Well folks…I am back in the saddle, and apologize wholeheartedly for the massive delay in updates (and Twitter, for those who follow me there).

Steve did a good job filling you in, though I didn’t actually intend him to scan the to-do note, he couldn’t help himself. He is a mischief maker.

I was up in Oregon forever, looking after my mom and doing my work remotely. I missed this place like crazy, this home of mine, even if it’s complex and sometimes a little scary. I missed knowing somehow I was close to Nick. If he was dead I could say “I feel him with me everywhere”. But he isn’t…I fully believe that…so I don’t feel him everywhere. I only once in a while feel him here in my Rose Suite. Or, at least I like to think I feel him.

I came home exhausted last night. Steve picked me up at the airport and helped me get settled, because I really was just at the end of my rope. All is OK with my parents now but it took a lot out of me. Plus I’ve spent the whole time being upset that I couldn’t be closer to Emery and Mary with all they’ve been going through. And I’ve missed Steve, and Seattle!

I have so much to show you. Steve’s received a lot of responses to his letter, and I have been doing research and writing some interesting things. Keep an eye out!

I went to bed almost immediately last night and had the strangest dream. (Continue reading…)

Hi,

This is Steve Rimbauer. It’s a bit strange writing Ally’s blog, even though she published a letter for me once. This is a lot more direct. But she’s been caught up in some family issues and asked me to send you an update so you wouldn’t worry. Only Ally could do something this thorough, but she wrote out a whole page of notes about what I should say to you, like I’m incapable of writing things myself.

I’m not offended though because she’s right. I wouldn’t know the first thing to say about what’s going on with this site.

So here goes.

• Emery’s paranormal investigation: She wants me to remind you to check it out. Although the investigation is over we’re both concerned about some of the things we’ve been reading on his blog. However, with what’s going on with Ally’s family she hasn’t been able to get online much to keep up. I keep trying to make her get an iPhone, or at least Blackberry, but she’d rather stay in the Stone Age. So visit his blog and keep up for her! I can tell you, however, that something serious is going on with Emery’s fiancée Mary and her life is in grave danger. It’s almost more than Ally can bear at the moment so I’m sparing her the details. Let’s just keep Mary in our good thoughts.
• Coming soon: Ally’s working on a pretty huge piece about some mysterious disappearances that are linked to Rose Red, decades before Rose Red even existed. Keep your eyes out for that as soon as she can get herself together.
• Also coming soon: Pictures and info have been pouring in already in response to my letter to businesses who might have bought things at my family’s estate auction. Ally knows you love galleries, so she’ll put one together soon.
• My first visit to my family homestead since the tragic Memorial Day weekend is still pending, and yes I’m still nervous, but I’m determined. It’s sort of like that movie What About Bob?, remember it? Classic. “Baby steps to the elevator…” I’m taking baby steps. First the letter, now I’ve got access to Ally’s blog, though I won’t be posting here unless she asks me to. Ally wanted you to know, though, that we haven’t ditched plans for me to jump into the deep end. Plus, there’s that champagne and chocolate.

Ally’s situation is this: her mother was taken into surgery on Wednesday to remove a potentially cancerous tumor that was suddenly discovered. Ally spent the whole day in the hospital while her mom had massively invasive surgery. This is up in Oregon remember, where her folks live. So Ally’s still up there; I drove her up on Tuesday and spent part of the day with Ally in the waiting room on Wednesday, but had to drive back to Seattle to get myself ready for a job on Thursday.

Ally did want me to relay that her mom is doing fine, though, and early tests say it’s not cancer after all. Ally’s caring for her mom for a while (her mom is home now) and then she’ll fly back to Seattle to carry on life here.

Take care, everybody.

-Steve

What a birthday! Three days later and I haven’t totally recovered. Add to that both Steve and myself still have lingering effects from that cold we shared last week, and I could be in for a rough remainder of the week – but it will have been so worth it.

Sunday was my 39th birthday and that’s a pretty big deal. Jeez…39…hard to type it even now. Not so much because of the age itself, those are just numbers after all, right? But I never thought I’d be on the cusp of a new decade, technically en route to “middle aged” without Nick by my side. By now we were meant to be married and, though we didn’t discuss it much, have several little Hardaway kids running amok reading each other’s minds and cracking jokes in posh British accents. Well…maybe simply have kids, period.

Instead I’m heading into that gray time of life when having kids is more difficult and more risky. If I can’t find a way to Nick soon I may never have them. But this is precisely the kind of thinking I wanted to avoid this year, so I decided to surround myself with people who were friends not only to me, but to Nick.

The Rose Red survivors see each other one-on-one or in small groups on occasion, but rarely get together for a full “reunion”. Thanks to Steve that’s precisely what happened Sunday night. It was my idea that we should all spend some time together, but he found the venue(s) and threw the bash.

In attendance were Steve, Emery and his lovely fiancée Mary, Rachel and her husband Brian, Annie, and Cathy and her husband Clark. That’s all the Rose Red survivors, their spouses/significant others (except Steve, who’s single), and me.

ABOVE: Somewhat awkwardly standing on an uneven surface, L to R top: Emery, Steve. L to R bottom: Mary, Rachel, Annie, me. This photo was taken by Rachel’s husband Brian. This was prior to our sitting at the Herbfarm – continue reading for more about that. Cathy & Clark hadn’t arrived yet. (Continue reading…)

I’m paying a heavy price for last week’s drinking session with Steve…somewhere along the line my immune system let down its guard and I developed the worst head cold in the world Saturday morning. By Monday the doctor put me on antibiotics to prevent it turning into something worse, as I was even oozing from my eyes. I’m starting to feel better but have fallen massively behind at work, and this site. I have some new things to share.

The only consolation is I’m not alone, Steve’s got it too. I’m blaming him for the germ, and he’s blaming me. He pointed out I’m the one who had saliva explode all over her kitchen. It’s a fair point, despite the fact that I’ve disinfected it about a dozen times already. I was encouraged, however, that he was cracking jokes about the paranormal events at my condo. He may be nervous about it, but at least he’s sticking to his promise to be more open about it, and to come on board.

He hasn’t been here yet, but he did do something impressive completely of his own initiative. He drafted a letter he sent yesterday to all antiques sellers, historical societies / museums, and salvage businesses in Seattle and many miles beyond. He’s asking anyone with any items from Rose Red, presumably purchased at the estate auction, to please send him photographs of their stock for this web site. I’ve included the letter here so you can read it yourself, and see how he pitched the idea to his recipients.

I also received an e-mail and a photograph from a friend of Vic’s. Read on…

(Continue reading…)

The 11 page tome that was my research on the Briar Witch took up a fair chunk of my week, so I really didn’t have the energy or time to write a personal update since Emery’s investigation results. Sometimes personal updates are no fun; it’s more enjoyable to give you the research, or the artifacts, or the spooky stories. It’s more fun to think of Rose Red as still being here, because that’s where I’m sure Nick is, somewhere or another.

Truth is Rose Red is still here, just not in the same way. Life here in my Rose Suite has to go on, even when it gets weird. My friendships, like plants, need nurturing to grow. I knew Steve would be upset with me, you may recall I wrote about it a couple days ago. He did call me, though he wasn’t as angry as I expected. We arranged dinner out, which we did yesterday. Chill. Nice. The sort of thing completely normal friends with completely normal ties to each other do. Except the tie that binds him and me is losing our significant others in a haunted house eight years ago…

Far from normal, wouldn’t you say? (Continue reading…)

This site, by the very nature of its subject matter, is no laughing matter. But even the most terrible tragedy has some comic relief. Nick has a wicked, dry wit, and can crack jokes even under the greatest pressure. So he’d appreciate me giving a little “time out” to show you something that, now that I look back on it, is absolutely hilarious.

You may remember the publication Weekly World Digest, which was sold mostly at supermarket check-out lines and newspaper stands. It was a black and white rag that was even worse than a tabloid, because tabloids at least attempt to convey something like the truth (they have to, it’s illegal not to…). Weekly World Digest preferred to tell tales of babies born with bat wings, demons possessing ball machines at church bingo nights, vampires feeding off the First Lady, etc. All of these stories were accompanied by usually terribly unconvincing photoshopped pictures – ringing any bells now? Unfortunately, Weekly World Digest went out of business, so I can’t link you to a web site with samples. But I’m sure it’s well logged in the annals of most people’s memories.

Well, Weekly World Digest got wind of the aftermath of the Memorial Day Rose Red trip and printed what may have been the only WWD feature ever to have some basis in reality, even if the details in their version are – to say the least – highly inventive.

(Continue reading…)

Today I received an e-mail from a man called Dan Thompson, who worked on an account for the general auction of the contents of Rose Red a year after the mansion was demolished. I knew about the event at the time, but I didn’t go. I was in the process of relocating to the TechStar site from the Tacoma townhouse Nick and I had shared. Fast-track construction at its best.

Plus, Steve stayed well clear and seemed to want to forget the whole thing was going on. He went away that weekend - checked himself into a hotel in Portland and waited for the storm to end. With Seattle swarming with Rose Red enthusiasts, it was a good idea for the last of the Rimbauers to be out of town. Somehow, getting myself involved didn’t seem right. Steve was my friend even then.

Come to think of it, maybe the crystal bowl “housewarming” gift was his way of thanking me for staying out of it altogether?

Anyway, Dan sent us this little present. I’ve scaled down a screenshot here, but read on and I’ll give you a link to a full-sized PDF you can view more clearly.

(Continue reading…)

What a mad rush of a weekend it was. Not in the way I’d typically mean – typically I’d mean running around doing errands, or scrambling to finish a pile of reviews, or managing a spectacularly long string of social outings (something that hasn’t happened in a very long time, and I don’t much miss it). This was by all outward appearances a quiet weekend. I simply had a friend over for a visit, right?

But time flies when you’re terrifying yourself, and that’s precisely what I did. I don’t think Emery was a fraction as worried as I was. For all my calmness in my previous post, I started working myself into a tizzy in the hours between then and when he made his way here. After all, it wasn’t a housewarming party. I didn’t just invite him over for drinks to finally see my “new” place after all these years. He came because I was capturing shadows in photographs and cleaning up ectoplasmic goo off my kitchen counters.

I wasn’t frightened for myself, but frightened of what being here might stir up for Emery, both emotionally and in adding fuel to a paranormal fire. I didn’t want too much to happen at once, that’s precisely the sort of thing I vowed to avoid when I “disappeared” back in 2002…when I tried to lure Steve here. At least this time my motives were pure, and Emery kindly volunteered the visit anyway.

But as it happened, well…not a lot happened! Surprisingly little, upon reflection. I guess part of me expected the walls to suddenly swallow him up, or his mother to come springing out of the bathroom mirror. No signs of his mother, fortunately. Nor of Nick, unfortunately. But his stay wasn’t fruitless. (Continue reading…)

That title sounds rather “Gandalf-ish”, doesn’t it?

My regular readers at the old site always loved a good mystery, and I finally have one for you on this new site. I’ve made mention of paranormal activity on the increase for those involved in the Rose Red expedition and here on the TechStar property but I haven’t really taken time to explain. I will soon, I promise. But for now, I’m a bit distracted by this.

I came home from a lunch meeting with a local magazine editor to contract some book reviews (there’s no rest for writers, not even on Saturdays) and found my kitchen counters almost entirely covered in a thick substance as clear as water but more sticky, almost the consistency of cough syrup with a little gelatin added in. I know I’m not doing a very good job explaining it…

The first thing it brought to mind was that scene from Ghostbusters with the eggs frying on the counter. (Nick would laugh at that.) But the second thing it brought to mind was the one ectoplasm shot they did in the miniseries based on the Rose Red events (if you recall, it lands on Bollinger’s shoulder before he’s hoisted into the house). Ectoplasm has hardly ever been reported in Rose Red, but the caretaker did once find the dead plants in the solarium coated in a substance he thought looked like dew, only clinging even thicker to the branches and weeds. (Continue reading…)

Last week I proposed the idea for this post to Steven Rimbauer, and while he was naturally hesitant at first, he soon adopted his usual laissez-faire stance. That is to say when it comes to stories, he tends to let the storyteller have his or her way…and sometimes ends up butting in and telling the story himself!

There’s no chance of that happening here, since this is my blog. But after he agreed to let me talk about this “taboo” subject, he drew up notes of everything he remembered from his and Joyce’s private conversations over the course of their relationship. I’d say that’s participation in the story. And as it gives interesting insight into Joyce’s fascination with Ellen Rimbauer, and indeed her relationship with Steve, I thought it worth presenting to you for your consideration.

It must be noted that everything I am about to divulge has been approved for publication here by Steve. Even the most intimate details. Otherwise, I wouldn’t write them—his friendship is too precious to me to sacrifice over a good tale.

Warning: this post contains adult content, or at least adult references. (Continue reading…)

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