The Truth Is-

October 3, 2023 / animar64 / Leave a comment

Are you into Halloween? Will you be dressing up and going out; handing out candy to trick-or-treaters; or staying home with the lights off, waiting for All Saints’ Day?

On Halloween I will be handing out candy, I will be setting out my pumpkins and decorating my porch.

I will be dressing up my dog but I won’t be wearing a costume because when you dress up your dog and you’re walking him around on Halloween nobody cares if you are dressed up.

That can be an ego cruncher, but I don’t mind being upstaged by my dog.

Halloween 2017-The Year Hamish was a Christmas tree for Halloween: Photo A.M. Moscoso

Halloween is the one night, the one day when the world smells like candle wax, log fires mystery and a little fear. Halloween feels like dust and spider webs caught in your hair and clinging to your face as you rush through basements and attics in haunted houses on a dare.

There’s no way I’d miss a second Halloween- and that is the truth.

See You Soon

October 2, 2023October 2, 2023 / animar64 / 2 Comments

AI artwork-Creator Unknown

Tomorrow I will hunt for the perfect Halloween Pumpkin

in a field not far from where Iive.

I will haunt the rows, stalk the vines

in my yearly quest to find a Jack-O-Lantern

that resembles a human head.

And when it sees me, the pumpkin will howl

” Great, it’s that psycho with the knife again! ”

I will take it home and carve it, I will scoop out its stringy brains

and after Halloween I will take it’s seeds to the field not far from where I live

and I will scatter them into the wind.

” See you next year Jack I will say

with a little tear in my eye

and my pumpkin’s seeds will hiss, ” beat it you crazy chick, it’s a long way back to

Halloween again. ”

Why Are We Not Surprised?

October 2, 2023October 2, 2023 / animar64 / Leave a comment

RDP Monday: SEASON

I have made no bones ( see what I did there?) that I love Halloween.

Halloween influences what I like to read and write, and the movies I choose to watch. It inspires the way I dress and the way I decorate my house- even the collars I chose for my dog.

Mary Pickford Movie Promo

Before you assume I dress like Morticia Addams and that I live in a house that used to be Funeral Home or a house with a dark history. I actually don’t. I mean I have touches of those things in my home but there’s one reason I don’t go full on Halloween.

When I was in high school I took a class called Family Living.

My teacher was named Mrs Olmer and in her class you learned actual life skills- like we learned how to balance a check book. how to research and shop for home appliances, how to manage a construction job in your home and she taught a unit on home decorating.

She stressed that you put your favorite color on the top of your list and THAT is the color you use the least.

To emphasize your favorite color she suggested you use it as an accent color- use it for curtains, pillows and wall art – things like that.

So that’s what I’ve done.

It works- the things that reflect me- little things like my curious ( all those odd and macabre things ) that are really small- you could fit most of those things in your hand, no matter how understated they are people will always eventually notice them first and in surprise.

Like my gargoyles- they are all over my home and have a place of honor over my fireplace. But it’s the ones scattered around my home that get noticed first.

Photo A.M. Moscoso

So this is the spooky season and I do love to participate in it year round in a way that appears to be low key, but to quote Charles Dickens in my most FAVORITE ghost story in the world:

“I will honour ~~Christmas~~ HALLOWEEN in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.”

― Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol