Weather Report

Last night, we went to a neighborhood trick-or-treat party. It rained. We're heading to another neighborhood trick-or-treat party tonight. It's raining. And I just started looking at our city's weather forecast for Halloween night...

Not looking too promising... Weather. It's the one thing that I can't control for my annual yard haunt and it always puts my stomach in knots. I'm hoping that there's still enough time that the forecast will change a bit towards the better, but we'll push ahead regardless. It certainly won't be the first year it has rained on Halloween. And if there's one thing that I have learned while doing this, is that some rain won't stop the hordes of ravenous trick-or-treaters from visiting Highbury Cemetery on Halloween night...


I also wanted to wish everyone running their haunts tonight good luck. Regardless of the weather, push forward and do what you do! We are the ones who fight to preserve the glorious traditions of Halloween and keep it fun and scary for the next generations to enjoy. Our work is so important. Don't ever stop!!

  

A Final Weather Update

It's amazing that as haunters we can somehow control the weather for Halloween night. Truth be told, I still start checking the forecast two weeks ahead, knowing full well that the forecast will change another 50 times. And I still secretly pray to the Candy Corn Gods for a favorable forecast for the big night.

The weather is the one thing that can really make or break a haunter's yard display. And I also know that not everyone will have favorable weather on the big night. I'm already hearing horror stories about a storm packing fierce winds traveling up the east coast. My shriveled, rotted heart goes out to those haunters.

But as I make a final check of my own forecast, it looks as though my prayers and sacrifices have appeased the Candy Corn Gods! And for this, I am eternally grateful!

It's strange to see a chance of showers pop up today after initially being forecast for no rain for at least the last week. But I'll take a chance of rain today in exchange for my Halloween forecast. Dry and chilly, exactly as I had hoped!

And the Candy Corn Gods have given me great favor this Halloween season: two separate forecasts with a ZERO PERCENT chance of precipitation. Thank you, O Mighty Candy Corn Gods! You are most benevolent!!

A Quick Weather Update

As I've come to expect, the forecast for Halloween night continues to change every hour. We're still looking good for the big night here at the Cemetery, but that forecast for rain on the 1st has me a bit nervous. I'm REALLY hoping it doesn't creep up any closer...

Please, O Great Candy Corn Gods. Grant us all a night that is bountiful in dryness and chill...

  

One Week To Go!

And so many little things left to do! Why is it that every year at this time my head is so close to spinning off!?!?

At least after all of these years, I have learned to ignore the ever-changing weather report until at least a week until the big night. And truth be told, I still get a few sneak peeks in before then. I can't help it!

So now I can start looking at the daily weather report and hope for the best each time I look. With a week left until the big night, we're looking pretty good. Although I'm going to call today's report "threading the needle"...

Still a bit too close on those rain chances, but I'll continue to keep my fingers crossed.

  

King Diamond - "Halloween"

It's not always dark ambient playing at Highbury Cemetery during prop building season...

And with only 5 days to go until King Diamond's favorite night of the year, the local weather forecast is looking pretty good. I'll remain cautiously optimistic that it won't change too much in the next week and that we'll finally have a dry Halloween night...

 

Highbury Cemetery T-Shirt, 2016

The 2016 Highbury Cemetery t-shirts are done! Each year, I hand screen a small run of one-color shirts in the cemetery basement and then give them away to everyone who helps out on Halloween night as a thank you gift. Every year the shirt art is based on that year's haunt logo, and this year's shirt is by far the best...

I even printed one up for the newest member of the cemetery crew, and he couldn't wait to show it off with a couple of his friends! Beast Boy approves...

  


And with less than one week left until the big night, it's time to check the weather forecast.

We're still hanging on, but I'm hoping those Sunday showers are long gone by the time the 31st rolls around. Fingers crossed! Only 6 more days to go...

 

The Neighborhood Sign Goes Up

7:00 am and it's 46 degrees, cold, rainy and miserable. A perfect morning to go right back to bed, but I had a job to do. I pulled myself out of the comfortable warmth of my bed and layered up.

I made my way to the garage and grabbed all my necessary tools to complete today's task: putting up the neighborhood trick-or-treat sign! As official keeper (and creator) of the sign, it's my yearly duty to place it at the entrance to the neighborhood, informing everyone of this year's trick-or-treat time. 6-8 pm. October 31st. Always. 

Our fantastic neighborhood has a long-standing tradition of keeping trick-or-treat on Halloween night, regardless of the day it falls on and regardless of what the geniuses of City Council try and schedule for this year... 5-7 pm on Saturday? No thank you.

This site is beautified by the Merriman Hills Garden Club. And Highbury Cemetery.

And because of the fact that it always seems to rain constantly when the sign goes up, it looks to have another year or two at most before it's time for a new sign. But for now, I'll drive slowly into my neighborhood each time, admiring that familiar vintage ghost and haunted house graphic, and then panicking in realizing that Halloween is so close!

It's also about time for me to start looking cautiously at the upcoming weather report for Halloween night. For the past 4 or 5 years, it has only led to disappointment, as we have had rain on Halloween night, so I think that we are long overdue for a break from Mother Nature.

It's still just over a week away and I know that the forecast will change at least 6 or 7 more times, but so far, so good. Fingers crossed that it stays this good...

  

Around The Neighborhood...

It was a nice, unseasonably warm day today, so I decided to take a stroll around the neighborhood to see what everybody else was putting up for Halloween decorations. And I was glad to see so many people putting out some really great displays...

(Shh. This beautifully painted pumpkin is actually my son's!)

Halloween Weather Forecast Update:

Yuck. Keeping my fingers crossed, as we still have time...

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A Nightmare on Elm Street - Theme Song

I absolutely love this truly classic, creepy track from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street. For some reason, I really equate this song with Halloween, and every time I hear it, I get an evil smile on my face...

And every year, around this time, I do something amazingly stupid. And this year, I did it again. I started looking at the extended forecast for Halloween night. Still almost two weeks away, but I'm already stressing out over it. We've had cold and miserable rain for the past three years straight. Can we please, please, please catch a break with a dry night? Please??

Still 12 days to go, but I'll keep my fingers crossed for an improved forecast...

 

Curse Of The Halloween Forecast

As some of you might have noticed, I was including the forecast for Halloween night in some of my earlier blog posts but have since stopped. That's because as Halloween got closer, the forecast got worse.

I can barely even bring myself to look at the updated forecast, as it looks like for the third year running, we are once again going to have to deal with rain on Halloween night. It's like I can't catch a break. It's like I'm cursed...

I won't lie. Looking at this now gives me a rancid knot in the depths of my stomach, especially after the disaster from last year due to this very same forecast. A year's worth of work and planning, only to have to deal with foul weather again. FUUUUUUUUUU...


Okay, so after talking myself down from the ledge, I have decided to be optimistic. The few props that I did put out in last year's downpour made it through with flying colors (after a few days of drying out in my garage), so I've decided to go full Darwin with my haunt this year - that is, everything is going out on display. Props, lights, foggers, animatronics and everything else. And it's survival of the fittest. Anything that doesn't make it through this year's display will either get fixed or it will go in the trash, to be replaced with something bigger and better for next year.

Mother Nature, you screwed me last year. But this time it's my turn. Rain all you want. Because next year I'll be back with even more in the yard haunt. And it will continue to be upgraded for the elements. It may have taken eleven years, but I'm finally getting smart about things.

And here's to a dry forecast wherever you may be haunting. Turn it up to eleven and crank it out. This is the day that we have all been waiting for. And some rain drops won't get us down. We've worked too hard for this.

 

Trick Or Treat Update

Somewhere in the middle of all this wonderful green is Highbury Cemetery...

Well, Mother Nature has played her hand and it looks like we have to fold. Constant rain throughout the afternoon has led us to scale back considerably on our yard haunt display this year. If you are in the neighborhood, still come by as we do have a setup and we will still be handing out candy, but don't make a special trip. 

The forecast was wavering all week, and by today it was too late to reschedule trick-or-treat. I apologize to everyone in the neighborhood and to everyone who saw the story in today's newspaper and was planning to stop by. I desperately wanted this year's trick-or-treat to go off smoothly, but it wasn't to be. Tonight, we'll pack up what props we did put out and hopefully they'll be dry by next Halloween. At least we still have a cooler full of ice cold beer to lift our spirits.


I have a few day shots and I'll try to snap a few nighttime shots of our haunt between the raindrops...


A home haunter's worst fear:

  

Little Dustin Horner

Here's a quick prop I finished up this week. After seeing the Frog Queen's awesome Trick-Or-Treaters, I decided that I needed to make one, too (imitation is the most sincere form of flattery!). I wanted a little something to mess with all of the people who came past the Cemetery on Halloween night. And Little Dustin Horner is that little something.

See, Dustin is a frightened little child, trying to muster up the courage to walk up to the Cemetery to get his candy. But only we know that he will never do it. Because he's made from PVC. And he will stand at the bottom of the driveway the entire night. Frozen with terror, his only real purpose for the night will be to simply stand there and get in the way. And we'll watch all of the concerned parents and other trick-or-treaters awkwardly interact with (and walk around) him as they try to go up the driveway for their treats.

I made a quick trip to the thrift store last week, where I scored a little jacket, little jeans, little shoes and little gloves all for $11. To my surprise, the jacket had a small name tag area on the inside, where Dustin got his name...

I made the body out of 1-1/4" PVC. The leftover length of pipe is being used to make a few more flicker candles. Smart, huh? I used plastic chicken wire to fill out his little chest and newspaper to fill out his little legs.

His right hand is made from rolled-up newspaper fingers taped together inside the glove. I used a coathanger wire for each finger on his left, as it needed to be bent and rigid in order to hold his jack-o-lantern bucket.

I used a 1/2" drill bit to drill through the bottom of each shoe and drove 2 pieces of 1/2" rebar into the ground (one for each leg), pulled the shoes over the rebar and set the leg tubes over that. I added a styrofoam wig head (painted tan) and an old Frankenstein mask that had been in the attic for the past 10 years and he was ready to go...

I can't wait to see the way people interact with Little Dustin Horner all night. I wonder how many of them will understand? His fear is real, even if his body is not...

And hey, we're down to 10 days before the big night! Time to start checking the weather report:

Cloudy, high of 46 degrees, low of 39 degrees, 20% chance of rain

This will of course change 10 more times over the next 10 days, but the fingers are crossed that will we have great weather. And our fingers are crossed that you will, too...

 

 

Halloween Teaser

Okay group, I hope that everyone is having a great Halloween Eve! Whether you've got your trick or treating tonight, going to a Halloween party or just staying home with a scary movie, I hope it's full of screams and terrorific fun!

We're just putting the final touches on this year's edition of the cemetery. I've got one more prop to fix, lay out the extension cords for all of the lighting, pop in my zombie contact lenses and don the annual costume with makeup and we're ready to go.

Just wanted to share a quick teaser photo for tomorrow's haunt. We're expecting a ton of friends and co-workers to stop by and even more neighborhood children to pass through our ghastly gates. I've been working all day, but I'm still wound up tight. The past 3 months of work will all pay off in 20 short hours. How am I supposed to sleep tonight?

Okay, the teaser shot is similar to last year's, but we've redone our front porch and I can't wait to post the pics. A big thanks to Jenn for taking the lead on the redesign. It looks great!! Here is the skull shelf...

 

Okay, that's all we're revealing tonight. I just finished printing this year's t-shirt and we're going to sit down at watch our annual Halloween Eve movie, Trick 'r Treat.

Okay, Halloween is tomorrow. The final weather report:

47 degrees and partly cloudy, with a 20% chance of rain.

Saint Louis Number 1 Cemetery, New Orleans

The wife and I took a much-needed vacation at the end of September and traveled down to New Orleans, Louisiana. What a city! We went non-stop from the time we got there until the time we left. We even came back with some voodoo dolls, so you better stay on my good side!

One of the highlights was a guided tour of Saint Louis Number 1, the city's oldest and most famous cemetery, opened in 1789. It's famous for housing the crypt of New Orleans' voodoo queen, Marie Laveau. Also, it's the cemetery where scenes in Easy Rider were filmed (illegally) in 1969. It spans just one square block, but is the resting place of over 100,000 dead.

Here are some shots that I took while roaming through the rows and rows of crypts. Hopefully they'll inspire some of you with some prop ideas or just give you the chills. Enjoy!

4 more days until Halloween. The current forecast:

50 degrees and partly cloudy, with a 20% chance of rain