Almost Halloween...

Well folks, we're in the home stretch here. Naturally, I didn't blog half as much as I intended during the Samhain Season, but hey...it's been a pretty crappy year all the way around..no surprise that the Haunting season has been incredibly hectic and exhausting as well. The move is, of course, a large part of the problem. We're still living out of boxes, and finding things has been quite a chore (as of this writing, I still haven't found the remotes to work the projection system, so I may not be using it this year). *sigh* Such is life, eh? The seemingly eternal mantra of "well, maybe next year" is being chanted once again in the House of Haunted Gill.

Still, I DID get some decorations up in the front yard, and I'll hopefully have those pics up in the near future. The yard haunt is stripped down, and I went for a decidedly "old school" vibe with it. The forecast is calling for ridiculous amounts of rain, so it may be that it really isn't seen by many this year...but what can you do? The good news about all this is my neighbors seem really down with it all! I was out one night setting up, and had many different folks come by and introduce themselves to me, and all were very complimentary. One individual I spotted coming from the house across and catty corner to us, on the cross street. My first thought was "uh oh", because their house was adorned with many different religious signs and what-not. I thought, for sure, that I was about to have a "holy roller" come over to preach about the "evils" of Halloween. Thankfully, this wasn't the case at all! Turns out, these folks were extremely excited by my display! The husband is a former opera singer, and is heavily involved in local theatrical productions, so he was completely on board! A short while later, his wife joined us, and she likewise gushed about how happy she was to have another theatrical person in the neighborhood!

The only thing close to a "negative" reaction came from an older lady...who expressed disappointment when I told her that I don't do a Christmas display that is quite as elaborate! I asked her if she wouldn't mind seeing a full-on Grinch display one day, which she seemed to get a kick out of, so it wasn't too terribly big of a let-down for her (and I really do want to make a display based on the classic Chuck Jones adaptation of the Grinch...that wasn't just me trying to placate her). So, it's the good with the bad, as always. We've certainly had our share of bad, but since life has given us lemons we're carving those suckers into little, yellow Jack O' Lanterns!



So, a most Happy Hallowe'en to one and all! I hope your Night is filled with lots of spooky goodness!