Decemystery (2024) 15: The Glowing Toe of North Dakota

 

I want to paint a picture for you, dear reader. One of melancholy, “what could have been,” and hopefulness.

After I finished last year’s Decemystery duology, I had three stories picked out for the start of this year. One of them has been on my to-do list since this blog began; I’d been searching high and low for it. I’ve written a portion of the article, but the majority remains incomplete, though I ended up using a section for “The McDonald’s Blob” write-up’s intro and My Take sections.

I never began the other two for two reasons. The first was that my bipolar exited remission. I started experiencing terrible mood swings, ranging from feelings of loneliness and hopelessness to believing that I was invincible.

For the most part, those contrasting emotions were active at the same time in what’s known as a “mixed episode.” For those who don’t know, a mixed episode is when you experience a manic/hypomanic episode and a depressive episode simultaneously. I have type 2 bipolar, so I have hypomania, which isn’t as severe as regular mania.

All of this started in January and didn’t end until mid-August. But, the not-so-ideal circumstances didn’t end there. At the end of the month, my grandmother passed away. She was my last surviving grandparent, and I found myself wishing I’d spent more time with her.

Then I got sick, which was salt in an already degloved-sized wound. If you didn’t know, I hate getting sick—a lot. I contracted some sort of cough while I was in New York for the funeral wake. It wasn’t COVID; that was saved until July.

Suffice it to say the start of my year was a grand disappointment. My plans didn’t come to fruition, my hopes to make 2024 an amazing year for this blog floundered, and I kept blaming myself for not being better in every possible way. I thoroughly believed that it was my fault nothing went right.

Now, as of this writing, I’ve accepted that that isn’t the case. While I could have (and should have) posted an update or two, I felt too ashamed at the time—especially when I couldn’t make any promises for this year’s Decemystery.

But not posting any updates is beside the point. No, the point is that I wanted to cover one of the three stories I planned to start 2024 with. I also wanted it to be one that’d remove the melancholy I’ve come to associate the start of this year with.

That task proved easy since the story I’d begun work on will most likely be the inaugural write-up for Decemystery 2025. Meanwhile, the second story will be covered at some point next year—if all goes well, anyway.

That left me with the third story, the one I’d planned to do at the end of January. It’s another Fortean Map Enigma, and it’s one that I considered covering last year. I forget what it was replaced with, but that’s unimportant. No, what is important is we’re going to retroactively make 2024 feel like a success story by covering a mystery that’s sure to leave you flabbergasted! Come along, dear reader, as we investigate the absolutely bonkers story of The Glowing Toe of North Dakota!

Decemystery (2022.3) 21: The Gigantic, Metallic, Aerial Snake-Lobster of Chile

 

Welcome back to my blog, dear reader. It’s officially the first day of winter, which is nice for those of you who like winter. Personally, I’m more of an autumn and spring guy. Winter signals to me that it’s Decemystery, which I always enjoy doing deep down. It’s a time when I get to test my writing capabilities by jumping from story to story without much of a break. It’s a great deal of fun until I feel like I’m losing my hair. Ah, but whatever; let’s get into today’s mysteries.

Our story today for Decemystery 2022.3 is one that caught my attention due to the name. It’s also one that’s on “Think About It Docs,” which is a website dedicated to UFOs, aliens, and all other things extraterrestrial. Despite that, this story sounds a lot like a cryptid story, but believe me, it isn’t, not in the slightest. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves; you’ll see what I mean in due time.

Now, then,  let’s take a trip to South America. The weather is warmer, the wildlife is exotic, and both the UFOs are truly something else. Today, we’ll be discussing one that I call The Gigantic, Metallic, Aerial Snake-Lobster of Chile! Strap in because this is going to be one of the weirdest rides of the month yet.

Mystery: Lucid Dreaming

My first truly paranormal/supernatural mystery blog. I hope it came out well!

Dreams are, to put it very lightly, something of an enigma. They can reflect the previous day or recent events, bring to life come of your greatest desires or wishes, or show you some of your greatest fears.

To some, dreams hold a very deep, significant meaning that can help shed light on oneself. To others, they are nothing but fragmented memories that happen while we sleep. Either way, they're interesting to me—even if I fall on the side of the latter when it comes to a deeper meaning.

There is, however, one thing related to dreams that I can't deny doesn't make sense to me. Something that doesn't feel like simple “fragmented memories” from the day prior or recent events.

It's simply known as lucid dreaming.

Mystery: Jerome of Sandy Cove

Brief preface: I dedicate this blog entry to my friend The Bricklayer. Happy birthday, Brick!

Now then: every now and then, there comes a story that reads more like a short story rather than a real mystery. The Man from Taured is a great example of this: a story passed around decades after it happened and no mention of the incident prior to that.

But while that mystery may be more firmly rooted in myth than reality, the world is filled with many unidentified individuals; the United States having as many as 40,000 according to Wikipedia. Some of who are later definitively identified and their stories finally closed. Those that aren't are typically the victims of foul play, their bodies either too badly decomposed for positive identification or nobody coming forward to identify the body as a friend, acquaintance, or loved one.

Then there are stories like Jerome of Sandy Cove. A story that reads more like The Man from Taured, only it's verifiable it happened.