mindsquirt

Howdy-doo.

Halloween was Tuesday night. I love Halloween. I even took Tuesday off of work. Of course, these days I take off work for just about anything. I almost called in yesterday too because I jabbed the back of my mouth with my toothbrush when I woke up.

This year’s Halloween was extra-special because I spent it at my parent’s house. I took the time to set up the infamous Mr. Death (below), but found out that he wasn’t working they way I had hoped. Last year I cleverly put in a motion detector that was so insensitive that it actually became a knock-sensor (when taped to the door). This sensor turned on a motor that jerked up his head and turned on some ghostly laughing. It was pretty sweet.

Mr. Death: "The camara adds 10 pounds"



















This year, however, I accidentally ruined the sensor and burned up a relay, so I just set him up on the porch with nothing but his creepy LED-lit eyes. It was a real shame. I vow to do something extravagant for Halloween 2007. I will have to consult Bean for some ideas, who really had his place decked-out for his Halloween party.

One of these days, I will have to post some pictures and videos of how my brother and I used to do Halloween night when I was in high school. The neighbors still talk about my parent’s house. We really went crazy with the robots and actuators and such. Flailing life-sized witches, real-life talking Mr. Deaths , doors that open by their self, computer-controlled audio, the whole niner. I remember one year we video-taped all the kids’ reactions to Mr. Death’s spookyness and at least 4 different groups of kids turned around and ran once they saw him. No candy for them!

One of my favs was when my brother acted like he was a fake leaf-stuffed zombie in the front yard and when kiddies would walk by he would jump out and get them. Tee hee! What a clever ruse.

Then there was the kid who got lit on fire due to our negligence. Those cheap vampire capes are flammable! It was like it was impregnated with lighter fluid or something. I tried not to break character and upset the spirit of our front porch, but this kid had a lawsuit look to him.

We did carve some bitchin’ pumpkins. Guess which one is mine (hint: mine doesn't have kitty ears).

"scary" and "horned"pumpkin














YEEEOUCH! That smarts!















Closeup, including pumpkin-gut as pumpkin blood (look closely)

















This year we also had a lovable bean with us. Look how cute this little quacky duck is:

Cuteness modifier +2d6















We scooted her around the neighborhood and even ran into some kind of Halloween psychopath:

There we were, my wife, my daughter, and I, walking on the sidewalk, when a SUV comes around the corner at a blinding 5 mph. The car must have been about to explode, because it was making sounds that I have never heard a car make before. Due to the sounds and speed of the car, I remarked to my wife that I thought it was in the process of breaking down.

But! The guy slowly drives up next to us, rolls down the window, and uttered some kind of unintelligible gibberish. He literally talked as though he had marbles in his mouth. All syllables ran together and there was no real enunciation. I immediatly decided this man was a terrific alcoholic. So I asked him to clarify and approached him. He said another fantastic string of mush-mouth horsemarm. So again, I asked him to clarify, and even gave him some suggestions. I thought he might be trying to give me something, so I said,
“do you want to give me some candy?”

and He was like, (make sure to hold your tounge while saying this aloud)
“No! wewasonthewayhome and Ijustboughtthecandy… so Iwasjustgoingtogiveittoyou now”

As far as I could tell, this guy was shit-faced and had maybe had some candy lying around in his car, so he did what any logical person would do on Halloween, he handed out from his dying SUV on the way home.

So, he gave me some candy, I thanked him, and he went on his way.


I sure hope he gets reunited with that crazy lady from wal-mart that I met.