. We started by just learning to identify the different types of tracks, and we went to sleep laughing each night, guys in one tent, us in another (Royce's tent was fine, but it was just less weird to share than be in one by himself, and it's less gear to hike with), we just all felt really comfortable and at ease. We finally found the wolves whose tracks we'd found, through binoculars (they were under a kill, so we noticed the birds overhead first, we were careful to only observe). Beautiful Coal. We got a little ahead of ourselves that day, getting so far from where we'd camped. We got back to camp so late we debated just sleeping there for the night, but we didn't want to lose the trail, we wanted to hurry back, grab trail tape, food, the bear box (we left it behind, but we can take the car out further this time and leave some of the water with it) and get right back out. It was super late when we got back that I just crashed at the cabin that night.
The next morning is when I emailed you when we stopped at Mitch's station, and then we left. It didn't really matter how fast we left, we lost the trail anyway. We still had fun, but it took until Friday the 14th to find the wolves again, so we only had one more day with Royce (the only person who actually knows what they're doing). But it was great, and that was the night we heard them howling and we stayed up giggling and trying to keep quiet and listen (our recordings only picked up our own sounds, though, they must have been too far).
Forget what I said earlier about thinking maybe we didn't have enough sleep, because that was pretty typical for the entire trip, staying up until 2 or 3, and we haven't been exhausted or out of it at all, and we're sleeping in till around 9:30. Royce and I are the oldest, and we're not that old. This was not a lack of sleep.
The next morning is when Nasheed and I passed out or whatever that was. You asked if we ate, yes, Byron had it written down, we actually had a really good and filling breakfast, everyone had different stuff, and nothing was spoiled. No one felt off. I took your advice, and we all compared notes and smart watches to try and get a handle on the timing and distance. You were right, whatever happened to us happened for a lot longer than just a minute or two. Meagan swears she was alone crying for a while after she found the bodies, and was really scared, not just because something had killed the wolves, but also because she couldn't understand why she had walked so far without us even though we weren't within sight anymore. We're smarter than that, smarter than wandering off and not checking to keep a visual on the others. Nasheed and I got it the worst, (we were close together and near the back of the group) but it affected all of us. We were just the only two to notice anything was off (I felt lightheaded, she felt nauseated), but we went down so fast we weren't able to even give a warning and the others just kept going in a haze. We weren't recorded as moving, or even breathing, for several minutes, and I doubt both of us fell in such a way that the watch sensors dislodged.
No one else noticed anything weird until it was over; you can't blame the guys and Aleks for bolting when they did, and now this explains why they were so damn far away from us in the first place, far enough for us not to hear something that to them was very loud and close.
We talked more about what the others said they heard, and they all heard the same thing, a loud gurgling pop sound, followed by a low, wet growl that they could feel, they said it made them feel like it vibrated through their chests, the way a strong subwoofer might. They said it sounded unnatural. Red and Byron might make crap up, but Aleks? You know she wouldn't. There was something out there with us. Maybe it's what killed the wolves. Something had to have killed them very quickly and the bullet theory doesn't work. [We thought perhaps poachers had used a minimal impact bullets and so the wounds were just hard to spot, even on the small pups, but why take such small pelts? How can you shoot 6 wolves fast enough that they don't bolt and run away? They were all very close to each other, almost touching.]
Maybe it poisoned them. Maybe it poisoned us too, or tried to.
We decided, especially at the more sane sounding risk that it was possibly poachers using poison (anyone we caught might think to silence us), that it was time to get the hell out of there, so we headed back to our last camp site, but we felt it was too close to where the wolves died, and we had made so much noise staying up the night before that if someone or something were out there, it would definitely find us there. It took a really long time to get packed up and head further towards the cabin. We talked about picking a brand new campsite in the thick of the woods and trying to conceal it, but it was starting to get dark, and we had the big tents, so we stuck to the trail we knew and had already marked with trail tape, and just kept quiet that night. I heard Meagan crying, and I dreamed about Coal's open eyes. I dreamed about when I stepped onto one of the pup's bodies by mistake, trying to get to Meagan. There was something so wrong, so final about it, but my subconscious kept replaying the sensation, wanting to believe there could still be a chance, still some life if there was any warmth, any give left in their limbs. That was probably the night I didn't get enough sleep.
We broke camp first thing in the morning and raced back. And I told you we told the rangers what happened. We told them exactly where we had been, where the bodies were, and how to find them. We had that orange trail marker tape with us, always bring it, and Red had tied a bunch onto a tree on the ridge where their bodies were (and I'm crying again, here we go) like a funeral rite before we all took off. He tied it really really securely, I know he did. And the whole trail was marked with this stuff periodically, that's how we got back even though we were scared and it was so dark, okay, we aren't pros.
Well I think either someone took it down, or the rangers took it down, because the rangers (like, professionals who know their way around this place) said they weren't able to find our trail or the wolves. Like, at all. They said they finally found the big huge bow Red tied in the tree (and it was the only time we used a big wad of the tape like that, so it had to be the right spot), but the bodies weren't there at all. Normally I'd just chalk it up to predators taking the bodies but what is out here that would take all of them away without starting to scavenge on them right there, and why were all of our trail markers gone?
Beetle reached out to local department to start a full investigation and turn back new park arrivals for a while and guess who they send? Officer Davidson. And he specifically wanted to know whether we had been following proper guidelines, like tying off trail tape... This guy... something is not right. Something is killing without leaving a mark, it almost got us too, and this guys is at the center of it somehow, I know it.
We're going to meet up with Royce on Wednesday and get to the bottom of this ourselves. At this point, I don't even trust being here beyond using the internet long enough to send this.
- Rebecca
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FROM: lordbear@******
TO: coastalgirl@********
Oct 18th, 2016
Look, I don't want you guys going out without notifying at least some park authorities, what if something happens to you again? Is there an outside department you can reach out to? And are you guys using GPS, what is your main means of finding your way out there?
I'm with you, I don't want to just throw Mitch and Beetle under the bus either, but both of them have been at this long enough that their story doesn't sound right. What if they came under the influence of whatever you guys did, and they just didn't notice it? Is there a chance you could still relatively follow the same trail and not see the trail tape, or could they have approached the spot from a different direction? Maybe they got mixed up and kept walking until they found the spot, but because they were coming at it from the wrong trail, the landscape could have concealed the bodies.
Please get in contact with me as soon as possible if you guys are really going to go back out there.
- B
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FROM: lordbear@******
TO: coastalgirl@********
Oct 19th, 2016
Email me, what's going on, I keep texting, are you okay?
- B
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[I got through to her on the 19th when they looped back around in the car into cellular range, looking for their trail:
R: "I'm okay. We went to what looked like the spot but it was wrong. Drove around until we found the start of our trail tape, we're starting from here on foot."
B: "The same tape leading to the spot, not someone else's or another day's?"
R: "No, it's ours, this is right, because it's new and we tie it a certain way, I have no idea how they couldn't find it unless they did what we did the first time and tried to cut straight to it, so we're going to follow it on foot. I think you're right, I think they were just mistaken. I'm losing bars fast, so I'll get in touch later, maybe tomorrow."
B: "Tomorrow?!"
R: "It's getting dark. We're going to make camp, it's fine. If we go back now, they'll just tell us to stop and not come back out here, no chance. We're safe. Meagan has her handgun, R R B sleeping in shifts." She means Royce, Red, and Byron.
I didn't hear from her again until she was back at the station. I did get through to Nasheed, though, the morning of the 20th after she noticed me spamming Rebecca's phone.
B: "What do you mean lost him, is he lost? You guys have to get in touch with the rangers."
N: "No, I mean... listen, something is out here. The ground just opened up and took him. We couldn't even hear him anymore. He's not lost, it took him from us. We all failed him, we were too scared to get close but I don't think it would have mattered anyway."
B: "Wait what whhat?!"
N: "The ground, near where the wolves were supposed to be. It swallowed him up. In seconds. It moved and it just sucked him down."
B: "Omg... where are you guys!?"
N: "Royce's car, gonna lose signal here, going straight back to Beetle's."
Then nothing again until that evening.]
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FROM: coastalgirl@********
TO: lordbear@******
Oct 20th, 2016
I keep typing out the first sentence and deleting it. Please sit down before you read the rest of this. Forget the other stuff for a minute. I think whatever is happening here is real. Something took Byron and we weren't able to get to him or bring him back.
We followed the trail, we found the trail tape bow, we did not find the bodies. They're really gone. Royce was honest with us, he says it doesn't look like people came in and took them either, or a large land predator. He says large birds of prey might have taken advantage of the kills and just carried them off to eat somewhere hidden. I think Red was getting a little fed up with his optimism because between me and Royce, everyone was saying the rangers must have just gotten confused on the trail like we did earlier by trying to cut straight to the area from the roads, and he was pissed that we were all siding with them. We started getting frustrated with each other and decided to just set up camp for the night, and we picked the same exact spot where we heard the wolves howling.
Everyone was mostly quiet once we got into the two tents. Byron brought whiskey in a flask and started drinking it in the tent, I think he was just 100% done at that point and ready for bed. Nobody stopped him, and he fell asleep first. Meagan and I were still awake in our tent and Aleks was over talking with the others when we heard some deep rumbling and almost a sucking sound, like a huge mouth opening wide, I don't know, but it freaked us out, all of us, and it woke up Byron. We were trying to stay quiet and listen to what it might be and Royce went to grab his recorder and Byron just got up, left the tent, and went out and started yelling and roaring back into the woods at it. We ran out after him to bring him back before he went over the ledge. It's not steep and it's grassy but you can still get pretty hurt if you go over, but he stopped right at the edge, looking at something. I went up to him, to try and calm him down, when I saw lights down in the valley off to the left, over a low ridge through the trees. I was going to yell "hey", call the others over, but Byron stopped me immediately.
He grabbed my arm, not painfully, just enough to know that he was scared, too. I motioned for the others to keep quiet and look.
They looked like green flares, but flares keep going up into the sky, and they make a sound when you first ignite them. These were absolutely silent, rose about twice as slowly as a flare would, and just hovered at maybe eye level, it was hard to tell how high off the ground they really were because it was happening down in the valley, maybe a half mile from us at night. They were wider, too, and they slowly faded out. They came two or three at a time, in rows, just hovering beside each others and vanishing slowly.
We watched them for about an hour, then they stopped. Someone finally checked a watch, I don't remember who, and we realized we had been standing still for so long in the cold that we hurt and our hands and feet stung and were turning blue. We didn't light a fire because we didn't want to draw attention to ourselves, we just silently went back to one of the tents and we all cuddled up together. I don't remember falling asleep.
The next morning, we woke up and just looked at each other. We grabbed our gear and headed down the ridge, we didn't even think to go and look again (what would be the point?) where the bodies should be, we headed straight towards where we had seen the lights. Daylight (and Royce) made us feel a lot braver, and I think there was some underlying anger and determination, too, that we weren't going to let whatever scared us shitless the night before stop us now.
None of us made it down there, and Byron never made it back here at all.
I'm shaking too badly to keep typing, I'm the one who had to tell his mom we couldn't get to him...
(Hey its Red, Im gonna close this out and send it for now so you at least hear from us. Becca's ok, I mean, were all with her right now, Nash has got her, she just needs some time, I think shes the most freaked out. Were getting out tomorrow, were done, Nash says she texted you but yeah Byron is gone. I fuckin just... I messed up. Were coming home, I should have never brought us out here.)
-EOM-
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At this point, I'm waiting to hear something back. I'm still not clear on what happened to Byron or whether there needs to be a coordinated rescue response or what.
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