Pulling in, I was greeted with the welcome sights of a chimena in the driveway, festive decorations on the porch, and the inviting sight of smoke, gently issuing forth from the living room's chimney pipe. Ahhh, it was good to be here.
The candy supply was well stocked to begin with, but I added my bags to the collection and then mixed things up. (In a bit of a selfish move, I'd brought extras of the stuff I like; Reese's Peanut Butter cups, and Kit Kats. I made sure they weren't sitting on top - I didn't want those greedy little bastards to be grabbing all the good stuff right away!)
Ok, the kids' offerings were all set, now to see about the adults' offerings. Yep, things were looking good...
A quick walk around to take stock of the Halloween decorations. Each year, they add a bit more to their already extensive collection. (It was getting dark by now, so I had to turn my flash on for some of them.)
Even the pumpkins were getting in on the whole "eating treats" thing - tasty spiders!
The customary graveyard. Be sure to watch out for the fence which lines it. Don't trip on it with a full beer in your hand, when you're walking around in the dark. How do I know this can happen? That's not important. What's important is to just watch out for the fence.
Creepy spiders on the lamp posts...
A creepy, "Creature From The Black Lagoon"- themed critter on the front door...
A floating, illuminated ghost, hanging from a tree branch. This foolish thing wouldn't hold still, the wind kept blowing it in the opposite direction of where I was standing so I finally had to drape it's dangling cloth over the branches of a bush, just to keep it still for the photo.
The ever-present ghosts in the attic of the garage...
This guy's eye's list up and was pretty creepy. I had to put my flash on to capture him - doing so, washed out the glowing eyes, but it still looks pretty creepy.
Heading inside, there were all kinds of great decorations set up all about...
Ed was very happy to get into character, complete with a fake eye. (The eye didn't last very long, though, and was last seen rolling across the floor...)
Food! Sue and prepared meatballs and lasagna for the hungry masses that had descended upon her kitchen - Mmmm!! Just what this group needed for the long night ahead of us.
Chrissy had done up this styrofoam head with shrimp (and hot sauce blood) to look like brains. Fantastic! And creepy!
(I'd contributed to the food stuffs as well, but there's nothing really scary about a case of beer, or a couple loaves of garlic bread, so there was no need to post pics of those.)
After we'd all stuffed our bellies, we moved outside to welcome the wandering ghosties and goblins of the night.
The weather was pretty crappy, and unfortunately, the turnout was down from prior years. We did get to see the neighborhood hay ride contraption come along. One of their neighbors hooks a trailer up to a tractor, lines it with hay, and hauls a bunch of the kids around on it. The parents stroll along with it, keeping an eye on things, and socializing at each stop. They stopped a bit longer at the end of Ed and Sue's driveway and we all swapped stories and laughter - much to the chagrin of the kids who were anxious to keep moving. Their patience soon ran out, and off they tore to the surrounding houses, to expand their candy haul.
The hour or so was like this; a couple of groups would come along, we'd chat for a bit, then they'd move off to the next spot. But before too long, the activity had dried up. No more kids! Well, nothing else to do but make the most of things.
Sue broke out a package of glow sticks and set to making jewelry for everyone. Some had rings, some had necklaces, and some had glasses. Here's Chrissy modeling hers, LOL.
The night wound up being a bit of an early one for me. It'd been a late night on the prior evening, watching the RED SOX CLINCH THE WORLD SERIES!!! YEAH, BABY!!!, so Dave-O was long on hours and short on sleep.
(The fact that I'd finally caved to the allure of the candy and had eaten over a dozen Reese's cups, which were then mounting a revolution in my belly, didn't help mattes much.)
I said my goodbyes and headed off toward home. It'd been a fun night!
Oh yeah, one last thing. I'd kicked around the idea of doing a green-flame pumpkin this year, but since the weather was so lousy, I figured I'd wait until next year. But what to do with the pumpkin that I'd gotten? Meh, I figured I'd just do a quick free-hand carving. I was aiming for something SCAAAARY! I started with the eyes, slanting them diagonally, in an attempt to capture a look of fear. I didn't spend any time on the nose, just slicing in a quick angle cut.
And then; the mouth. But what kind of mouth conveys fear and/or terror? Hell, I didn't know, and I was totally winging it on the fly, so I just started hacking and slashing. Fangs! I should probably add fangs, those are always a good bet! Yeah yeah...now just gotta make sure the corners come together so I can pull the pieces out...
Well, I should have been paying better attention...or given more thought to what I was doing...because what
I wound up with was probably the most friendly, harmless, inviting pumpkin ever carved on the face of the earth...
What the hell? Nobody's gonna be scared of that thing! Ugh.
Oh well. Did I mention it was a fun night?
Happy All Hallows Eve!
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