A Ghost Story

If You're Expecting Something Ethereal -
 - then you're in for a bit of a disappointment, although it could well be considered scary, especially if you end up in front of one.
     I am talking - of course! - about the Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, which, if we can prod Art into a semblance of consciousness - 

The lady in question

     There you go, your rather solid ghost in the flesh, so to speak.  This particular model came into it's own at the start of the First Unpleasantness, when - this is where it gets complicated - the Royal Navy operated them, initially merely as plain cars, then latterly as armoured vehicles with a turret-mounted Vickers machine gun, in the service of the Navy's air component, the Royal Naval Air Service.   Kind of a trifecta there:  land, sea and air all together.  Art?

The model at Bovvie

     Here an aside.  I am reading a book of "English Ghost Stories" (even if the very first one is by Sir Walter Scott, who was kind of non-English, being sort of Scottish - the clue is in the name) and came across one by Henry James called 'The Friends of the Friends', which can be summed up in two words: stunningly dull.  No doubt the critics ooh'd and aah'd at the wonderful prose, but it's so incredibly tedious that I skimmed most of it and have no idea where the ghost turns up, if at all.  Not only that, it takes ages to go nowhere. Art?

     There was another one about an eeeevil voice, which was so affected that I got two pages in and gave up.  Lesson to authors of ghost stories: do not suck at telling tall tales.
     Back to the 4 ton ghost.  During the mobile phase at the start of the First Unpleasantness, the armoured cars were very effective at surprising advancing Teutons and introducing them to the exciting sights and sounds of a Vickers gun.  When trench warfare arrived, the armoured cars departed for other climes.  They were present at Gallipolli, surprisingly so in view of the terrain.  Where they really came into their own was supporting Lawrence of Arabia.  Art?

Post-war versions but you get the idea

     With no nasty trenches and open terrain as far as the eye could see, they were quite the Terror of the Turk.
     They were of quality manufacture, that coming with the Rolls Royce name, and so soundly constructed that they were used in the first years of the Second Unpleasantness.  Perfidious Albion gave some to the Irish Free State, and the Irish Army, which never throws anything out, used them for the next 20 years until there were no spare parts left for them.
     There you go: a ghost story.
     Now, let us throw the motley into a pit of snakes!*

Being Where One Should Not
Is that a theme?  By definition a ghost is something most definitely present where it ought not to be, and the RR armoured car often did the same, or maybe I'm just reaching.  Anyway, Art?

Jenny, demonstrating a cat's uncanny skill

      If I put my papers and novels and notebooks down on the kitchen table, prefatory to brewing a pot of tea, Jenny will inevitably come and sit on them.  They can't be comfortable - I mean, do you see litters made with hardback books? - yet she chooses to sit upon them, and will return, purring like a kettle, if tactfully removed.  Again and again.
     WHY, JENNY?  WHY!  <sighs>

     Then we have Edna.  Art?

I have to be careful talking about Our Furry Daughter

     With the choice of a lap and two comfy dog beds, she chooses to lie in repose on the sofa.  Because she can, I suppose.  One imagines what is playing out in her head:
     "Ha!  Take that, wicked and neglectful humans!  I shall seek possession of all your lands and chattels, for possession is nine-tenths of the law."**

Finally -
Conrad has finished watching Season One of "The Punisher", which ended true to form, with Frank getting stabbed, shot and beaten yet still emerging triumphant like the unstoppable force of terror that he is.  Quite where he goes from here is another matter.  He's avenged his family, which was done in the "Daredevil" series; he's also tracked down and <cough cough> punished*** the criminal conspirators who were up to no good in Afghanistan.  He needs to take at least 6 months off to get his red blood cell count up and have all those wounds heal.  Art?

Some bad guys are about to have a very, very bad day

*  Only rubber, but the motley doesn't know that.
**  Not sure where Edna learned to speak in Biblical language, but she's a quick study.
***  Okay, killed.  There.  Happy now?