Holland and Holly (both good swimmers) are frolicking in Fish Lake just beyond the dam west of Highbanks. Me, I’m lounging on the beach as the designated adult. They had thrown a large log into the water and were trying to sit on it, splashing their feet and paddling further out into the lake.

Suddenly, screaming. “A snapping turtle! Trying to bite us! Lynn! Help!” I spring up and swim to them. Coming into view, a very large snapping turtle head poking up out of the water not far from them. The Goliath had noticed the commotion. I swear that turtle had a shell that was at least a yard in diameter, the largest I have ever seen and I grew up in the land of 10,000 lakes.

As I dog-paddled in place by their log, the turtle submerged. I comforted “he is just passing by, don’t worry.” Except he swam by underwater, inches from the girls, going in the wrong direction. And then, just a few minutes later, he swam by again from the other direction. His flippers and tail looked like a dinosaur to me as he stalked us, his jaws open.

I surmised at this point the girls were telling the truth, the turtle was after them. It had now been twenty minutes and that turtle kept coming back like clockwork. So I proclaimed “Girls, swim for it!” and we got the hell out of the water.

Hello! This is my first PDD post. I have lurked on the site reading other’s posts for awhile and have enjoyed the site a ton. So thanks all!

This post is about the paranormal in Duluth. I thought that perhaps with the vast PDD audience I could get some more stories or information on sites that are supposed to be haunted.

I know of the Blue man at the Depot (mainly seen in the Duluth Playhouse Theatre), the supposed haunting of Fairlawn, of Glensheen, and I’ve heard stories about the Nemadji Cemetery in Superior’s East End. Does anyone else have any good spots in the area or stories of ghosts, apparitions, or unusual activity? If so please share.

So I’m driving down Michigan Street at 8:45 tonight, and walking down the sidewalk toward the main entrance of the Depot is this guy dressed in full Third Reich regalia. I’m talking military-grade Lederhosen, swastika arm-band and even an olive flack helmet, walking like he’s got a stick up his ass. I did overcome the urge to yell obscenities or throw things out the window, but I couldn’t resist slowing way down and gawking. I mean, who does that?

I considered that maybe the Playhouse is doing some thing involving the holocaust, but in that case don’t they have dressing rooms? Who in their right mind would be caught dead in that get-up outside? Then my co-worker suggested that maybe he was going to attend one of the court-ordered group sessions for drunk drivers they have at the Depot and trying to make some political statement. But that just begs the question, what kind of person has that stuff laying around in his closet?

I’m compelled to wonder, is this something ugly that blew in on a tall ship, or just some local dumbass making an idiot out of himself?

Despite the distance between this West Duluth garage and house, the heat from the burning garage melted the siding on the house.

Has anyone else been following their romance in the personals of the Reader? It’s better than watching daytime soaps! The Walrus sounds like quite the romantic who is actively pursuing his love, Bat Girl. Who are they? What’s the back story? There was no ad in this week’s Reader from them but I am a total fan.

These bugs showed up early in the morning on the Fourth of July at Sturgeon Lake and quickly died off. But for the few hours they existed, they made quite a mess. They are small enough to go right through screens. We swept thousands of them off the floor.

Did any of you get surveyed in the past couple weeks about air quality in our area?  I was wondering if anyone could confirm that this was legit.  I got a weird feeling about it and when asked for personal info I declined.  The survey seemed very weak on content and I was handed a very unprofessionally printed raffle ticket ($500 shopping spree or something like that) after answering a few questions.

This may not be really appropriate for PDD, but I didn’t know where else to ask.  Does anyone have any information regarding this survey?  The recent home break-ins mentioned in the DNT article “Duluth police: Watch neighbors’ homes,” seem well targeted and a door to door survey would be a great way to get a look inside peoples’ homes.

This is probably just paranoia (I recently had some stuff stolen from a car), but I thought it was worth asking.

Hundreds of these guys are gobbling up the leaves on our boulevard tree. Help! Do we spray? Do we put our heads between our knees and wait for the Russian bomb?

What are they and what should we do?