Thursday, February 17, 2011

Day 9, the haunting



Real quick, on the diet...

Let's see, today is day...9. And, if you look at the time of this post, you will see that it is indeed barely 3:00 AM in the morning. The reason, I cannot sleep.

In fact, I haven't slept well in a couple days. While I haven't been tired during the day, necessarily, other than a little fatigue from the low energy of the diet. I attribute any energy problems to the lack of carbs, quick energy, sugar type of energy that I am used to burning. Instead I am now burning fat, which is why the weight loss. Seems like about a pound a day. I am kind of excited about that. My exercise is somewhat limited during the detox, because of the transition to the new type of burn. Or better said, my body is changing the way it deals with energy and energy stores.

I heard of others who detoxed, couldn't sleep in week two. I am thinking it is normal. Again, I don't feel tired, I simply cannot get to sleep. Perhaps hydration has something to do with it? And my day today was a little different than yesterday, since I traveled and got out of sorts a bit with timing of eating, drinking, normal foods. I also had to work late last night. The Wolf has gotten busy at night with the music and the other things going on. it is catch up ball. When a business tips like that it is a tad haywire.

So I had to stop at Hyvee in Columbia, thinking they might have a selection of organic choices here and there on their salad bar. A big no. In fact, the whole operation was a throwback to the 80's and 90's, that is the way I would characterize Hyvee in the market place, certainly unsophisticated. We are definitely fortunate, in West St. Louis County, to have a whole foods and a Trader Joes nearby, along with the Dierbergs and Schnucks markets who carry a ton of stuff.

I checked out a space in downtown Columbia for another Wolf Public House. Since we are starting to "get" to where we wanted to go with the brand, I can't help but begin the search for a new spot. Columbia has been on my radar for quite a while and I think I found a spot that will work. So more rush to get the house in order so we can get another one off the ground. The Lone Wolf signage will change soon. I suppose we will do something significant with the old signs. So much story telling there.

The strangest thing...

The J Huston Tavern, in Arrowrock, opens in a month. This is a cool place. While I was sitting there today with Shellee Peuster, the instructor for the Hospitality Tourism program at Missouri Valley College, and also the manager of the Tavern, (we will teach classes and practicum there), a Paranormal organization called and wanted to know if we would let them come out and visit the place--do some sort of song and dance around the spirits there. Yes, I said a Paranormal organization. They were "dead" serious, no pun intended. The funny thing, is that we booked them. Heck, a lot of paranormal groups come there to get into the spirit of things.

The building is over 200 years old and it is likely one of the coolest projects I have gotten involved in. We decided to name a couple of rooms yesterday, to stay on track with the storytelling. We named the rooms after some dead people of course, one the Sappington room after Dr. John Sappington. In 1832, using quinine taken from cinchona bark, Sappington developed a pill to cure a variety of fevers, such as scarlet fever, yellow fever, and influenza.

The other was an artist, George Caleb Binham, During a career of 45 years, from 1834 onward, Bingham was increasingly singled out as “The Missouri Artist” and he could in fact be considered the state’s first artist. Bingham had a house in Arrowrock and it is still there, part of the National Historic Register. I absolutely love Arrowrock. I am going there several times in the next few weeks. Can't wait to become more aquanted with the people and the town.

Oh yeah, I wasn't going to post this but what the hey? I was a little freaked out after hearing a couple stories of the "unexplained" at the Tavern. If you look close you can see the outline of a woman dressed in period clothes (to be honest, it appeared to be bedwear, not at all what you would expect) in the corner, not the best picture. It wasn't a shadow, more like a browinish darkness that appeared and then went away. I wasn't bothered by it at all, and didn't tell anyone. I noticed her the last time I was there, on the second floor, but I was not really wanting to admit it. This time it was for sure. My mom and I have always been intuitive and connected to things like this. Some people have it other don't. There are lots of photos around in the town, and at the museum. Next Tuesday I will do a little digging around. My guess is that she is part of the town and not at all a bad spirit, just my own intuition speaking. this will be an interesting journey, getting to know the folks in the town and, apparently those who lived there years ago.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ralph-
The Barn at Lucerne (the Dairy barn building behind the Lone Wolf) is also famously haunted. My wife used to manage Sam Wilson's Steak house in that building back in the day, and saw several of the former residents there after hours when she was closing the place by herself.

The ralph account said...

Yeah, I know, my office was in there for 5 years. Upstairs where the office suites are. We had all sorts of wild stuff going on, mudprints on the floor, smells, missing books. Once I was in there by myself in the middle of the day on a Saturday when it rained. My desk suddenly filled with rain water, I could never find the source of where the water came from.

Phil said...

Guess it's a good thing I went ahead and got a real job, huh?