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!! 

Happy belated Easter!

Hope everyone had a great Easter!  We had dinner at Sis1's house Saturday, then colored eggs afterward.  Everyone from my house spent the night there, so Sunday we got up & had an Easter Egg hunt after breakfast (the grandkids think the bunny leaves their basket, but their Papa hides the eggs)

Bunny prints! 

Leroy the barn kitty joined us this year. 

One day, the grandkids wanted to take Chuck for a walk - so I compromised and put him in the stroller! 

It's a good thing he was buckled in, or else he wouldn't have survived the racing! 

Ooooo goodies!

I'll save this for my halfway to Halloween post!

222 Days!

222 days sounds like a long time, but then it also doesn't! 

Aw man - I was going to "unbox" the Frankenstein skeleton and post pics, but I didn't get around to it.  I knew I was supposed to do something!

Anyway.  

Ya'll!!  I got my new buggy!

Meet Dorothy. 

This is the replacement for my Terrain that kicked the bucket last month.

It's definitely not what I was looking for, but I'm very happy with her.

She's a 2014 GMC Enclave.

I told the Spouse that since in the past I've had a Ford, a Saturn and a GMC that I needed to look for Chevy or Buick, but I really meant it as a joke!! 

Yes, I keep carseats for the grandkids in my car, too.  

Chuck likes the grandson's seat best. 

Ugh.  Now I have to plan for the headstone for Smokey the Terrain. 

I have time to decide on that and get it sketched out.  I'm sure not doing any cutting or painting for a while.  Spring is Michigan is a bit crazy - last Wednesday it was 70*F and yesterday we had flurries.  Go figure!

I also changed my mind on a couple of the headstones we just repainted last summer - so that's on the "to-do" list. 

Tried to get a cool pic of the full moon thru the trees in this cemetery on the way to work one morning.  

The lights of the strip mall over the hill were in the way.  And it was darker than what my phone picked up.

Last weekend I took the Spawn & grandkids to Toledo to see the Monster Trucks. 

Yay, popcorn!!

Gravedigger is the Spawn's & Grandson's favorite

I thought for sure the girly Granddaughter would like the sparkly pink & purple unicorn truck but no - Zombie is her favorite!

I didn't make it to Kalamazoo at the end of January to explore the cemeteries I was looking forward to.  I came down with the Flu and for everyone's sake, stayed home.  I didn't need to share my cooties with all the people at the convention & banquet, plus I just couldn't bring myself to drive 2 1/2 hours there & back.  

Chuck's been pretty quiet lately.  I just haven't done anything fun to include him!  

Next weekend I'm going to Ohio with Mom & the Sisters so we'll see what kind of shenanigans he can get into.  

 

I'm being smothered by cats!!  

less than 250 days!

250 DAYS!!!

Whoops

248 DAYS!

I missed 250.  

But that's ok. 

Catching up.....  we had some drama. 

My car is deceased.  

RIP

Apparently, it was burning oil but never gave any sort of error message or oil light or anything.  I wasn't due for an oil change until April / another 1000+ miles. 

So now the hunt is on for a new set of wheels. 

Snow flakes on my back window.

The skeleton at work is still up.  We should be changing his outfit to green here soon. 

Does this mean they're going to throw it at me?   

Or baby is throwing stuff? 

I've kind of been scoping out the store websites here & there to see if I can see anything new for this year.  Not that I need to buy anything else, but inspiration happens everywhere! 

However.....

HalloweenCostumes.com has this guy on clearance!  

Frankenstein is over 6 feet tall. 

His head isn't quite the right shape, but the details are pretty cool. 

Regularly $90 on clearance for $40 plus I had some rewards $ and another 15% off which pretty much covered shipping.  

Darn these things that fall into your cart! 

The Motor City Haunt Club has it's first in-person meeting since a long time on March 8.  They're doing a make & take of fog juice, which is pretty cool, but I don't have a fog machine!  It might be neat to go see how it's made anyway, for future reference.  I love the whole concept of the Club, but always feel awkward going to these meetings since everyone else is all buddy-buddy and chat with each other.  I don't small talk well and it's just weird when everyone else is having conversations and I'm just like there.  So idk.  

Anyhooo, The new skeleton is due to arrive on March 5, so I'll post again with an "unboxing"!

275 days / catching up

I couldn't let a month pass without posting ~something~!

It's been pretty quiet - I took Chuck with me to the Comedy Castle on New Year's Eve.  I was there with both my sisters, a brother in law and various friends of theirs. 

My search & rescue team often has training & meetings at the county EMS admin building - this class I attended recently was the first time I've noticed a name on the skeleton - Sherlock Bones! 

Darn Joann's and their cute blowmolds (and sales)

There are several yards in the area around my house where semis are parked.  

I couldn't help but stop and get a picture of Chuck's cousin! 

January 2 was the Grandson's 5th birthday - we went to the Reptarium to see the critters.

2 headed snake (named Ben & Jerry) to go with the 2 headed turtle (named Chopsticks) above. 

Every time we turned around, an employee was there with some sort of critter that we could hold or pet. 

This big guy was gorgeous!  It had an oil slick sheen on it's scales. 

If you're ever in SE Michigan - you need to stop by here.  It's very cool!

Last weekend I flew down to Arkansas to visit with the Spouse who is working remotely from his Mom's house in Hot Springs.  The trip down was very stressful.  I'll have to write a post on my other blog... here's the worst part of it.

The Proton Pack doesn't seem to have much power! 

I did make it to the bathhouse!  That made the trip down all worthwhile. 

I haven't been to Hot Springs since before Covid, so I've missed it! 

We attempted to have lunch at Cracker Barrel on the way to take me back to the airport Sunday, but all the servers pretended like we didn't exist.  So we got up & left.  But I had to stop and grab this blowmold from the store, since I had a coupon.  The Spouse is driving home next week so I left it in his car. 

Since I only had a carry on bag, Chuck didn't fit in there.  He would have fit, but I ended up with my heavy coat & winter boots shoved in there, too.  This little guy went along for the trip! 

But he was pretty boring.  He made it into the car with me to go to the bath house, but that's all he did!  Chuck is disappointed in him. 

This coming up weekend I'll be heading out to Kalamazoo for a VFW conference / banquet.  I already have a list of cemeteries I want to visit while I'm out there.  Look for posts on those soon!