Within Joliet is Oakwood Cemetery, founded in 1855 to receive the remains of the city’s founding fathers. Over 18,000 interments have been performed there – and in the rear of the cemetery, there is a Woodland Indian burial mound estimated to be over a thousand years old, containing the remains of over 300 people. This burial seemed hasty, possibly indicating an epidemic or disaster long before the first Europeans settled the area.

It is just south of Hickory Creek, which runs through Pilcher Park to the east – a locale historic in its own right for its role in helping escaped slaves flee via the Underground Railroad during before and during the Civil War, and noted today by ghost-hunters and paranormal investigators alike for its spooky activity during both daylight and nighttime hours.

Further west, also along historic Route 6, is Aux Sable Cemetery. This location is also famous among those seeking chills and evidence of the afterlife. Ghost stories abound, as well as urban legends, but to date no credible evidence has been recorded.

Both sites are beautiful, well-kept memorial grounds. As with any cemetery, they are open to visitation only during the daytime, and trespassers at night risk arrest and prosecution – and perhaps a haunting that will last a lifetime.

And he’s the kind of kid that, through his tears of pain, apologized for breaking an adult tooth! I got him calmed with the assurance that the dentist will be able to cap it and no one will ever know unless he tells them (or loses the cap); and got him back to smiling by pointing out he has a fierce fang now and a wolfish grin, and had better not bite his sister Blossom no matter how bad she torments him since he’d cut her up bad for sure (not that he’s ever bitten anyone, but silliness was called for).

I suppose it is the natural perversity of childhood that they can’t have these minor accidents during normal office hours; it’s always the middle of the night or on weekends. I almost hope he doesn’t get his cap done before Halloween: he plans to be a pirate, and the broken tooth would enhance his costume nicely.

I had two blogs at Today.com, but they can suck it because they never want to pay people and I will only do so much work for free. You’ll be seeing reposts of the content from there showing up here, eventually.

Kaleidoscopy at Absynthe Spectrum is one I am keeping: I use it to aggregate updates from JISE, Absynthe Spectrum, ASAP, and related content.

I have an LJ I don’t use much any more, but I am keeping it because of the connections there and it’s a good place for networking.

And the maybe-fourth is a co-written blog about weird things in Illinois. Haven’t been to that lately but I suppose as I get caught up with other stuff I can contribute to it again, and possibly add it to the Kaleidoscopy aggregate.

I have, for some unknowable period of time, had “spells,” something like epileptic seizures but possibly not epileptic at all.

Mostly these “neurological events” are “staring spells,” wherein from my perspective I am just concentrating on something, and from the perspective of others I am staring, unresponsive for some seconds. After these events I usually feel vaguely nauseous; preceding them I often have “auras” or precursors, usually anxiety, although sometimes I get no warning at all. These events are difficult to spot because they are subtle.

I’ve had a few more dramatic events that more closely resemble generalized seizures, where I lose consciousness and muscle control, but typically do not convulse like a stereotypical “grand mal” seizure. These, thankfully, have been very rare: three I can think of over 20 years.

So on Wednesday, 9/2, I went into the hospital for three days of EEG observation. Of course during those three days my brain was cheerfully quiet. I otherwise got rather depressed, being stuck in bed away from my family, but no events for the doctors to see. Friday I was released with an ambulatory EEG unit, meaning my head is still wired (until 1430 today) but at least I could go home.

Things have still been uneventful for the most part. I am not really surprised: my brain rarely cooperates with me in general, so why should it when I most need it to?