It's Summerween Season!

I really meant to actually post this on the 5th, but getting out the laptop seemed too much like work on a 3 day weekend! 

So, how was your 4th?  

Chuck spent some time with his new girlfriend, Penelope.  

Looking at this, she needs her eye sockets filled in and a tutu.

However, she didn't attend the parade in my hometown. 

Dealing with Chuck & 2 grandkids is plenty!

Oakland County's Search & Rescue rig is much fancier than the one we use in Lapeer County (I've been a "professionally trained" volunteer since the team was born back in 2018)

My phone chose to focus on Chuck, but there's a 5' skeleton in the back of that Jeep. 

We had a good laugh at this!

This is advertising for a landscape company - I personally would want them to show up in this!

I think the guy driving this had the most fun!

The people on this float were excited to see Chuck!

We got stickers!

And I just happen to follow @j.a.haunts on YouTube!

The parade always begins with Fire Trucks & Ambulances

and ends with Police. 

The grandkids, of course, had to pose with Chuck.

Oooo, conveniently on the 5th.....

the last of my recent skeleton purchases was delivered!

The dimensions said 17" but for some reason I was thinking ~tall~ and not ~ear to tip of tail~!

But that's OK.  It's still different from the rest of my doggos. 

Oh - and because I'm weak.....

the At Home skeleton wheelbarrow managed to fall into my cart when I went there last.  

And of course, since I've vowed to NOT go back there (after already spending an embarrassing amount of $$) - they sent me an email saying I am now a VIP and here's 15% off my entire purchase! 

Sheesh. 

We didn't do fireworks on the 4th because the granddaughter went home with my sister from the BBQ at Mom's house to spend the night.  She was really looking forward to seeing them so we couldn't let them off without her! 

Chuck was the only one safe from being eaten alive from mosquitos! 

Until later.....

Just waiting on TSC to put their skeletons back online.  This will be an embarrassing amount of $$ that's actually been planned for. And it probably won't even be as much as at At Home! 

TSC keeps doing weird things with their website!  First they had the horse & deer & raccoons & possum, etc all listed, but not yet available to buy.  Then those disappeared and the ones from last year showed up - the 6' rooster & 3' rooster & hen, etc.  Now ALL the plastic skeletons are gone and just the metal animals with the glow in the dark bones painted on them are listed.  Neat, but not what I'm looking for.

Patience.  

ooo, here's a fun (as in horrifying) memory that popped up on Facebook recently.....

Nasty, isn't it?  

That's what happens when you ignore that little warning pic on the side discharge chute of the lawn mower.  Don't try to unclog it while it's running!  

Thankfully it only sliced my nail and fractured the tip of the bone.  

And it healed up nicely - whew!!

Definitely NOT one of my brightest moments!

Vacation!

Besides a trip to the Detroit Zoo on Labor Day - Chuck went on vacation!

 

His Michigan Hand-Map isn't as good as a real hand, but we decided to go spend a couple days in the Petoskey area.  

Just me & the Spouse (and Chuck!)

We got to the hotel Wednesday and if we leaned out over the balcony, we could see both the sunset and Little Traverse Bay. 

Right across the street was a local restaurant that claimed to have famous pumpkin pancakes - so I had to try them out.  

Fantastic! 

If you ever have the chance to go to JW Filmore's for breakfast - I highly recommend the biscuits & gravy!  

This bear has seen some things! 

Next we followed a Chuck's truck almost all the way to Petoskey State Park. 

Very soft sand!

This is also Little Traverse Bay. 

Still cold, tho! 

Next stop was Wilderness State Park, which isn't too far from Mackinaw City. 

This was a couple mile drive back into the park.  

We sat on the bench and enjoyed the breeze and sounds of the waves. 

This trail is off the parking area by the sign.  

If you look really close, you can see the Mackinac Bridge! 

Next we went thru this place called Cross Village and stopped to explore a couple cemeteries.  This one belongs to the Odawa (Ottawa) Indian tribe.  

It was actually sort of creepy, since none of the white crosses had names, and other than the few military stones, the few actual stones all belonged to women.  And a lot of crosses were in the woods!  

We made our first trip to Spirit Halloween!

It's really early in the year, but we drove the Tunnel of Trees.

It's only about 5% color, but still nice. 

We drove down toward Charlevoix and stopped at an overlook area called Big Rock Site.

It was really windy! 

The breeze off Lake Michigan was strong!

We took advantage of our state park pass and went to visit Fisherman's Island State Park. 

Waiting for the Spouse to catch up....

We finally started getting cold. 

So we went and got ice cream!

We are here!

We checked off 2 more of the real Maple Grove cemeteries in the state. 

There are 32!  

We've been to all the purple ones. 

When we got home, I thought I'd better start getting some decorations out in the front yard. 

I love this sign!

I'll put a couple more things out here & there - the skeletons are going to be dug out of the garage this weekend.  Hopefully me & the Spawn will have all the headstones painted and can get them out of the way.  Right now they're scattered all over the patio.  The plan is to start official set up on the 28th/29th.

Oh, good news!

The Disco Ball Skeleton finally came in!

And since we have literally 4 truck (or trunk) or treat events to attend this year, it's going to get some exposure!   It's a fabulous!

OMG - 45 days!!

Success!

I currently have 2 cow skeletons from Tractor Supply in my possession!

But first - don't ask me why I wasn't patient and just order them online!

I don't know.  Because I was NOT patient! 

But that's exactly what I ended up doing.  

So going back to my last post - August 5/6 saw me driving around to 9 different TSC stores and returning home sad.  

I made another trip to the one closest to my work on August 11, I was going to use it as a gauge if I should bother looking elsewhere.

But then I saw them (finally) on the TSC website!

I checked all of the stores in SE Michigan and all of them were only "ship to store" and all said "unavailable".  Except for one!  But as soon as I went thru the checkout process, it wasn't available anymore.   

I didn't know the mini horse as a thing, but I had to get one!

The definitely NOT horse teeth bother me slightly, but there are worse skeletons out there. 

His name is ThumbTack

...since my full sized horse is ZipTie and the pony is DucTape.

I started watching the site closer this past Sunday on and Monday morning, I saw a store had them available!  I already had 2 cows sitting in my cart, so going thru the checkout process was quick & BAM - got my confirmation #!

Chuck approves!

I got the text Tuesday night at 9:19pm (after the store was closed, of course) that my order was ready to be picked up - so the Spouse & I drove out there after work Wednesday (yesterday).

Woohooo!

They're super cute and I'm so glad I was able to snag a couple!