May 02, 2025

Halfway to Halloween!!

Happy Half-o-ween!  

It's funny how different people have different ideas of what the halfway point is.  
Half of 365 is 182.5.  Today is 182 days - so close enough! 

I made up a "perpetual calendar" so I can always see right at a glance how many days to go.
 Moving on! 
I ordered a few things a while back, and the Spouse would put the boxes in the garage.  So, by the time I got home from work, I'd forgotten about them!   So, they stacked up and I got to open them all at once.  Now we're all caught up. 

First - I didn't think I needed any more skeletons (HA!!)
but I was poking around HalloweenCostumes.com and happened to see a 6' Frankenstein's monster skeleton on clearance!  
Regularly $90, on sale for $40, plus 15% off and some rewards?  Couldn't pass him up! 
Hey there!

My only issue is that his head is loose and spins around very easily. I'll have to fix that somehow.
And I don't even remember seeing IRL all the colors on the skull, but they're clearly there.  The picture on the website showed them much brighter. 
Next was this guy from Michael's. 
Had a $10 voucher that I needed to use and an online sale. 
He's 5' tall with the stake, so fairly substantial. 
Lastly - a couple years ago I got a white wooden cross from the dollar store.  You know, the kind you see on the side of the road, etc?   I wanted to get a couple more to add to the cemetery, to spruce up the look some.  Do you think I've been able to find any???   I looked at a couple different dollar stores last year, concentrating especially on the weeks leading up to Memorial Day and nothing.  

Then I searched & searched online and couldn't find any for less than $20!!

I don't know if I was using the wrong search words or what, but suddenly I found them for $7 at Walmart.   I grabbed them up in case they disappeared again!
I actually really like the sunflower one.  
I got 2 of each flower design.
I had planned to put them back in the box for storage, but 
Hurricane Grandson happened. 

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Thoughts to ponder..... 

Halloween is on a Friday this year.
Normally, the Spouse and I both take November 1 off work so we can take the cemetery down, move everything to the back yard and get the yard cleaned up.  Then we can put everything away at our leisure.
Do we continue that trend?  Or do we leave the cemetery up for the weekend and take Monday off work?  Not that we need any excuse to take time off work, but it would be easier because the Spawn and grandkids will be at daycare / school. 

OOooooooo - speaking of.....the grandson will be starting kindergarten this fall!  I wonder if his school will be having a Halloween party & costume parade?  Is that still a thing?  I sure hope so!  He'll be going to the same elementary school that his mom (aka the Spawn) attended, and I went to all of her's.  Can't wait to find out!

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I thought this was kind of funny.  I volunteer on a search & rescue team and each week our K9s train at different parks around the county.   This was found in a pavilion.  Somehow, I don't think this is the variety of human remains they were searching for! 
Since they all know about Chuck, 
I immediately commented back that all of my skeletons were accounted for!

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OH!  and let's acknowledge that May is also Cemetery Appreciation Month! 
 
Doing a quick Google search, it looks like Iowa is the only state that actually acknowledges it - good for them!  Iowa legislators created the State Association for the Preservation of Iowa Cemeteries in 1996 and their governor signed the proclamation.    Rhode Island also has an Advisory Commission on Historical Cemeteries... and apparently the town of Warwick gives you the opportunity to go on a cemetery scavenger hunt...????  That would be AWESEOME!!!! 

I wrote a post back in 2021 about the Seven Historical Cemeteries in the town where I live.  
Maybe it's time to revisit them? 

I found a nice post from the NecroTourist listing 30 ways to celebrate. 
So get out there and appreciate!!