Ghostly Fun and Déjà vu – Ep. 236

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_01] What's up y'all? Summer's got a different tempo. Everything's a little looser, brighter. One plan turns into another. You hear something, you stay a little longer. Next thing you know, you're somewhere you didn't plan to be. It's those in-between moments. That's where the ideas hit. Conversations stretch out, little memories sneak up on you. Sometimes, it's just about what's in your hand. That color. That chill.

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[00:01:31] [SPEAKER_06] Odd Trails is a true paranormal podcast. If you have a story to share, send it to stories at oddtrails.com. Enjoy the show.

[00:01:41] [SPEAKER_07] Forget facts. Forget logic. Forget everything that seems real. You just trust. Believe.

[00:02:28] [SPEAKER_06] Burnt Toast Theory by Rain Maybe I've been telling this story to friends, family, and anyone who will listen since it happened a year and a half ago, and nobody has ever been able to come up with a reasonable explanation. I met my best friend on Twitter, as we were in the same fandom for a YouTube group. After FaceTiming every day for six months, I flew to Canada to stay with her for a week.

[00:02:57] [SPEAKER_06] We had just gone out to lunch, and we were both pretty tired, so we decided that we would just head back to her house and take a nap. I was kind of bummed because I didn't want to waste any of the time that I had with her, but I didn't say anything. Here is where it actually gets stupid. On the drive back, one of the YouTubers from our fandom posted a photo dump on Instagram.

[00:03:23] [SPEAKER_06] I was scrolling through it while she was driving, and I spotted a shirtless selfie. As two dramatic fangirls do, I started screaming at the top of my lungs. My friend wanted to see the pic, but I told her she would crash the car if I showed her while driving, so she pulled into the nearest parking lot, where we proceeded to actually freak out and lose our minds over it for two straight hours.

[00:03:48] [SPEAKER_06] I wish that were an exaggeration. Trust me, I understand how dumb this sounds. Deciding that two hours in a Catholic Education Center parking lot was too long to be losing our minds over a shirtless guy, my friend went to turn the car back on and leave. The car started making the most insanely terrifying sound, like the engine was about to fall right out of the car.

[00:04:15] [SPEAKER_06] The dash lights were flashing, and when she put the car in reverse, it simply wouldn't move. She tried multiple times, but didn't have any luck. Something was wrong with the car. She called her dad, but he didn't answer, so I decided to FaceTime my mom, as she is very knowledgeable about cars. She told me it sounded like the car was low on oil. On FaceTime, she walked me through how to check the oil, and we discovered that the dipstick was bone dry.

[00:04:44] [SPEAKER_06] Not a single drop of oil in the car. We touched it with our fingers and everything. Absolutely none. My friend was confused because her dad had just changed her oil that previous weekend. My mom said it was possible that he hadn't secured it well and it had leaked. My friend called her dad again, but this time he answered. He was at work and he said that he would leave to come find us and bring supplies to put more oil in the car.

[00:05:14] [SPEAKER_06] He was confused though, because if the car were to leak oil, it would be all over the driveway. Between him being stuck in traffic and having to finish up some things at work, it took him over two hours to come find us in that parking lot. In the meantime, my friend and I were having the most fun either of us had ever had in our lives. We were slap happy for some reason. Then, neither of us even slightly tired anymore. It was like 3am.

[00:05:42] [SPEAKER_06] And every little thing was the funniest thing we had ever heard. Finally, her dad arrived. He got in the driver's seat and turned on the car. It came on perfectly. No noise. No flashing lights. No issues putting it in reverse. The car was fine. He got out and lifted the hood, checking the dipstick, and the car had oil. The perfect amount. Nothing was wrong with the car. My friend and I lost our ever-loving minds. It didn't make sense.

[00:06:11] [SPEAKER_06] The car had no oil. I would think it would just be us being stupid and not knowing how to check the oil if it weren't for my mom on FaceTime, who witnessed that it was completely and utterly dry. The car did not have oil. And then it did. And it was fine. Her dad thought that we were idiots. We got in the car and drove back home with no issues, but we did see upwards of 10 different

[00:06:37] [SPEAKER_06] angel numbers on various billboards, license plates, bus stop signs, and more throughout the drive. We got back to her house and proceeded to have the greatest night of our lives. Still to this day, it's the most fun we've ever had. We both laughed so hard that day that we lost our voices. I don't know why we were stuck in that parking lot for four plus hours that day, but I think maybe we were being protected from something that would have happened if we hadn't pulled over.

[00:07:07] [SPEAKER_06] I don't know. I can't explain it. Nobody can. There was no oil in that car.

[00:07:29] [SPEAKER_05] Mal de Ojo, or The Evil Eye, by V. I was listening to episode 195 where you guys were talking about folklore and stuff, and it reminded me of this, so I wanted to share it real quick. My parents are from Ecuador, and there's a belief that when you're having a streak of bad luck, even though you're attempting to do everything properly, not squandering money or anything like

[00:07:57] [SPEAKER_05] that, it's because someone who doesn't like you has cursed you. This isn't specific to Ecuador either. I've heard about it in a lot of South American cultures. We call it Mal de Ojo. It's not voodoo per se, where they use your hair or anything like that. It's more that if someone really hates you, or just has negative feelings towards you,

[00:08:22] [SPEAKER_05] that negative energy can be manifested and passed to you when they look at you. This may sound like bullshit, but we believe this happened to my mom ages ago. We used to live in New York, and when I was 13, my mom was laid off from work. She struggled for months to find another job. We were about to be evicted from our apartment, and we were living on rice and eggs.

[00:08:51] [SPEAKER_05] One of my mom's friends jokingly said she was having terrible luck, and maybe somebody gave her Mal de Ojo. ¿Estás salada? ¿No será que alguien te dio Mal de Ojo? Translated, she was asking if my mom was cursed with bad luck, and wondered if someone gave her the evil eye. My mom has never been a superstitious person,

[00:09:17] [SPEAKER_05] but her friend decided they should go to a medium or a psychic and have their fortunes read. My mom used to tell me this story with utter disbelief, but also astonishment. She said that when they walked in, the psychic looked at my mom's friend and told her things that made her cry. My mom never told us what was said, since it wasn't our business. Then the psychic looked at my mom and said,

[00:09:47] [SPEAKER_05] Someone really hates you. You need to see a healer and get rid of all the negative energy you're carrying from this person. At the time, my mom thought it was all bullshit. She didn't feel that she had done anything terrible enough to make someone hate her. Then the psychic told her, It's not someone you know, but it's someone you will come to learn exists. This person knows about you, and they hate you,

[00:10:16] [SPEAKER_05] and wish you ill will. So here's where it gets messed up. A lot of stuff was uncovered. My mom was in a long-distance relationship at the time, with a man named Al. It turned out that Al had been cheating on her for months. The woman he was cheating with, Beth, knew about my mom, and hated that Al refused to break up with her. Al's sisters also didn't like Beth,

[00:10:46] [SPEAKER_05] because they had known us for years, and they were angry with Al. Although they still kept his secret. My mom found out when she called one of his sisters, and started fishing around after the session with the psychic. As soon as she asked if Al was up to anything suspicious, his sister started crying, and immediately told my mom everything. Apparently,

[00:11:13] [SPEAKER_05] Al had photos of himself and my mom all over his place. Beth had been trying to get rid of them, and had started becoming problematic. Once my mom learned all this, she decided to look into a healer, since it seemed like the psychic had been right. Although she was still skeptical. From what my mom says, she and her friend went to some healer. He requested a photo of Beth,

[00:11:40] [SPEAKER_05] which my mom was able to get from one of Al's sisters. She said he wrapped the photo, and then burned it. He hit my mom with some leaves, and spit on her, which my mom hated. Then he and an assistant started rubbing two eggs all over my mom. He said she had enormous negative energy following her. After they were done, they cracked both eggs open.

[00:12:10] [SPEAKER_05] They were black and almost bloody looking inside, according to my mom. Afterward, he said he was finished, and ordered my mom some crystals. He told her to keep them at the entrance of her home. If they ever cracked, it meant that the person entering her home did not have good intentions toward her. My mom was still dubious, but she decided not to question it.

[00:12:38] [SPEAKER_05] Then maybe a day or two later, a friend of hers from North Carolina called, and started reminiscing about when they used to hang out together in New York. They hadn't spoken in a while, but after chatting, she offered my mom some help getting a job in North Carolina. My mom applied and immediately got the job, so we moved. Whether this happened because she got rid of the bad juju Beth had brought on her,

[00:13:07] [SPEAKER_05] or whether it was pure coincidence, I'm not sure. The black, bloody looking eggs always made us wonder though. So did the crystal. Believe it or not, we carried it around for years, until it actually cracked one day, when a friend of my mom's visited us. I've always wanted to get one since then. I do believe in energies, but I have no idea

[00:13:35] [SPEAKER_05] what kind of crystal it was. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the read. Does anybody know what kind of crystal it might have been?

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[00:16:31] [SPEAKER_06] I need help identifying what I saw by N. I've lived in WNC my whole life. My house sits in front of the woods, although it's not very secluded. I live right in the middle of my town, so the woods aren't very dense, to my knowledge at least. My family and I would hike through the woods in our backyard occasionally,

[00:17:00] [SPEAKER_06] and they seemed to go on for miles. But knowing the surrounding area, I can't imagine it's very big. When I was a kid, maybe 5th or 6th grade, my extended family came to our house and stayed a few nights over the summer. My cousins and I decided to have a slumber party on our trampoline, since the weather was nice. And what kid in a rural town doesn't love camping? It was dark at this point, but before we went to bed, my whole family was outside hanging out

[00:17:30] [SPEAKER_06] and playing around. My mom thought that it would be fun to show off her new night vision camera and goggles. She let everyone have a turn with it, looking up into the woods for animals. When it was my turn, I looked up into the woods and I saw something that terrified me. It looked as if these black shadowy figures with white glowing eyes were popping out from behind the trees. There were three of them, and they would poke out

[00:17:59] [SPEAKER_06] from behind the trees and then go back to hiding behind them. Now, I can't say how long I was looking at them, but I remember removing the goggles and immediately telling my family what I saw. I looked back to see if whatever it was was still there, but they were gone. My mom and uncle looked as well, but they didn't see anything. Nobody would believe me, but I was terrified and refused to stay outside the rest of the night. I haven't seen those creatures since,

[00:18:29] [SPEAKER_06] but I don't go looking out into the woods at night anymore either. I tried to see them again for maybe about a year after that initial sighting, but I never could, and eventually I just forgot about it. I went digging through ghost stories on the internet, trying to find something that sounded at least a little similar to what I saw, but I couldn't find anything. I'm hoping that someone here can at least help point me in the right direction.

[00:18:56] [SPEAKER_05] The Woman at the Kitchen Window by Danny C.T. My wife and I moved into a small two-bedroom house in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in February of this year.

[00:19:27] [SPEAKER_05] The first thing I noticed was the smell. It wasn't exactly bad. It was more like the errand side had been sitting there undisturbed for too long, like opening a drawer that hadn't been touched in years. The Reelder called it Older Home Smell. We aired the place out and didn't think much more about it. The second thing I noticed was the dog. We don't have a dog and never have,

[00:19:56] [SPEAKER_05] but during the first week my wife asked me twice if I had heard a low sound somewhere near the basement door. It was somewhere between a whine and a hum. I had heard it too, but I assumed it was the pipes or the furnace. She had assumed the same thing, which is why neither of us mentioned it at first. Weirdly, we both felt a little better knowing the other person had heard it. The basement itself

[00:20:25] [SPEAKER_05] was nothing unusual. Concrete floors, exposed joists, a utility sink, and a metal shelving unit with a few old paint cans left by the previous owners. The sound didn't happen every night. It happened just often enough that we never really completely forgot about it. The photographs are harder to explain. I took a few random pictures when we first moved in. About a month later,

[00:20:55] [SPEAKER_05] I was going through some of the pictures and I noticed something in the back hallway. There was a figure at the far end. It was partly hidden by the doorframe and not very clear. My wife's first reaction was that it was me. I pointed out that I was the one taking the picture. We tried to remember whether anyone else had been in the house that day, but no one had. We had been alone.

[00:21:24] [SPEAKER_05] I've shown the picture to a few people. About half say it's clearly a shadow and the other half say it's clearly a person. I eventually stopped showing it to people because the conversation never really went anywhere. Around the same time, the upstairs hallway light started switching itself off. It didn't flicker or slowly go out. It would just be on when we passed it and then be off when we came back.

[00:21:54] [SPEAKER_05] We replaced the bulb. Then we replaced the switch. We even had an electrician come out, but he couldn't find anything wrong. It kept happening until sometime in April, and then it suddenly stopped. Honestly, that bothered me more than when it was happening. The dreams are the part I'm most hesitant to mention because dreams are easy to dismiss. But both my wife and I had dreams in that house

[00:22:23] [SPEAKER_05] that felt different from normal dreams. We didn't compare notes until afterward. I dreamed about a woman standing in the kitchen, looking out the window toward the backyard. She wasn't doing anything threatening. She was just standing there, and I couldn't see her face. When I told my wife about it, she put her coffee down and stayed quiet for a second. She had dreamed

[00:22:52] [SPEAKER_05] almost the exact same thing. She had assumed it was stress or something she had picked up from watching too many home renovation shows. Neither of us could explain why the dreams were so similar. We did some basic research on the house. A family had lived there for over 30 years before it went on the market. The wife had died there in the home from natural causes. Or so I assume. She was really old.

[00:23:22] [SPEAKER_05] There's nothing especially unusual about that. Plenty of people die in old houses. It doesn't necessarily mean anything. And we still live here. The sound near the basement has mostly stopped. The hallway light stays on. Nothing has happened in the past several months that I would consider unusual. But I still don't like standing in the kitchen and looking out at the backyard after dark. I'm not really sure why.

[00:23:52] [SPEAKER_05] I just don't.

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[00:26:54] [SPEAKER_06] Something watches over our family by Laia. At 16 years old, my cousin on my dad's side came to visit my dad and me. We hadn't seen him in years, but my dad wanted him to work at a construction job in downtown Atlanta. He declined because he already had a job as a truck driver. My dad then asked if he would like to stay for dinner, and he said, all right. My stepmom went

[00:27:24] [SPEAKER_06] to get groceries for dinner, and my dad, cousin, and I sat and watched TV. After my stepmom got back from grocery shopping, she remembered that she had forgotten an ingredient. She asked my cousin to go back to the store to grab it. I asked if I could go with him, and they said yes. As we were coming back from the grocery store, I told him something that I kept to myself for about a week. I told him that I would sneak downstairs at night to play PlayStation.

[00:27:53] [SPEAKER_06] While I was playing, I would suddenly get the feeling that somebody was watching me from behind. I never kept my back facing an open area, and whenever I would turn around, I would see this dark shadow figure standing in the back. It scared the living hell out of me, so I would turn on the lights, almost blowing my cover for sneaking downstairs at night. Not only that, but my little brother's potty training toy would go off late at night

[00:28:22] [SPEAKER_06] while I was downstairs. The toy only goes off whenever he's using it. It has a metal sensor that presses down and activates. However, when I would check the bathroom, the training toy would be completely empty. I would get scared, pack up my game, then go back upstairs. But the night after that was the one that really scared me the most. As I continued telling my cousin what happened, I explained that the next night truly made me believe that something strange

[00:28:52] [SPEAKER_06] was going on. I went to school as usual, got home, did my normal routine, and just relaxed. Everything was completely normal, but that night I couldn't sleep. Something was keeping me awake. When I finally did fall asleep, I only slept till about 2am. I still remember it like it was yesterday, and I'll never forget the fear that ran through my body that night. When I woke up at 2am, I felt it again. Someone was watching me.

[00:29:22] [SPEAKER_06] And no, it wasn't my dad or my little brother. It felt like a tall figure was watching me. I don't know who, and I don't know what, but all I know is that if I had turned and looked at that figure, I don't know what would have happened. It might sound a bit dramatic, but keep in mind I was 16 at the time. I was lying on my left side with the sheet pulled up over my shoulder. My eyes were open, not blinking. Then all of a sudden

[00:29:51] [SPEAKER_06] I felt a pressure on my bed. You know when your parents lean on your bed to talk to you and you roll backwards a little? It felt like that. But it wasn't sudden. It was slow and soft. The only thing going through my mind was that whatever this was knew I was awake and it wanted me to look at it. So instead of looking, I decided to pull the blanket up over my head. My eyes were still open wide under the blanket

[00:30:20] [SPEAKER_06] and whatever it was kept pushing down further and further to the point where I was halfway onto my left shoulder blade. Again, I don't want to sound dramatic, but the blanket that I was using had this tiny hole in it. I took a small peek with my eyes half open and there was a dark figure standing over me. My dad's house had floodlights in the backyard. They were on. I think a squirrel had run past them and triggered it.

[00:30:50] [SPEAKER_06] The light was shining through my bedroom window, not too bright, just a dim glow. The room was still dark, but you could clearly tell that there was light outside reflecting on the ceiling. When I looked through that tiny hole in my blanket, I couldn't see the ceiling. Whatever it was was completely blocking it. I shut my eyes tight and I tried to go back to sleep. Luckily, after a couple of minutes, I did fall asleep

[00:31:20] [SPEAKER_06] and I woke up the next morning sweating. I didn't tell my dad because he had alarms on the house and none of them had gone off. When I told my cousin this, he slowed the car down and looked at me. He said that it didn't sound too far from what my other cousins had told him. That was when he told me something that stuck with me. He said he thought something was watching over our family. He said he didn't know if it was good or bad. He just knew that other family

[00:31:49] [SPEAKER_06] members had told him similar stories. After that, all he said was be careful, don't taunt it or make fun of it and don't speak to it directly. Just ignore it.

[00:32:18] [SPEAKER_05] Ghostly Fun and Deja Vu by Kenzie I live in Arizona, south of Phoenix. Arizona is known for alien, ghost, haunting, and cryptid encounters, as most of you know. But I wanted to share a few recent events that have happened. We moved into a four-bedroom house in February. The first thing I did after moving in was cleanse the space of negative energy.

[00:32:48] [SPEAKER_05] Since moving here, my boyfriend and I have seen shadows moving, mostly in or near our bedroom. We also have a motion-sensitive light in our bathroom that plugs into the wall. Sometimes it comes on when no one is in there. One of my daughters even saw it go off while she was talking to me as I worked in my room. It wasn't the cat because he was right next to us and the outlet doesn't face the door, so it shouldn't be

[00:33:18] [SPEAKER_05] detecting movement from the bedroom. Usually while I'm lying on top of the covers, reading or trying to sleep, I'll feel movement near my legs, like someone putting weight down on the bed beside them. I always look quickly to see if it's my cat, but he's either nowhere around or sleeping across the room. Anytime he jumps on the bed, he greets me for hellos and love, so I know it isn't him.

[00:33:49] [SPEAKER_05] It happens every time my feet hang off the end of the bed, which makes it even creepier, and sometimes when they don't. Last week, I was lying in bed trying to sleep. I worked graveyard. The kids were on their final day of school, and my cat was snoozing on my desk chair. No one was home except the two of us when I distinctly heard silverware move in the dish drainer. Those dishes had been sitting

[00:34:18] [SPEAKER_05] there for hours and had already settled into place, so there was no reason for them to move. Even my cat looked out toward the living room from where he was lying. This spirit seems playful, though, and I haven't had anything truly disturbing happen, yet. Deja vu bonus time. I've written to you both about deja vu before, and you shared it, so I thought I would add this little one.

[00:34:48] [SPEAKER_05] About a week after moving here, I was unpacking and putting things away, when I had a flashback to a dream I'd had about two years earlier. The dream was about this house and exactly what I was doing at that moment. I find these experiences fun and interesting. They make me feel like I'm exactly where I need to be, like my life is in alignment. At least this deja vu story

[00:35:17] [SPEAKER_05] was less harmful.

[00:35:34] [SPEAKER_06] My dog came to visit me by kind seaworthiness 58. I want to start off by saying I'm not religious. I'm not a witchcraft person, and a few days ago, I would have thought anyone who said what I'm about to share is crazy. My wife and two young kids went on vacation this week in Florida. I couldn't find anyone to watch my six-year-old German shepherd for the three nights we were gone. I went against my instincts and decided to use

[00:36:04] [SPEAKER_06] a reputable boarding place that we've used before for single nights. I was a little anxious to leave him alone for three nights, but I didn't worry too much about it. Our last night in the Airbnb, I had a dream, but it felt so much stronger than that. I dreamt a lion was standing over me. Not the entire lion, but just the head with a black background. I lay there for what felt like an hour, trying to figure

[00:36:34] [SPEAKER_06] out what to do. I thought, this thing is going to eat me. I need to try and strangle it or break its neck or something. After lying there, I decided my fate and stroked the lion's head with my left hand. To my surprise, the lion then proceeded to lick my face. And that's when I woke up. Maybe around 1am. When I did, I felt another presence in the room. And, I mean, it was strong.

[00:37:04] [SPEAKER_06] I shook it off as my mind recovered from the weird dream. I went to the bathroom and then back to sleep. At the beginning of our drive home, I got a call from the boarding place that my dog had passed away. Now, my dog was completely healthy, or so we thought. The boarding lady said that she had no idea what happened. He didn't go to the bathroom or throw up, he just suddenly passed away. Probably around the time of my dream. The boarding lady wanted

[00:37:33] [SPEAKER_06] to know what happened as well. She even offered to pay $400 for an autopsy, an extensive one at that. We don't have the results yet because this is still fresh. This dog was attached at the hip at all times, so I feel guilty for leaving him, and it's hard on my wife and me, and my young kids don't really know what death means just yet. This whole line premonition has really thrown me off. Everything I thought I knew about life and death completely went out the window.

[00:38:04] [SPEAKER_06] How can I know something was wrong before it even happened? Even though it wasn't a clear image of a dog, it was so damn real. I miss you, Zuko.

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[00:39:37] [SPEAKER_00] Hola, déjame preguntarte algo. ¿Quieres que tu carro dure más, que corra más suave y que rinda mejor? Tranquilo, estoy hablando de tu motor. Te tengo algo bueno, Seafoam Motor Treatment. Seafoam ayuda a que tu motor funcione más suave y dure más tiempo. Y es facilito de usar. Solo lo echas en el tanque de gasolina y listo. Déjalo trabajar mientras manejas, sin pasos extras ni visitas al mecánico. Si tu carro anda medio raro temblando en el rally sin fuerza gastando gasolina como cafecito por la ventanita, puede que sea ahora. Seafoam

[00:40:07] [SPEAKER_00] es tu primer paso sencillo para recuperar ese rendimiento, para que rinda como debe ser, suave y con power. Y esto no es nuevo, Seafone ha sido confiado por mecánicos por más de 75 años, 75 años, eso es mucha confianza mi gente, y por eso millones de conductores lo usan todos los días para mantener sus motores fuertes, agarra una lata de Sifone hoy en tu tienda de autopartes favorita y pa adelante con confianza.

[00:40:35] [SPEAKER_06] Alright, great episode, we'll get into the feedback here, Leah Howland says, look up the crone of Catskill, spooky stuff, not and interesting, and it's Catskill, I still like Catskill personally, gorgeous place, yeah, gorgeous place, visit if you can, I live about an hour north of Catskill mountains, right in the

[00:41:07] [SPEAKER_06] Skahari, Shihari valley? Shihari, that's my guess. Yeah, I like Shihari, and don't worry, I don't expect you to pronounce Shihari correctly either, well, let us know if we did it.

[00:41:20] [SPEAKER_05] Claudia says, every time I hear about cloaking devices, all I can think about is Klingons, though it was the Romulans who invented the tech. Did I say Romulans right? I hope so. That's Romulans. Wow! That's alright. Okay, wow, I do want to watch Star Trek though, Next Generation, there's like an abridged watch version to do that. I

[00:41:44] [SPEAKER_06] wouldn't even do an abridged because all the filler stuff is really campy and fun. Like, the updated audience, but they still kept that spirit of the original.

[00:41:56] [SPEAKER_05] I'm thinking more in terms of time, like the same reason I haven't watched Bleach or One Piece.

[00:42:00] [SPEAKER_06] You have to really be into it to appreciate or know that much about it. I never really was, but I did watch the original series and The Next Generation with my dad a lot as a kid, so that's all I'm familiar with. Anything outside of that, no clue what any of it is.

[00:42:16] [SPEAKER_05] Yeah, I just remember seeing it play on the TV here weird, unrightful nostalgia for Star Trek, just because I remember seeing it, kind of like The Young and the Restless, the soap opera. I love that theme song. It just brings chills to me, but I can't name a single character, single episode, but part of me likes that show, I guess, so I gotta give them both a shot now.

[00:42:37] [SPEAKER_06] My mom always watched General Hospital, I don't think Young and the Restless, so I am familiar with that theme song, and I can name Luke and Laura, and that's all that I remember. Ice Princess.

[00:42:48] [SPEAKER_05] Have you seen Battlestar Galactica all the way through? The one with

[00:42:52] [SPEAKER_06] Edward James almost? Yeah, definitely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's great. I enjoyed it a lot. I watched it probably three or three times. I have the DVDs. It was like the first sci-fi show I got really, really into.

[00:43:05] [SPEAKER_05] Same. And Firefly is really good.

[00:43:07] [SPEAKER_06] I haven't watched that one. It's been on my list for a really long time though. Gone too

[00:43:11] [SPEAKER_05] soon.

[00:43:11] [SPEAKER_06] Yeah. Faceless Ash says, the whistling story always reminds me of The Walking Dead, another show I haven't watched because Negan's men use that whistle in the show. Yeah, I don't know why I didn't watch Walking Dead. I remember working at a movie theater when the comics were popular before the show came out and the comics looked really cool. And I think it's one of those things where I wanted to read the comics before I watched the TV series but I never got around to reading the comics. Like Watchmen.

[00:43:40] [SPEAKER_05] Yeah. Same with me. I haven't watched Watchmen because I want to read the comics first.

[00:43:43] [SPEAKER_06] Oh yeah, yeah, I definitely did read Watchmen and then watched the movie. And the movie is like a pretty good representation of the comic, like really close.

[00:43:53] [SPEAKER_05] I hear it's a lot better if you've read the comic first. It is. Which is why.

[00:43:57] [SPEAKER_06] I enjoyed it a ton. I remember the people I was with did not like it. They also were weird about Manhattan's dong hanging out the whole movie.

[00:44:07] [SPEAKER_05] I loved it. V for Vendetta is really good too. Also based on a great graphic novel. Yeah.

[00:44:11] [SPEAKER_06] Well let's get into some supernatural stories here.

[00:44:15] [SPEAKER_05] Yeah. That'd be a good idea.

[00:44:17] [SPEAKER_06] You take the honors. Okay. So burnt toast theory. Now the reason I chose this story obviously is because we've talked about burnt toast in the past episodes. So I was curious. I was like oh wow another one that's not even connected to our show and we're starting to build a case here for burnt toast but this is something completely different. Now just talking about the story first of all. At first I thought at some point that the dad snuck some oil into the engine while

[00:44:47] [SPEAKER_06] the girls were still like in the car to cover up for forgetting to put more in when he changed it.

[00:44:52] [SPEAKER_07] Yeah.

[00:44:52] [SPEAKER_06] I was trying to explain this story away but then I realized that the car wouldn't run without oil so that doesn't really make any sense. How would they even get there? And there definitely had to be some oil in there. The only non-burnt toast explanation and I'll get to burnt toast that I can come up with is that they somehow didn't have the dipstick in deep enough. I know that can happen when they initially checked and when they took it out it didn't show anything or maybe it got wiped off somehow. I'm trying to think of a logical

[00:45:22] [SPEAKER_06] explanation here but even that doesn't make sense because they were driving it and if the engine's hot the engine oil's hot and it would definitely show up on a dipstick. It'd show up pretty high on the dipstick. So I can't really poke holes in this one. Big if true as they used to say apparently. I think they said that at some point.

[00:45:41] [SPEAKER_05] Yeah I'm no mechanic so I have no idea. Add up all the angel numbers we might have an answer there.

[00:45:47] [SPEAKER_06] See I thought yeah I thought you were a mechanic. That's kind of disappointing. Just a logistician of sorts. Well the burnt toast theory is the idea that something goes wrong to keep you from getting in some kind of accident or something bad happening to you. It's something that stalls you like your toast burns so you have to make your toast again so you're late for work. Avoid an accident or something. I don't really like that theory just because it kind of it's kind of icky because it's like oh I got to dodge it because my toast

[00:46:16] [SPEAKER_06] burnt but these people didn't get to dodge it. They were in the accident. I got lucky. I didn't get in the accident. Somebody was looking out for me. Yeah. You know I just I hate that type of scenario. I didn't have

[00:46:26] [SPEAKER_05] breakfast in the Twin Towers that morning. Exactly.

[00:46:29] [SPEAKER_06] I hate when people say those kinds of things. It's like oh good for you. I am glad but that's really insensitive. That's extremely insensitive. I hate that kind of talk but the burnt toast theory is actually a thing outside of what we were talking about where when you smell burnt toast it could be the sign of like a seizure or something like a medical thing but yeah it means when there's an unknown force making something go wrong and stalling you so that something bad doesn't happen and I think it's a decent

[00:46:58] [SPEAKER_06] theory if it's the case where something bad didn't happen to other people. Yeah. The whole thing was avoided.

[00:47:04] [SPEAKER_05] Yeah. Yeah. If it applies to everybody.

[00:47:06] [SPEAKER_06] Yeah exactly. Then it's a good thing. Yeah.

[00:47:09] [SPEAKER_05] All right. On to the evil eye or mal de ojo by V.

[00:47:15] [SPEAKER_06] Yeah and thank you for taking this one. If there's anything in Spanish it's always yours. I'm terrible with the vernacular. I just it's embarrassing. I don't even want to do it. I just I don't even touch it. Yeah that's fine.

[00:47:34] [SPEAKER_05] That's fine. Pick up Russian. You look like you could speak that naturally or Swedish. You look like a Swede. I'm actually Scottish. Most like majority of my blood is Scottish. Oh there you go. Interesting. Okay. Anyway so. Okay. Okay. So this is a new theory. Speaking of like the burnt toast thing we have a another thing to introduce people here to because I didn't know about this but mal de ojo apparently it's this idea that another person's hatred or negative

[00:48:03] [SPEAKER_05] energy just that alone can bring someone persistent bad luck or bad juju or whatever and it's just wild to me that it doesn't require any sort of ritual or curse just straight up hating somebody just willing it to happen. I don't know how much intention is involved there or I just don't get it. I really don't. I should have done more research on this but it was cool learning about this and seeing the story play out. Yeah it was a what I liked is how the

[00:48:31] [SPEAKER_05] the psychic all they said was that an unknown woman hated V's mom and wished her harm. It could have just been somebody hates you somebody wants to harm you but the fact that she knew that this person wasn't known to her mom and then lo and behold it was her boyfriend's affair partner. Yeah kind of specific.

[00:48:50] [SPEAKER_06] I actually used to be obsessed with people not liking me or hating me. I would always think that people didn't like me. I always just assume that no matter what I just it's a it's a condition and now that I learned that this can like somehow bring some bad juju that that makes me really nervous. I'm not saying that they are they are mad at me or they do dislike me. I always just assume that I'm very hard on myself.

[00:49:13] [SPEAKER_05] No that's fair. That's fair. Not like warranted but like relatable for sure. Yeah. Like if somebody doesn't I'm not going to get into all the specifics but yeah likewise I feel you bro. I feel you. Oh yeah.

[00:49:23] [SPEAKER_06] Oh yeah. But yeah then the crystals that eventually cracked. That's crazy.

[00:49:27] [SPEAKER_05] Yeah. I think the crystals the I mean we've talked about this before like with everything else but the fact that they cracked says something and I wish we knew more about the friend who I guess caused them to crack.

[00:49:39] [SPEAKER_06] Yeah I was like that was just thrown in there. I was like what?

[00:49:42] [SPEAKER_05] Yeah. Yeah.

[00:49:43] [SPEAKER_06] Yeah. Let's move on to that story about Zuko the dog because I know a lot of people have some questions. A lot of things were left up in the air. It was rather mysterious. I gotta say I was very suspicious of the border until I read this update that the author shared. Yeah. They said we just got the autopsy results back and they stated that they found a huge clump of hair in his stomach that caused a torsion. This hairball occupied about 65 to 80%

[00:50:13] [SPEAKER_06] of his stomach which is extremely rare and may have caused his stomach to flip. Ooh. He did shed a lot and we got him groomed on Monday before we dropped him off for boarding. Chat GPT and the vets think that this hairball has been building up over time. After his grooming on Monday he would shed a ton due to the de-shedding shampoo. I asked the grooming place to brush him each day so he was definitely shedding a ton the night that he passed away

[00:50:42] [SPEAKER_06] on Wednesday. I'm sure he was stressed being there and he was probably licking himself and ate enough hair to cause the huge blockage in his stomach. After all our research this is so super uncommon that most vets have never even heard of this. I'm obviously getting a second and third opinion. I would too and like I said I was very suspicious at first but this is wild that it took up 65 to 80% of the dog's stomach.

[00:51:11] [SPEAKER_06] I guess this is kind of a PSA to dog owners. Don't let your dog necessarily lick themselves a bunch if they're shedding specifically. Make sure they're not ingesting a bunch of hair because while this is rare this can definitely happen so here's a cautionary tale for you.

[00:51:28] [SPEAKER_05] Meanwhile cats just devour their own fur no problem.

[00:51:31] [SPEAKER_06] Yeah but they hack up those hairballs. Dogs they're just eating it. They love it. Dogs just eat things as we know. Yeah they do. They do. Yeah but this is another anecdote about dreams being more than just images that happen in our heads. I mean this lion appears and obviously he's replacing his dog with the caricature of the lion. I love that the dog was represented by a lion. Rest in peace Zuko. While that story definitely had a sad

[00:52:01] [SPEAKER_06] ending I'm happy that your pet came to visit you in the form of a lion in your dreams and I'm sure that he will visit you more in the future.

[00:52:10] [SPEAKER_05] Absolutely rest in peace. It is interesting that it appeared as a feline though but I think something about lions just kind of have that lions have dog energy.

[00:52:19] [SPEAKER_06] Yeah.

[00:52:19] [SPEAKER_05] As weird as that sounds.

[00:52:20] [SPEAKER_06] No I get it yeah. I wonder if I'm allergic to lions too. Probably yeah. I'll have to get close to one and figure it out.

[00:52:28] [SPEAKER_05] Let's do it. I would say let's go on a safari but I don't even want to know. Yeah no way. I just associate that with poaching even though I'm sure there are like ethical safaris I just feel like somebody or something is getting exploited in some way I'm just like I don't want to go on a safari I'm good. It smacks of something bad.

[00:52:46] [SPEAKER_06] It always has. I don't know why. Yeah. Probably just because of movies and popular culture and there are a lot of poachers a lot of bad people out there. Well thanks everybody so much for listening. We don't have too much time left here in the episode. If you have a story to share make sure you send it to stories at odd trails dot com and sign up for our patreon at patreon dot com forward slash odd trails to get ad free versions of all of our episodes at a higher bit rate and be sure to check out the new episodes of my other podcast let's not meet in the old time radio cast. See you next week. Stay safe. Peace out.

[00:53:33] [SPEAKER_00] Ghosts and the ghouls

[00:53:34] [SPEAKER_07] disturb you down.

[00:53:37] [SPEAKER_02] Lots of places can expose you to identity theft. That's why LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats to your identity which is way more than anyone can do on their own. If we find anything suspicious like new loans or changes to your financial accounts we alert you right away all through text phone email or the LifeLock app. Save up to 30% your first year. Visit LifeLock dot com slash iHeart. Terms apply.

[00:54:06] [SPEAKER_03] In the next rare well done the Thrive team helps two people with CIDP tackle the tricky issue of friendship. They say the quiet part out loud. In the event my CIDP worsens my friends might decide it's too much. Get nudged outside their comfort zone. I don't know if I want to. To forge stronger connections. The best thing that's ever happened to me, our friendship.

[00:54:30] [SPEAKER_01] To Rory.

[00:54:31] [SPEAKER_03] Watch Rory and Michelle take on the friendship factor on the next episode of Rare Well Done.

[00:54:36] [SPEAKER_00] Hola, déjame preguntarte algo. ¿Quieres que tu carro dure más, que corra más suave y que rinda mejor? Tranquilo, estoy hablando de tu motor. Te tengo algo bueno. Seafoam Motor Treatment. Seafoam ayuda a que tu motor funcione más suave y dure más tiempo. Y es facilito de usar. Solo lo echas en el tanque de gasolina y listo. Déjalo trabajar mientras manejas. Sin pasos extras ni visitas al mecánico. Si tu carro anda medio raro temblando en el rally sin fuerza gastando gasolina como cafecito por la ventanita, puede que sea ahora.

[00:55:07] [SPEAKER_00] Seafoam es tu primer paso sencillo para recuperar ese rendimiento, para que rinda como debe ser, suave y con power. Y esto no es nuevo. Seafoam ha sido confiado por mecánicos por más de 75 años. ¡75 años! Eso es mucha confianza, mi gente. Y por eso, millones de conductores lo usan todos los días para mantener sus motores fuertes. Agarra una lata de Seafoam hoy en tu tienda de autopartes favorita y pa'lante con confianza.