Last Chance for Meaning

Well, here is my last chance to get a post in and say something meaningful before the end of the year. It's my opportunity to bring some deep seeded insight into the realm of this discourse of a Bloggery Fashion. Never again will I have this forum to talk about the things that really matter. And instead, I waste it with all this useless gibberish.


I shall dedicate today's Blog of useless gibberish to my friend and former High School classmate, Doug Richardson. Doug died today after a major heart attack. He is se7en days older than me, although you might think se7en years to look at him. He hasn't treated himself very well in the last few years and it finally caught up with him.


So I guess I have se7en days to get my affairs in order. Good thing I don't have many affairs.


Later: This is kind of cheating but the clock has just ticked over to 2012. I am hearing a ton of fireworks going of all around us. So the old year is past and we soldier on to new adventures in Twenty Twelve.

The Last 200 Miles

We have arrived home. 


The weather slowly started to turn to crap on us shortly after we pulled out of Bozeman. 


We stopped there for an hour to hang out, have a bite and top off the tank. Unleaded Regular is $3.03 in Bozeman. I haven't looked since we got back but I think gas in Spokane is at about $3.50-something.


It was raining. It rained off and on until Missoula and then it really broke open for the drive through the passes. It was really coming down. It was very dark and I thought it would turn to snow by the time we topped Lookout Pass. But it was raining hard which was tough when you hit one of the ruts in the highway.


Susan wasn't thrilled with my decision to drive on. But I think we were glad to get through it and make it home.


I've been milling about the house doing a few chores while Susan went off to work. I drained the hot tub and then over filled it. It's draining again now. I hope I won't have to refill.

Buffalo, Wyoming

Yesterday was our first travel day for the return trip. We made it to Buffalo, Wyoming. That's where we are right now. I am writing this on the new Mac Susan got for Christmas. 


Yesterday we drove 11 and a half hours. 


Shortly after leaving, we got a text from Margaret saying she found an unfamiliar suit bag in the closet. I had forgotten my jacket and shirts along with my good shoes. Dumb Ass!


Margaret said she would send them along.


We made a stop in Sturgis for gas and dinner. While gassing up, Susan came walking out of the store and saw a red pick up over on the next island. She said there was something leaking out of the guy's truck. I looked over and saw gas spilling out all over the pavement. I ran over and turned off the nozzle. It had stuck and the driver sitting in the truck hadn't noticed. It gushed a lot of gas onto the ground. I knocked on his door and he came out.


I stepped into a big puddle of gas as I shut off the nozzle and it got all over my shoes.


We went to this giant bar called the Knuckle. I'll bet it's a fun place during the rally but it was empty when we pulled in. The drive over was difficult as the car filled with gas fumes. I dug out my slippers and put my shoes into a plastic bag the bartender gave us. Unfortunately, I didn't have my extra shoes.

The Day After Christmas

Christmas has come and gone and all is right with the world. We are coming to the end of our visit here in Des Moines and will be hitting the road for home tomorrow.


We both got lots of great presents and we gave some good ones too.

The weather continues to be sunny and warm. That bodes well for driving ahead but I have no idea how far the good weather extends. I guess we'll find out soon enough.


We will probably spend a good portion of the day trying to get the car ready to go. I would like to leave as early as possible in order to get as far as we can. I'm thinking maybe as far a Billings, Mt. That's a good 15 hours away.


In the meantime, we shall enjoy our last day here with whatever we end up doing. This laying about with nothing to do is quite attractive to me.

Twas the Day before

We woke up this morning with a bit of a hangover, or as Susan likes to refer to it, "feeling Small".


We went out to a local music pub called the Gas Lamp to listen to the band that Susan's nephew Neil plays in. They didn't go on until 10:30 so we had to listen to a horrible band that was on before them. Very young and loud. Thankfully, Phil had earplugs for us.

Anyway, it is a bright sunny day in Des Moines and there is no chance it will be snowy anytime soon. Bad for Christmas but good for our return trip.


On Thursday, we went to Amana, Iowa. It's about a 90 minute trip near Iowa City. The Amanas are known for their hand crafted crafts. It's not Amish, but very close.

One of the best things about the visit was lunch. We ate at this restaurant called the Ox Yoke (I think) and they serve food "Family Style". I guess that means that you eat a lot of food cuz that was definitely what we did. Fabulous mashed potatoes and even more fabulous gravy...and plenty of it.

During the trip we passed a wrecking yard for combines. I've never seen that before or even conceived of it. But of course, there has to be a wrecking yard for combines. They get old. They wear out. They get into high speed collisions during harvest.


I ordered Susan a laptop on line for Christmas. I was getting very tense because it was very difficult to communicate with the shipper about sending it to Iowa while all my billing information was in Spokane. Fortunately, it arrived yesterday and it looks to be a nice computer. I'll find out more about it once Susan opens it.


We are decorating cookies today so I guess I had better get prepared for that holiday fun.

Our Christmas Trip

I haven't written recently because we have been away from home on a trip to Iowa to spend the holiday with Susan's sister, Margaret and her family, husband Phil and son Neil. It did not seem prudent to announce the emptiness of our house here and allow the scumbags of the InterWeb to come and rip us off. But then again, that assumes that there are people reading this and you and I both know the truth there.


Anyway, I decided to start a post and get some of the Holiday fun reported before it all slips away from my feeble mind, but not publish it until we return.

We left town bright and early last Saturday and left pretty close to the time we planned on...7:30AM instead of 7:00. We took it easy this trip and didn't do the marathon drive through the night to get here. We made it as far as Gillette, Wyoming the first day. That was twelve hours and 776 miles. We drove another 761 miles the next day and arrived in Des Moines about 9:45PM.


The drive was uneventful and easy as the weather favored us the whole way, except for some slight fogginess for the first 100 miles.


Now we are here and enjoying festive Holiday festiveness with family and friends. We have enjoyed many traditional activities that Susan and Margaret have planned like touring the Salisbury House, seeing the Jolly Holiday Lights, going to the Art Center to see art and things that are called art but really aren't, and drinking beer.


Today, we are traveling to the Amana's and Amish Land to see how they build refrigerators. I'll have a more detailed report later.


While it is cold here in Des Moines, we have no snow. In fact, we saw very little evidence of snow the whole way here.  There was a huge snow storm a couple days ago that spread from New Mexico to Kansas. It shut down freeways and stranded travelers. The storm stopped short of effecting Iowa or any of our return travel route. I am hoping for clear sailing when we return home but I would also enjoy a white Christmas.

2011 Carriage Ride

Last night was the Annual Corbin Park Carriage Ride. We invited a couple over we know from church and had a lovely evening. It was chilly and there was no snow on the ground. Somehow, I think that added to the small turn out.

I didn't get many pictures and the ones I got shall win no prizes.


And so, another tradition of our Christmas Season has come and gone. Onward!

Fabulous Saturday

I could easily get used to these Saturdays where there is no pressure to do ANYthing...except for the things you want to do.


For example, Susan chose to spend the day in her kitchen making Christmas treats to delight and enchant. I had some Christmas recon to perform and that is all I have to say about that.


I spent a portion of my reconning downtown, which was very busy. If the economy is suffering, it's not apparent downtown...or anywhere out there today. While downtown I came across what is fast becoming a major pet peeve of mine.


People who can't park! 


Look at this picture.

There are three cars in three parking spaces and not one of them is even close to being within the boundaries of the space. I see this all the time. It seems as though they are unable to properly place their vehicle into the space clearly delineated by lines...OR...they just don't care.


Either way, I don't want those people out there. But they are out there. They are everywhere! Mr. I don't use signals or Mrs. I don't scrap my windows or Ms. I have to text.


It comes down to this, which I have said many times. 
EVERYONE OUT THERE IS IN MY WAY!


It was a full moon last night and I tried to get some stunning house pictures with moon in fullness. But it was to no avail. The position of the moon did not complement the position of the house and so all I got were shots like these.

I like that last one just for the starkness of the trees. I suppose I could Photoshop the moon a bit lower. I may have to give that a try.

In the meantime, it is time for us to make merry and go to a Christmas Party. 

Moonlight Photo Session

I attempted to take some more pictures of the house last night with the moon up above. Unfortunately, the moon appears to have a mind of its own and was not cooperating as far as positioning itself in a reasonable area. I got some early shots but wanted to wait until it was more overhead. I didn't realize it would go so high overhead.

I may have to wait until later in the night. Or I could get home earlier. My research tells me the waxing Gibbous moon will be fully replete this Saturday. Also, I believe the little star down and to the right of the moon is Venus. I am planning another photo session for Saturday.

I'll have to work this out with the clouds too.

A Perfect Day

We skipped church today and had a luxurious morning lounging about. Susan is now out shopping and I have promised to clean the upstairs bathroom, which is starting to grow micro-stuff. 


It's a nice day but cold, currently 31 degrees. A good day to be indoors cleaning grout. 


And since I don't really have much else to say about today, let's look at some pictures from the past few days.

Here is another snowman picture from Skywalkarama. I don't think I showed this one in any previous posts so here it is now.

Here is a good shot of T.J. napping. I've never caught him with his had hanging through the hole there so this one is unique and perhaps historic.

Even more historic is the annual re-creation of the village. I don't even take part in this ritual because it is steeped in tradition and a rich story line for every building in the town of Winter Park Village. I will admit that the name of the town is my one contribution.

And finally, a lovely picture of the house dressed up in Holiday Style. And what is that up above? Could it be the Star of Bethlehem that those wise guys followed all those many years ago? 


I'm going to try and get more pictures of the star in days to come as it waxes to full brightness. 

A Day of Calm

It is a rare day for us to have a day where the day is ours to do the day as we see the day to be fitted into the days activities of the day. Today is such a day. 


We are both going about our business of doing a variety of things with no sense of urgency or panic. It is quite pleasant and I could find myself getting used to days such as this. But then again, a day where one experiences no stress is often referred to as one's funeral. And we are not ready for that yet.


I have some lights to install out front but I have not yet found a suitable replacement for our outside tree that goes on the balcony. We have decided the old tree is toast and it is time to start from scratch.


But, there is still tomorrow. 


Another thing I have to get on is finishing our Christmas Card. The design duty falls to me this year and of course, I keep pushing it off. But there is still tomorrow.

It is Finished!

Our long Christmas Nightmare is over. We have completed all the sky walks we had set up to paint. We did a total of of se7en sky walks and five office buildings. And it is only december second.
We could probably do more but we are happy with what we have gotten and very happy that the shadow of the skywalks hanging over us has lifted.

Last night was another snowman theme. I tried to come up with snow persons of every gender in new and inteeresting situations.

So I have Lazyboy Snowman, an Artist Snowman, A Sea Captain Snowman, Volley Ball Snowmen, and a CycleSnowman.

But my favorite was my depiction of Snomeo and Juliet.

And here is Susan painting the last snow flake of the sky walk painting season.

Yea!

Another Night at Work

We painted again last night and Lil Hit was very docile. Helpful even. We are starting to warm up to him.

It took us three hours and 20 minutes to get through the job. This sky walk is one of the largest. We each painted 15 windows. My theme for the night was snowmen. I had them water skiing, surfing, sledding, fishing and the one pictured above is a Nar-Do-Well Snowmen leaning against a lamp post while sucking on a Candy Cane.

We have two more sky walks to do and then we are finished. And another healthy addition to the House Remodeling Fund.

The Home of Little Hitler

We painted last night at the Bank of America skywalk across Sprague Avenue. We have to call in advance so the Security Detail will know we are allowed to be there.

Last Spring when we were painting skywalks for Coaches vs. Cancer, we came across this guy at the Security Desk who was just a little tyrant. In the two or three minutes that we were in his sphere, he barked orders at three different people...me included. Apparently he didn't like the way I leaned my ladder against his guard station.

Susan and I immediately christened him "Little Hitler". 

"Lil Hit" was again on duty last night. Not quite so bad as I remember. He's definitely a cop wannabe taking charge of his little kingdom.

Anyway, we painted for three hours and got that one finished up. I painted a bunch of figures doing Winter-Like activity. Susan painted Snow Flakes.

I'm trying to decide if I had some gas syphoned from my car. I noticed I was almost empty last night and I was 100 miles short of my normal range. I get about 300 miles out of a tank and I was at 200.

So I filled up this morning and my mileage is definitely off. I'm down about 4 miles a gallon from my typical mileage. I shall be keeping an eye on this and start looking to purchase a locking gas cap...which I should have had all along.

Wake Up and Smell the Coffee

We decided to make some home made Kahlua. With Mark over last night for second Thanksgiving, we thought it would be a fun thing to do. I really should have read the recipe completely. The recipe calls for 5 pounds of sugar, two cups of brown sugar, and a 7 ounce container of Taster's Choice Freeze Dried Coffee. You mix that together in a gallon and a half of water and let it boil or 3 to 4 HOURS. Then, once it is cool, you add a bottle of Everclear and some vanilla. 


The timing simply didn't work out. The mixture has cooled now and we can add the Everclear and vanilla and try to get it into some bottles before we head out to paint tonight. 


The whole house smells like burned coffee. The mixture splattered all over the stove while it boiled and made a horrible sticky mess. The next time I do this, I will be outside on the portable propane burner...waaaaay out of reach of anything I don't want to get stained.

Sky walk Painting will continue tonight and through Thursday unless we get any other sky walks added.

Thanksgiving Sunday and No Defense!

Since we didn't have Thanksgiving here at home, we miss out on turkey and all the leftovers. Well, we can't have that. So today we will prepare a Thanksgiving meal that couldn't be beat. Plus, we have sky walks to paint so it will be a very busy day. B'Bye!


11:17PM: Okay, the day is over and it was a good one. We invited our friend Mark over to share dinner and it was fabulous. The turkey came out perfect, the mashed potatoes were creamy, the white trash casserole was the thing that dreams are made of and the gravy was simply Gravylicious.


We finished one more sky walk today although we had a little trouble getting access. Since it's part of the Mall and sky walk system, I figured it would be open. But alas, it was not. I managed to flag down a custodian who got me to the right people to approve us being in there.


I guess I should go back to yesterday. We got downtown about ten and got to work on a sky walk that crosses Howard avenue between the Chase Bank Building, which used to be the Washington Mutual Bank Building and the old Crescent Department Store Building, now called Crescent Court.


I had a disaster that has never happened to me before. I was moving my ladder a couple of inches, well aware of my paint jar on the top, and watched in slow motion as it tumbled off and onto the carpet in the sky walk.


Susan reacts very well to these sorts of emergencies. She screams, "Holy Mother of God!" at the top of her lungs and goes into manic panic mode. I spilled a lot of paint and it took close to half an hour before we could return to work. We got it up though and you would never know unless we pointed it out.


I have never had that happen to me in 30 plus years of painting windows. It happened to me again today. Honest to God! I just couldn't believe it. I was cleaning some lines off an image and I had placed the paint on the railing along the sky walk. It's not very wide railing and I either didn't place it squarely on the rail or some movement I made bumped it off. Not sure! Doesn't really matter.


Susan responded with "Holy Mother of God!" which translates into, "You Stupid MoFo, you did it AGAIN?!"


It wasn't as much paint this time but it was still stressful and unbelievably stupid. I have no defense!

Black Friday

Today we painted for two and a half hours and completed three jobs. They were all outside jobs and we are now done with them. The rest of our painting will be indoors. 

It was sunny today but much colder than yesterday. My fingers were pretty chilled by the time we finished.

My other accomplishment of the day was to get some Christmas lights out. I got it done but I lost three strings of lights over the summer. I know they worked when I put them away but that was not the case when I pulled them out tonight. Two worked for half the string and one was a complete burn out. I am tempted to spend the time to find the bad light and get them working again, but that takes forever and I would be letting down the throw away society we have developed here. Easier to buy a set of lights.

I have to get the new LED lights. They are a cleaner looking light and I think they will last longer although I think I have made it three Christmases with these lights.

The Annual Thanksgiving Day Blog-A-Thon

8:38AM: We have just gotten up and here I am at the Computer typing away. I got up earlier to shoot up T.J. and I sat down here to review what we did last year on Thanksgiving. It turns out I did the same Blogathon as I am doing here and I found the information I left very helpful in planning my day today. I also found a bunch of misspelled words which I will have to go back and fix.


We have some window painting to do today and according to last years blog, It took us about two and a half hours to do it. We didn't get started until 11:30. Hell, we stayed in bed until ten.


The other interesting thing that I probably would not have remembered is that there was snow on the ground (I kind of remember that) and it was really chilly.


Today, it's approaching 40 degrees outside and it's sunny. 


So, we are off to tackle Turkeyday. Here we go!


2:29PM: We have returned from our painting duties for the day. The day started sunny but was cloudy by the time we started painting. In contrast to years past, it was warm. These first few windows that we paint are all outside painting jobs so having a fairly warm day is a nice bonus.


 Now we are preparing to go to my sister's house for a fabulous Thanksgiving Meal that couldn't be beat. In the meantime, here are a bunch of pictures from our painting efforts today.

The possibility exists that someone might be happy that we put up Santa and a reindeer. I don't care. I don't get to paint Santa much so I think this was an appropriate sight. This is the entryway to the Holy Family Medical Building. You would think they would be okay with a Christmas theme...even if it doesn't depict the Holy Family.

3:27PM: We are getting ready to leave. I don't have time to be sitting here typing this. I've got to finish making myself presentable.


8:48PM: We have returned home from a fabulous Thanksgiving Dinner that couldn't be beat with shovels and rakes and implements of...wait...I've lost focus.


Dinner was great and the potential drama that threatened to unfold never did...and that is as far as I'm going with that. Oh...my niece did get very very drunk.

Rain for Noah

We endured a long night of skywalk painting last night. We painted until eleven. When we got home, we were beat. I look forward to a couple of nights off.

It rained the whole evening...I'll bet it rained seven hundred and ninety-six inches while we were painting. I bring this up only because it totally negates my last post where I was complaining about the insubstantial snowfall. It is all gone and I am ready for a fresh volume of sturdy snow of the substantial variety.

Things I say

It is Monday morning after a pleasant but busy weekend. No work was accomplished on house projects as we have moved into the busy Holiday Window Painting Season. It started a week earlier than usual due to a series of windows that needed to be up by this Friday.

I have always refused to paint before Thanksgiving. The Christmas season comes earlier and earlier every year and I don't like it. This year, I can't complain about it because I am part of the problem.

So, it's like I always say, "If you can't  be a part of the solution, be a part of the problem!"

Here are other things I always say.

"It's another day on this side of the dirt."
"Well, What are ya gunna do?!"
"Turn off your turn signal, you dumb old feeb!"
"And get OUT OF MY LANE!"
"Can I get this in plaid?"
"Just put more ketchup on it."
"That's wedged in there pretty tight!"

The snowfall over the weekend was quite frustrating to an Anal Retentive Snow Shoveler such as myself.

It never snowed enough to break out the snow blower. It just snowed lightly and then kind of melted and then froze, creating a nice rugged frost over the surface of the walk and driveway.

Then it snowed lightly s'more and kind of melted and added to the rugged ice.

So, the walks and driveway are not cleared very well and my snow blower am awaiting a snowfall with some gusto.

Anticipating the Worst and not getting it.

I have just arrived at work. I came in early because I didn't know what the commute mixed with weather would bring.

It brought nothing! Well....nothing of consequence!

I woke up around three and got up to check the conditions. It was snowing pretty hard but it looked wet. I shall write again the sage Indian Adage I learned many years ago from a Montana Man who is not an Indian.

Big Snow - Little Snow
Little Snow - Big Snow

This morning it was big snow falling from the sky so I expect little accumulation. However, persistence doesn't really come in to play with this adage so if there are lots of Big Snows, that could accumulate into a large snow fall.

It looks as though it is going to snow off and on all day. So maybe we'll get something. All I can tell you is that I am ready at Snow Blower Central. My baby is tuned up, gassed up, looking good and ready to blow.

Okay...Really...Here Come Da Snow

We are all really excited and nervous now about the coming snow. Many inches are expected by morning. Whether they land here or elsewhere is still in dispute. Focus Groups are meeting to discuss the possibility that maybe the snow will fall in areas around here. Papers are being written and Blogs are being bloggered. 


Let's see what happens in the morning.

Here Come Da Snow

The area forecasters are all a-twitter about the impending snow we are about to get. They can't help themselves even though I expect nothing will come of it.

To their credit, it is snowing right now and it is beginning to stick. Also to their credit, they predict it will turn to rain which is why I think nothing will come of it.

It all remains to be seen but it doesn't prevent me from going on a rant about drivers in this area...and perhaps they are the same everywhere...especially everywhere there is snow.

The first snow of the year is the worst because nobody seems to have a clue what to do. Painted lanes no longer matter because they are covered in snow, so you can just wander around the boulevard and make your own lane. Following distances decrease because everyone is going slower so it is best to get right up on the person in front of you to encourage them to get the hell out of your way. It doesn't work by the way. You'll only barrel up on the next person going slow who is going slow because of the person in front of him et cetera et cetera et you know!

So the first couple of drives after a snowfall are frustrating for someone like me who drives perfectly and is inconvenienced by every other driver including YOU!

We haven't done much stuff on the house since the weekend as it has been a busy week of doing other stuff. There have been lots of meetings to attend for groups and organizations we are members of but now discover we would rather not...be members of.

So here comes my wisdom for the day: It's much easier to be an island!

Staining, Scraping, Steaming, and Drinking

Susan continued removing wall paper today.

I did some stuff too. I don't see that it's any of your business though.

Okay, that was pretty harsh. Sorry! I have a bit of an attitude going and I guess I should explain.

I would like to know what the reasoning would be behind painting over stained wood with latex paint. And not just one coat...several coats. I do not understand that kind of thinking in a house such as this. The style of the house is Craftsman, after all. A Craftsman is a Craftsman because if the woodwork. A Craftsman become a Paintman when you add latex. Or in this case, lead based paint infused with asbestos. Asbestoman?

I understand orange shag carpet. It was the 70's and everyone was stoned! Fortunately, we came down from the high. 

And now, we are getting over the latex. But it is not easy. I'm getting high breathing the fumes. It takes quite a bit of paint remover to get this crap up.

My biggest problem is that I'm not patient enough to let the stuff work for 15 or 20 minutes. I'm trying to develop my patience more better-er.

Historically Historic History of a Historical Nature

We awoke this morning to a light dusting of whiteness throughout the neighborhood. Now while you might think I am referring to the racial make up of our neighborhood, you would be wrong. well...you would be right but that 's not what I'm referring to here.


It snowed a little. It was all gone by nine but it was another indicator to me that it's time to put away the deck furniture.


I did that plus a bunch of other stuff around the yard.


Susan continued work on our hallway and started removing wallpaper in the next and final section to complete. We came across a very cool piece of history.


Upon removing the full length mirror in the hallway next to the bathroom and we found history written on the wall.

We were ecstatic. The Markwoods (former owners)left us a message. I know it doesn't seem like much in the grand scheme of things. But we have left similar messages around the house in the course of our remodeling so it's exciting when we come across one ourselves. It feels like it was left for us.

The plan was to wallpaper that whole area but this discovery changed all that. Now we will wallpaper around that space, add our own message and replace the mirror.

I also spent a good portion of the day sanding trim for the hallway. I hope to get one set of trim stained tomorrow and get it back in place.

We had a little snowfall during the day but it came after I finished raking leaves. Now I have a bunch of wet leaves to haul to the dump. I love paying to dump water.

In unrelated news, Norman continues to survive. We thought he was dying a couple of months back but he's much better now. Except for being blind and having fish palsy.

Return to Standard Time

I love weekends that include accomplishment and beer. That describes our weekend perfectly.


Susan and I stayed up late (almost to midnight) on Friday and got caught up on some TV shows we DVR'd. 


Saturday was a day we had all to ourselves. We didn't have to go anywhere or do anything. Susan wallpapered and I worked in the yard with a brief diversion at Susan's car.

Her door handle had come loose and I have fixed it once so I knew better this time what I was doing. I ended up attaching the door handle to the thingy that came loose with JB Weld,  a remarkable adhesive that every home owner should have. I hope it holds this time.

After the car, I starting bagging leaves. I bought some super heavy duty garbage bags and I can really pack the leaves in. I'm going to load a few bags into the car and try to stop at the dump every morning this week. I have noticed that the trees did not produce a lot of chestnuts this year. Either that, or the squirrels have been very good at cleaning them up. Finally, they are good for something.

I flew the ghost one last time on Saturday night and we experimented with some glow sticks. The problem is the glow sticks get killed by cold temperatures so they really don't work that well.

I tore the whole thing down on Sunday and stowed it in the garage. The biggest problem I had was with one of the post holders that I pounded into the ground. The two that had 24 inch spikes pulled right out. The one that had the 36 inch spike totally wore me out. I finally got it but not before sweaqting through my clothes and dislocating my back. Next year, 24's all around.

Halloween Wrap Up

As mentioned in the last blog, we were beat after a long night of servicing trick or treaters...and scaring them as well. Everything went well and the Axworthy Flying Ghost performed perfectly all night long.

There was one issue with it and I know how to solve it for next year. I plugged one of the fog machines into the same cord that the Flying Ghosts were on. The ghosts would occassionally slow down and sometimes stop. I think power was drawn off when the fog machine engaged. I'll just dedicate an extension cord to the ghosts next year.

I had a mishap earlier in the day during set up. I decided to try and tighten up the line on the Ghosts before setting it up for the evening. I knotted up a new, shorter spacer and while trying to attach it, the line broke. Actually, one of the spinner clips broke. The tight line pulled one of the rings on the spinner clip right out.

So as I was trying to replace the line, I got tangled in it. I must have looked pretty retarded stumbling around the yard, waving my arms at nothing. I ended up with a wad of fishing line that looked like Christmas lights that had been rode hard and put away wet. I think I'm starting to mix my metaphors.

In the course of re-stringing the whole thing, I put a nice sharp knife blade half way through the tip of my pinky.

So blood was not a problem for Halloween.

Anyway, we've spent the last couple of nights stowing all the Halloween stuff. We are almost done. I have to get up on the balcony and get that stuff down.

We had a good time up on the balcony last night. We put four pumpkins up there and our way of bringing them down is to park a garbage can on the sidewalk and try to hit it. I did well with mine but Susan totally missed. What a mess!

I was also using my leaf blower last night to clear off the leaves that have accumulated over the last couple of weeks. In the course of blowing, I uncovered some sort of little electronic unit. At first I thought it was a sport radio or something like that. It turns out that it is a Radar Detector. I stuck batteries in it and tried it out on my way to work this morning. I appears to work. So...SCORE!

We are now estimating that we had over 1,200 kids come through the candy bowl. My neighbors who use a clicker to count the number of kids ended up with 1,135 and they quit at 8:30. We went until almost nine and I'm pretty sure we had at least 65 come by in that time. The number is not really important. I have never seen a mass of Halloween Revelers like the group that annually shows up in our neighborhood.

Here are some pictures from the night. They are not great pics cuz I'm not a great pic taker. And I was busy with stuff. Nevertheless, here they are.

I'm starting to think I'll be needing to add a Technical Supervisor position in years to come. You have to keep the scary CD going, check the ghosts, keep the fog machines filled and scare the kids.

In closing, we would like to thank our many friends who showed up to help with crowd control and candy distribution.

1183

One Thousand One Hundred and Eighty-Three! It looks impressive when it's written out. It is also impressive looking when it walks up your walk way and yells, "Trick or treat!" 


That is now what I am confirming as the official number of Halloweeners who came to our Haunted Yard this evening. The first arrived at 4:45 and we shut everything down just before nine with the last candy bar.


I'll have more details to come. Right now, we are tired!

One Day to Halloween 2011

We have had a very busy weekend preparing for the scary festivities to come tomorrow evening. Since it was the weekend before Halloween, there were lots of parties to attend as well as preparations to attend to.

Friday night was our Punkin Carving Party which had a much smaller attendance this year but still accomplished our goal of getting a bunch of our punkins carved.

A few pictures:

I completed the fence around the flying ghosts so now there will be little doubt that one should keep the EFF OUT!

Saturday night we went to a couple of nearby Taverns to hang out. Nothing big, just a brief night out. You know they keep beer there!

I dressed as a Pimp Vampire

Susan's cat outfit was so effective she attracted another cat.

Another party we attended last night was the annual Corbin Park Neighbor Party. Susan was a firecracker and I was a Lighter.

This is always a great party where we get together with neighbors whilst eating and drinking.

I'm working a half day tomorrow and Susan will be home early as well. We have a lot of gravestones to get into place and pumpkins to arrange.

And then of course, there is the candy.