There's a better way to describe the problem than this...

Fiddlin' Bill Hensley, mountain fiddler, Asheville, North Carolina (LOC)

"Living On a Fixed Income" as an excuse for ... whatever.

This one gets thrown around a lot, especially when talking about the elderly...

Why? Is this a new thing for old people? Didn't they live "paycheck to paycheck" earning a "fixed income" for the 40 years you put in before they retired? What's the difference if it came from Uncle Sam or your employer or your retirement account or a lottery annuity?

Makes no sense.

Seriously, who isn't "living on a fixed income" in some aspect? Sure we get raises and change jobs, but really? .... Really?!

Then again, you could be a commissioned salesperson or a freelancer or maybe even a small business owner. In that case, not knowing how well you're going to do next week/month is much better than having a clue of how much you'll actually bring home.

I'm not saying one is better than the other. I'm just saying it's bad diction.

A lot of what many attribute to haunting can be explained away by tricks of the brain, electrical glitches, and other environmental factors.

But tell me, how would you explain it if someone said they had, with a friend no less, walked inside one building, leaned up to the window of another, and stood on the steps of a third only to drive by 2 hours later and find all three had disappeared along with a 4th, and all environmental evidence suggests they've been gone at least a decade?

An old house almost hidden by sunflowers, Rodney, Miss. (LOC)

I'm not going to get into the semantics of what you mean by "ghost" - I'm just going to dive right in and tell you, as far as I'm concerned, they exist in a few incarnations.

In short:

1 - My Nana is still in her house. Did I tell you she died in 2005? (residual energy continues to trick the new owners)
2 - I once stood in a building that disappeared. Actually, there were 4 total (that one still screws me up when I think about it)
3 - Once a dead girl waved at me from the room where she hanged herself (The first time I saw HER was before I was even told anything had happened there)
4 - Then there was the time I watched Uncle Oscar running back and forth along the yard for half an hour (apparently he does this all the time)
5 - Ask me about my guitar picks sometime...
6 - ...Or "the knocks" for that matter.
7 - I have pictures.

What's really solidified my belief are those experiences that go far beyond questionable corner-of-the-eye glimpses and thoughts.

That said, not *everything* someone thinks is a 'haunting' or 'paranormal', really is. Actually, a lot of it isn't that at all - tricks of the brain abound, especially in certain environments. Easy explanations often exist, and you should always look for the 'realistic' before settling on the 'otherworldly'.

As much as I've been through, I've learned to tell the difference & keep a skeptical eye on most things that happen as well as a skeptical ear when I hear stories from others.

Besides, we don't really die.

Buy me a beer sometime and I'll tell you all about it ;)