Raise a Glass

The Old Man of the Lake is a log that floats around the lake. It is somewhat strange in that it floats vertically. It's roughly 30 feet tall, with only about 5 or so feet sticking out above the surface of the water. It was first 'offically' recorded in the early 20th century, though there are oral reports of it as far back as 1896 (and likely earlier still given the cultural importance of Crater Lake to the Klamath tribe of that area.

The Old Man should have rotted away long ago or at the very least become waterlogged and sank into the water fully, but nope. Over a hundred years, and there is this log still in the water just floating.

So y'know how I said the fact that it floats vertically was 'somewhat strange'? Let's get into some actual strange territory regarding the Old Man. It moves. Against the wind. It has been recorded moving in paths that do not make sense, never getting stuck on the shore of Wizard Island, nor the area of shore around the lake. Now that's strange.

So now let's get freaky: The free-floating Old Man posed a hazard to boats since it moves, and only a small portion of it was above water. (though personal boats are no longer allowed on the lake) Anyway, in 1988 a team was using a small submersible to explore the lake. The scientist figured it'd be a good idea to moor the Old Man near the coast of Wizard Island out of their way, for safety. So they tied some rope to it, to move the Old Man. As soon as they did so, the clear blue skies of a warm August day turned dark. The wind kicked up, bad, and it started to rain, then hail, then snow in the span of a few minutes...again in August. Now snow in that area is common, but not in the summer months. It gets super warm in that area in summer (like 70 to 90 degrees on average) So the scientists decided to nope the fuck out of the water, because of this freak storm. They unmoored the Old Man, preparing to get the fuck out of dodge of this summer snowstorm. As soon as the rope loosened and was in the water, as quickly as the storm had come on them, the darkened skies cleared and it was once more a fine sunny summer day.

"The Old Man floats vertically through the lake on a calm day"

"THE OLD MAN FLOATS. VERTICALLY. THROUGH THE LAKE ON A CALM DAY"

thinking about my favourite kind-hearted eldritch horror trapped in the body of my favourite traumatized goth girl

(+ purple variant)

look

LOOK AT THIS LIL MAN

“Smoke & Arrows” - by me.

It is Thursday, my Critters. 💙

em_niwa

an anecdotal example: when i was a kid, all my parents would do in their minimal free time was watch tv and then they would be surprised when in my sister and i’s minimal free time we would also only watch tv/play video games. they scolded us for not reading books, but they never read books. they scolded us for not going outside but they never went outside.

I went out to lunch with my nephew, his wife, their baby, and my mom. All of them were on their phone (my nephew was letting the baby watch his phone) while I was trying to start conversations.

My neighbor's daughter came over so I could teach her to sew, I told her 'I'm fine with you checking your phone when you get a message but when we're working I'd like it if you focus on what we're doing so you can learn and don't hurt yourself.'

Know what she did? Told her friends she was going to be busy for the next hour and stayed off her phone. Even with one of her friends being an emotionally abusive dick head (He kept demanding she answer all his messages within seconds and was pulling crap like 'You're ignoring me because you don't like me anymore' NO DUDE. SHE WAS BUSY. That is 100% emotionally abusive!) she talked to me about it and I encouraged her to stand up for herself and warned her to watch out for that behavior. She ended up cutting him off a few weeks later and I'm proud of her.