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Oh, Halloween
Nov. 1st, 2019 05:23 pmLet's do a bit of a Halloween vacay round up, shall we?
Tuesday I woke up to a gray, overcast day that promised rain. Naturally, it was beach day. I had checked the weather for Wednesday and it was supposed to be even worse. So, Mums and I went to the beach and stopped at the Teeter on the way to pick up a pumpkin. I'd originally wanted to carve Morticia from the new Addams Family movie, so I picked out a tall pumpkin. It's broken stem bit me but otherwise it seemed pretty perfect.
To the beach! We didn't stay long, but I did get to walk along the water and had I wanted to, I could've gone hunting for shells since the tide was going out. But I'm not super into shell hunting and I mostly just wanted to watch the water. Since it was pretty warm, I was surprised that almost nobody else was at least getting their feet wet but I've learned that people are very strange. Honestly, I think I could've gone swimming and been fine temp wise. But I hadn't dressed for that so I enjoyed the waves, foam, and bird watching. Since Mums and I had parked somewhere I'm not entirely sure was 100% allowed, I left a little earlier than I probably wanted to but I also did not want a ticket... and I can never figure out the beach rules in that regard.
We drove to the Dollar Tree where we found Sugar Babies last year but alas, none. We did, however, find Utz white cheddar popcorn and now I'm wishing I'd bought them out. Yes. Seriously. Mums bought a bag of the crab chips because she has no memory of trying them. I ducked into Tuesday Morning and wondered why they had it so dark. Halloween was down to one very lovely witch and a mostly empty shopping cart of...meh. No nifty dolls or anything called my name, so I went back to the car and we headed home, stopping at Taco Bell on the way home where I'm not sure they actually gave me everything I paid for but that's what happens when you don't double check when you get home if you ordered for a teenage boy, I guess. Basically, the day was too warm when not standing in the ocean, but it was nice all the same.
Wednesday I was struck by the incredibly stupid idea to head back to the ~fancy~ part of the neighborhood for a walk. To be fair, I'd intended to do far more walking on my vacation than I actually ever did so this was an attempt to actually, y'know, make good on that. So as the sun started to go down, I headed out. I'd ridden through earlier in the week so I knew there were some decorated houses but I wanted to see them actually lit up and I was fairly certain the night before Halloween would have most houses lit. I'm not sure how accurate that was in retrospect. I did see one lady struggling to hang orange lights around her door so I'm wondering if people just... waited? These are the same assholes who will spend this weekend putting up Christmas though, so my annoyance was kinda high.
Also, the storms we were promised all day never happened and it was hot as fuck. I was in shorts and still thought I was gonna die before I even hit the halfway mark. Also, because I went in the reverse order I normally do, it felt like it took FOREVER to hit the houses I knew were decorated. My only real consolation was that since I'd chosen to go in reverse, I could admire the last of the daylight as it faded over the river. The views from some of those houses must be amazing if even the view from the street is enough to calm your nerves. Sigh.
About the time I started hitting more houses that had at least something up, I remembered the other reason I didn't do this often (aside from dying of heatstroke 90% of the year): Widget's first neighborhood friend was a little jerkwad who lives back there and I never want to run into a rich white boy who knows his grandparents' money will bail him out of every scrap of trouble he finds himself in. It's really my motto in life. However, I'm fairly certain that either his house or the one next door is one of the ones that goes all out... and the houses across the street from them are the ones that do dueling cemeteries. I realized last year that some of the houses near the little library (you know the ones that are like birdhouses?) back right up to the actual cemetery but it wasn't until this year that I realized the dueling houses... also do. You just can't tell from the road.
I made it home and had tasty roast and showered. It was a pretty night but hot as fuck.
Oh, and that was also the day my order from Spirit arrived but without the entire reason I ordered it. And their CS was so shit that it took them until 9:20PM to call back... from a call originally made at maybe 11am? Luckily around 2:30 I'd given up and went via FB. I know they say these things are usually pending for a few days but every other time I've had something refunded (and I'm ticked that they just went for the missing item since it was a costume bit for K's first Halloween) via Paypal, it's been an immediate thing, even if it does show pending for a few days. There's no pending return on my account.
Halloween itself was also hot. So. Hot. 87 by noon, I think. Plus humid as hell. Anyway, it took forever for me to find a replacement JOL idea since I realized Morticia was above my skill grade this year. Eventually I settled on Ferb from Phineas and Ferb. He came out great, btw. Cass and baby stopped by and I got to cheer because my not quite costume was upped to her costume for trick or treating (even if they didn't go with me, sadness) since the heat was too much for her narwhal one. Set up all the lights and broke out the candy for the trick or treaters I knew would never come and then took pictures that I'll eventually share.
I went to get the mail and noticed the moon looked like a perfect little slice of moon with a star against the perfect blue night sky... and a little bat flew across. The wind was cooling things down just enough and honestly, it was the perfect moment.
Later, when taking my pictures, I talked to the lady across the way who introduced herself. Again. I've lived here for 5 years and she introduced herself originally like three days in. And again earlier this year. But she seemed very sad that we didn't get any ToTs this year considering there were new kids in the neighborhood. Ditto the lady next door whose dog basically kept flying/jumping on me as she and her... whoever he is kept chatting and looking at their phone. She kept apologizing but never actually seemed to want to do anything to reign him in? Which was only annoying in that I was afraid when I walked off he'd lunge at a car.
Anyway, as I went out to take my pictures, I noticed lightning across the way... I dragged Mums out to see the pumpkin at Mitzi's (it had a nifty projector effect) and the moon. No bats for Mums though. The lightning kicked up several notches and the wind did, too. We went home and watched the old Addams Family show and maybe three episodes in we decided yup, thunder. And then the rain hit. And the thunder went KABOOM. I mean, really, the perfect end to Halloween.
Tuesday I woke up to a gray, overcast day that promised rain. Naturally, it was beach day. I had checked the weather for Wednesday and it was supposed to be even worse. So, Mums and I went to the beach and stopped at the Teeter on the way to pick up a pumpkin. I'd originally wanted to carve Morticia from the new Addams Family movie, so I picked out a tall pumpkin. It's broken stem bit me but otherwise it seemed pretty perfect.
To the beach! We didn't stay long, but I did get to walk along the water and had I wanted to, I could've gone hunting for shells since the tide was going out. But I'm not super into shell hunting and I mostly just wanted to watch the water. Since it was pretty warm, I was surprised that almost nobody else was at least getting their feet wet but I've learned that people are very strange. Honestly, I think I could've gone swimming and been fine temp wise. But I hadn't dressed for that so I enjoyed the waves, foam, and bird watching. Since Mums and I had parked somewhere I'm not entirely sure was 100% allowed, I left a little earlier than I probably wanted to but I also did not want a ticket... and I can never figure out the beach rules in that regard.
We drove to the Dollar Tree where we found Sugar Babies last year but alas, none. We did, however, find Utz white cheddar popcorn and now I'm wishing I'd bought them out. Yes. Seriously. Mums bought a bag of the crab chips because she has no memory of trying them. I ducked into Tuesday Morning and wondered why they had it so dark. Halloween was down to one very lovely witch and a mostly empty shopping cart of...meh. No nifty dolls or anything called my name, so I went back to the car and we headed home, stopping at Taco Bell on the way home where I'm not sure they actually gave me everything I paid for but that's what happens when you don't double check when you get home if you ordered for a teenage boy, I guess. Basically, the day was too warm when not standing in the ocean, but it was nice all the same.
Wednesday I was struck by the incredibly stupid idea to head back to the ~fancy~ part of the neighborhood for a walk. To be fair, I'd intended to do far more walking on my vacation than I actually ever did so this was an attempt to actually, y'know, make good on that. So as the sun started to go down, I headed out. I'd ridden through earlier in the week so I knew there were some decorated houses but I wanted to see them actually lit up and I was fairly certain the night before Halloween would have most houses lit. I'm not sure how accurate that was in retrospect. I did see one lady struggling to hang orange lights around her door so I'm wondering if people just... waited? These are the same assholes who will spend this weekend putting up Christmas though, so my annoyance was kinda high.
Also, the storms we were promised all day never happened and it was hot as fuck. I was in shorts and still thought I was gonna die before I even hit the halfway mark. Also, because I went in the reverse order I normally do, it felt like it took FOREVER to hit the houses I knew were decorated. My only real consolation was that since I'd chosen to go in reverse, I could admire the last of the daylight as it faded over the river. The views from some of those houses must be amazing if even the view from the street is enough to calm your nerves. Sigh.
About the time I started hitting more houses that had at least something up, I remembered the other reason I didn't do this often (aside from dying of heatstroke 90% of the year): Widget's first neighborhood friend was a little jerkwad who lives back there and I never want to run into a rich white boy who knows his grandparents' money will bail him out of every scrap of trouble he finds himself in. It's really my motto in life. However, I'm fairly certain that either his house or the one next door is one of the ones that goes all out... and the houses across the street from them are the ones that do dueling cemeteries. I realized last year that some of the houses near the little library (you know the ones that are like birdhouses?) back right up to the actual cemetery but it wasn't until this year that I realized the dueling houses... also do. You just can't tell from the road.
I made it home and had tasty roast and showered. It was a pretty night but hot as fuck.
Oh, and that was also the day my order from Spirit arrived but without the entire reason I ordered it. And their CS was so shit that it took them until 9:20PM to call back... from a call originally made at maybe 11am? Luckily around 2:30 I'd given up and went via FB. I know they say these things are usually pending for a few days but every other time I've had something refunded (and I'm ticked that they just went for the missing item since it was a costume bit for K's first Halloween) via Paypal, it's been an immediate thing, even if it does show pending for a few days. There's no pending return on my account.
Halloween itself was also hot. So. Hot. 87 by noon, I think. Plus humid as hell. Anyway, it took forever for me to find a replacement JOL idea since I realized Morticia was above my skill grade this year. Eventually I settled on Ferb from Phineas and Ferb. He came out great, btw. Cass and baby stopped by and I got to cheer because my not quite costume was upped to her costume for trick or treating (even if they didn't go with me, sadness) since the heat was too much for her narwhal one. Set up all the lights and broke out the candy for the trick or treaters I knew would never come and then took pictures that I'll eventually share.
I went to get the mail and noticed the moon looked like a perfect little slice of moon with a star against the perfect blue night sky... and a little bat flew across. The wind was cooling things down just enough and honestly, it was the perfect moment.
Later, when taking my pictures, I talked to the lady across the way who introduced herself. Again. I've lived here for 5 years and she introduced herself originally like three days in. And again earlier this year. But she seemed very sad that we didn't get any ToTs this year considering there were new kids in the neighborhood. Ditto the lady next door whose dog basically kept flying/jumping on me as she and her... whoever he is kept chatting and looking at their phone. She kept apologizing but never actually seemed to want to do anything to reign him in? Which was only annoying in that I was afraid when I walked off he'd lunge at a car.
Anyway, as I went out to take my pictures, I noticed lightning across the way... I dragged Mums out to see the pumpkin at Mitzi's (it had a nifty projector effect) and the moon. No bats for Mums though. The lightning kicked up several notches and the wind did, too. We went home and watched the old Addams Family show and maybe three episodes in we decided yup, thunder. And then the rain hit. And the thunder went KABOOM. I mean, really, the perfect end to Halloween.