This Is Weird

[Pink Floyd]

I woke up about about 6:40am this morning and stumbled out into the living room to switch on the computer as usual. I noticed something strange about the ashtray sitting on my desk. Several cigarette butts appeared to have been *plucked* out of the ashtray and scattered around it, including what was left of a large snipe from the night before. It wasn't that way when I went to bed. I live alone. There are no animals in the house that I know of, and I animals wouldn't mistake cigarette butts for food anyway ... not if they have a sense of smell. Nicotine is poison.

The design of the ashtray is such that cigarette butts could not "fall" out on their own, and it wasn't very full anyway. It's a metal bowl with a lid that has a hole in the middle to deposit the butt. There's an entire 1-1/2 inches of lid surrounding that opening. I have to shake the damn thing to get the butts out myself. Plus, the rim of lid around the opening has depressions where a burning cigarette can be securely placed to where it specifically *will not* roll off ... that's where I "fastened" the snipe when I put it out the night before.

So, now I've gotta wonder: Did someone sneak in here while I was asleep and raid my ashtray? Seems highly unlikely, because: a) The house is very small and I'm a light sleeper. I would've heard someone milling about in here, and b) Nothing else seems to have been disturbed, nothing is missing.

If nobody else was here, have I taken to sleep walking now? Making little nocturnal jaunts to the living room to play in the ashtray? I checked my hands ... there doesn't seem to be any evidence of ashtray "residue" on my fingers.

If not animals, humans or myself ... what else would have caused this? I've had supernatural experiences in the past, but not for many, many years. My husband did die in this house though, and he *was* a smoker too. However, there's never been any other instances of "contact" with him in the past 3-1/2 years. Very, very strange.

Any ideas?