I have a daily “Unexplained Mysteries” calendar from the History Channel. Most of the mysteries aren’t very mysterious. Some of them are just ancient ideas that have been debunked by science. But some of them are truly perplexing and fascinating.
Like these.
Sometimes I mull these over while I’m swimming in the morning. Inevitably, though, my mind wanders back to all the unexplained mysteries in my own life.
Why did my internet provider schedule an appointment for me three weeks ago, cancel it two weeks ago, then confirm yesterday they’d be here today? And this morning why did they send me a text telling me they’d arrive between 11:05 and 3:05 immediately—and I mean this quite literally—followed by a text saying they’d be here between 8:00 and noon?
Why does the guy at the pool begin every sentence with, “So anyway …”?
Why have the grasshoppers decimated my garden just when I figured out how to keep the deer away?
Why can I have a long, epic, incredibly detailed dream about my work-in-progress only to have it—POOF—disappear forever the minute my eyes blink open?
Why don’t I just make a German chocolate cake instead of lamenting the fact I don’t have one?
Why does my husband’s closed laptop suddenly begin playing music?
Why do I always pick the slowest check-out lane despite it having the fewest people in it?
Why do I still open the wrong drawer looking for a spoon when we changed the silverware drawer more than twenty years ago?
Why is there never enough ice cream in my freezer?
Why is it impossible to keep from veering toward the display of books on sale even when they’re not books I’m interested in?
Oh well. I guess I’ll go wait for my internet technician ….
What are the unexplained mysteries in your life?
Chicks on the Case 
My sister passed away in 2022. Several months later I was headed to RI dressed in my Old Sturbridge Village outfit to sing in a concert in Bristol. I got in the car, plugged in my phone for the GPS, and turned on the engine. Instead of the usual dashboard things that go on in my SUV, things started flashing and I heard my sister’s voice say “Hi, this is Alice. I just want to let you know that I’m OK. I fell, but I am alright.” I was so freaked that I shut off the car and unplugged the phone. That was the last voicemail my sister had sent me months before. I have almost an OCD thing about deleting all my voicemails after I listen to them. I dialed my voicemail to try to figure out what happened, but my mailbox was empty.
Friends tell me that she never got to hear me sing with the group and since she was from RI, she just wanted to go with me. I still have no explanation. It will always be a mystery. Who knows, maybe she just wanted to let me know she is ok.
Carol
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Whoa, Carol! That gives me goosebumps! I think it was both those things … she wanted to hear you sing and she wanted you to know she was okay. But, crikey … talk about startling!
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A sign for sure, Carol!
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Becky, I am with you on the “slowest lane, but it has the fewest people” thing.
Why is my phone vibrating when it is neither on vibrate nor are any messages coming through?
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Well, that’s just creepy, Liz. Maybe you need a smudge ceremony for your phone.
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Some mysteries in my life.
Why do thistles that I’ve dug up by the root come right back?
Why does unhealthy food taste so much better than healthy food?
Why does Maria turn her nose up at fancy canned food?
Why aren’t my favorite bands and musicians more popular?
How can I get more folks to read my books?
The answers? The world may never know.
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Ohmygosh, JC … truly unknowable. If you find out the answer to any one of those, you’ll make a zillion bucks!
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Exactly! And why can men never find anything in a refrigerator???
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After 40 years, my husband REALLY thinks first before he asks where something is. And when he does ask, I almost always say, “It’s where it always is and I’ll show you if you truly want me to get up out of this chair/set down my wineglass/pause my murder show.” Weirdly, he always seems to then find it on his own.
The funniest thing is when he’s putting away dishes and leaves out something because he doesn’t know where it goes. One time it went 18″ up from where he left it, behind a glass cabinet. Even he laughed about that one!
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On the other hand…I can’t ever find anything in the fridge, either…
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I rarely dream these days, since I wake up all night long to potty. But I think I figured one of yours out. You don’t have enough ice cream because you’re sleep eating–that’s making you have those vivid dreams that vanish when you wake up. You’re losing brilliant plots involving killing people with ice cream. Or maybe freezers. It all makes sense. Can’t help you with the rest, sorry. I could come stay with you awhile and figure them out, but you won’t have enough ice cream.
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You would have to bring your own and then the next day we’d place our standard order with the delivery guy. I mean, we NEED to figure this out, right??
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Lol about going for the spoons in the wrong drawer, Becky–I do that all the time, and we’ve lived in the same place for almost 30 years!
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That muscle memory is intact!
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It’s a mystery why I can remember my best friend’s parents phone number from when we were six, but can’t remember why I walked into a room.
Also, how do I continually (and accidentally) turn my phone on airplane mode?
I suppose it’s no real mystery why not toooooooooo many people share my love of black licorice, but I guess that means more for me!
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I share your deep and abiding love for black licorice, Kathy. And yes, food choices are often completely inexplicable to me. How can someone not love black licorice, or onions, or mushrooms, or chocolate-cherry beer?? I mean, c’mon. But I totally understand why people wouldn’t love goat cheese, or lamb, or lima beans. Because duh.
I’ll see your phone mysteries and raise you an Altoid tin mystery. WHY CAN’T I THROW EMPTY ONES AWAY???
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Altoid boxes feel so valuable! And so much yes on lima beans. I keep waiting for the magic preparation method or dish that inspires me to like them. So far…no dice.
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Those tins ARE valuable! That’s why I have *pulls open drawer and counts* at least 20 squirreled away. I just haven’t figured out HOW they’re valuable. Way more valuable than lima beans, though, that’s for sure.
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We grew lima bean roots in baby food jars in the dark under a bathroom sink in kindergarten. When we opened the lids the smell practically knocked me to the tile. And that cloudy water. No way no how am I ever eating a lima bean. Not even one.
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So gross! Why would they do that to innocent children??
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OMG, can I tell you how much I want this calendar? I remember The Toxic Lady!! It was a HUGE story here in L.A. when it happened. As to unexplained mysteries in life, here’s one… why can I never think of a good example for something when I’m asked, even though I know full well I can answer the question tenfold if I wasn’t being asked?
Like right now.
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LOL, Ellen! That Toxic Lady is quite a story, eh?
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What a great calendar, Becky! All my real-life mysteries are, thankfully, small ones. The most recent is: Why did I still forget something when I wrote it down, mentally reminded myself all week, and also stuck it on my phone?
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Oh, that’s easy, Jen … you didn’t want to do it!
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Becky, I’m still trying to choose one of mine. So many. Buffering…
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LOL!
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Okay, any time that you go to get something and then forget what you were getting, go back through the portal to another room and you will remember. It works every time for me. Stranger things have happened to me. My mother had many medical problems. One day, a good friend of the family that was a Latina, took an egg out of the refrigerator and moved it all over my mother’s body. I was there and saw this happen. She then broke it into a cup, and it was a perfect egg ready to be cooked. But then, all of a sudden it turned bloody and nasty. And all of a sudden mother felt fine. You tell me what happened there, but I will tell you it was magical. There is stuff out there that we do not understand that works.
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