069 HALLOWEEN HORRORS

Here we are, the day before Halloween and I’m as excited as a little kid.  Most of the decorations have been up since early in the month.  Yes, I said decorations.  I have never decorated for Halloween before other than the traditional carved jack-o-lanterns, but this year I have gone nuts.

There are spider webs in the living room window, although the way we put them up, and when I say we, I mean Renee.  I bought the stuff, she decorated.  The spider webs feature lots of plastic spiders and along the window sill are several plastic rats.  My hope is that is the only rats to invade this house after a long battle with the real ones at the old house.

There is a skeleton hanging from the railing as well as a light up tombstone.  There are electronic skulls on the railing.   They are designed to be pathway markers, but it was better to put them on the railing out of the way of the gardeners.  These have a switch that detects motion which causes the eyes to light up and trigger a cackling spooky voice.

I mention these because they have been out on the railing for almost two weeks, with the switch turned off.  But last night we had a very spooky thing happen.  Around midnight we were already in bed and we could hear strange sounds.  Renee looked out the window and discovered the skulls lit up and cackling.  It was so odd.  The skulls were checked and we discovered that the switch had been turned on.

Renee swears she didn’t do it, and I believe her.  I know I didn’t do it because I have felt so crappy lately and the weather has been so bad, I haven’t even been out on the deck, so I have no idea how these things got turned on.  Just one of those spooky Halloween adventures I guess.

There is an animated witch, which won’t be going outside until we are sure it’s not going to be raining on Halloween night.  It is also motion activated.  Her partner is an animated skeleton playing “She’ll Be Coming ‘Round The Mountain” on a harmonica.  Again, he won’t go out until we are sure of the weather.

BONES HARMONICA

RENEE AND FRIENDS

Completing the high-tech mentality for the evening is the fog machine that I acquired.  This will produce a nice low lying fog to add to the mysterious nature of the evening.  Hopefully the weather cooperates because I won’t be able to use it in the rain.  It will come in handy around Christmas as well, in addition to using it for smoke effects in some portraits and other photos.

Finally, the last high tech thing is a video from AtmosFearfx called Jack-O-Lantern Jamboree.  Using a projector, it projects animated Jack-O-Lantern faces onto three uncarved pumpkins.  These are complete with sound and the videos have the three pumpkins making rude sounds and making faces, they sing songs or tell stories.  I’m excited to see the kids and adult’s reaction to these.

Finally, we bowed to tradition yesterday and carved two more pumpkins with the traditional candles inside.  They are out on the deck already and will be proudly lit and displayed on Halloween night.  As I said, I went completely mental as far as Halloween goes.

LIGHTING THE JACK-O-LANTERN

2 SMILING FACES

I guess because I was not able to participate for years because I was usually working and because the kids would not come to the basement door of the old house.  I have stocked up on goodies to hand out, although I must keep them well hidden for now.

Finally, Renee has an Angel costume to wear and I am just going to wear the camouflage Ghillie suit I got for wildlife photography, but I have not yet worn.  The final prep piece is to put a sign on the front door to direct kids to the back.  Partly because I don’t want to be running up and down all those stairs to hand out treats and partly because all the decorations are set up out back.  I think it will be magical for the kids as well, to walk down the boardwalk between the houses.  Especially if everyone participates with decorating.  It will also be a lot safer too, since there won’t be any cars to contend with.  Happy Halloween everyone.

RENEE AND JACK

PUMPKIN PAIR