I'm back!!

Now that Halloween is over (sob!) and the Countdown to Halloween complete over on my other blog.... I can turn my attention back here now! 

Until next year, peeps!

The Spouse & I take November 1 off work and manage to go from this

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^

to this

v v v v v v v

The time stamp on this pic was 12:20pm on November 1. 

Don't get me wrong - nothing is put away at this point!  But from the street you can't tell. 

We feel this is part of the magic - I start putting the cemetery out the last week in September and add to it / tweak it all the way up to trick or treat time - then the next day.... POOF.  Like it never even happened. 

Ugh, I have a new app to compress the size of the pics in my phone (they're been huge lately!) and it doesn't save them in the date order.  So I'm going to just roll with how they got uploaded!

The best campaign signs ever! 

Seen in my neighborhood.

The GrandSpawn waiting for the train at Huckleberry Railroad in Flint. 

Said train!

This was my car at the inaugural trunk or treat at my VFW. 

Top Lights Truck or Treat in Lapeer. 

There were fire trucks, police/sheriff/state trooper cars, ambulances, tow trucks, state conservation vehicles of all sorts, the sheriff's dept dive team, animal control, victim services, child services and of course - the SAR team!   All with lights going, of course. 

They said a good 1400 kids came thru in those 2 hours. 

It was so fun to walk around with the grandkids in their police/fire costumes.  Whoever created the Facebook Event noted that any kids dressed like police/fire/emt were going to be given a shift!  The Grandson got a fist bump from the actual Sheriff.  They both got lots of comments from the respective departments, most of which I know they didn't understand, but I thought were funny. 

Trunk or Treat at the grandkids' daycare. 

My next-car neighbor offered to watch my candy bowl for me so I could run down to do my own trick or treating at the cars that had pumpkin pie pudding shots and caramel apple mimosas!

My co-pilot looks like he's cussing at other drivers!

I attended K9-One's Halloween Camp again. 

Posted here, too

Finally got to see the northern lights from my house!!

The Grandson conversing with some of my skeletons.

We made 2 visits to this particular location of Blake's Orchard (they have several) once was with the kids' daycare and the other for the Granddaughter's birthday. 

Speaking of the birthday girl (10/18)

My favorite tree has dropped its leaves!

This was the first of the trunk or treats I want to.  

After sitting there for a while, the guy I was there with decided to grab some pinecones from the tree whose shadow you can see here and offer those as an option to candy.  We thought that would be hilarious and it made it better to see just how many kids DID take a pinecone!!  

I took a half day on Veteran's Day and went to the VFW for the ceremony there.

I ended up having lunch with 3 gentlemen who'd been in Vietnam and they started telling stories and I was riveted!  They could have sat there all day and I wouldn't have left! 

Ooops - Lowe's got me with some really cute blowmolds this year!

Normally I wait until after Thanksgiving to put the Christmas stuff out in the yard, but I think I'll do it this weekend.   The lights are already up on the house, but haven't been plugged in yet. 

~GASP~  who have I become???

I had to take care of some scholarship program stuff at the VFW yesterday and stopped at the local park afterward to eat my lunch - couldn't help but notice how pretty this tree still is! 

I was a Sailor Once...

This is really resonating with me today....

I Was A Sailor Once

*** I liked standing on the bridge wing at sunrise with salt spray in my face and clean ocean winds whipping in from the four quarters of the globe - the ship beneath me feeling like a living thing as her engines drove her swiftly through the sea.

*** I liked the sounds of the Navy - the piercing trill of the boatswain's pipe, the syncopated clangor of the ship's bell on the quarterdeck, the harsh squawk of the 1MC, and the strong language and laughter of sailors at work.

*** I liked Navy vessels -- nervous darting destroyers, plodding fleet auxiliaries and amphibs, sleek submarines and steady solid aircraft carriers.

*** I liked the proud names of Navy ships: Midway, Lexington, Bunker Hill, Saratoga, Coral Sea, Antietam, Valley Forge - - memorials of great battles won and tribulations overcome.

*** I liked the lean angular names of Navy "tin-cans" and escorts - - Barney, Dahlgren, Mullinix, McCloy, Damato, Leftwich, Mills, Stickell, Noa, Paul, Coontz, T.C. Hart, Glover - - mementos of heroes who went before us.

And the others - - San Jose, San Diego, Los Angeles, St. Paul, Chicago - named for our cities.

*** I liked the tempo of a Navy band blaring through the topside speakers as we pulled away from the oiler after refueling at sea.

*** I liked Liberty Call and the spicy scent of a foreign port.

*** I even liked the never-ending paperwork and all-hands working parties as my ship filled herself with the multitude of supplies, both critical and mundane in order to cut ties to the land and carry out her mission anywhere on the globe where there was water to float her.

*** I liked sailors, officers and enlisted men from all parts of the land, farms of the Midwest, small towns of New England, from the cities, the mountains and the prairies, from all walks of life. I trusted and depended on them as they trusted and depended on me - for professional competence, for comradeship, for strength and courage. In a word, they were "shipmates"; then and forever.

*** I liked the surge of adventure in my heart, when the word was passed:

"Now set the special sea and anchor detail - all hands to quarters for leaving port," and I liked the infectious thrill of sighting home again, with the waving hands of welcome from family and friends waiting pier side.

*** The work was hard and dangerous; the going rough at times; the parting from loved ones painful, but the companionship of robust Navy laughter, the "all for one and one for all" philosophy of the sea was ever present.

*** I liked the serenity of the sea after a day of hard ship's work, as flying fish flitted across the wave tops and sunset gave way to night.

*** I liked the feel of the Navy in darkness -- the masthead and range lights, the red and green navigation lights and stern light, the pulsating phosphorescence of radar repeaters - they cut through the dusk and joined with the mirror of stars overhead. And I liked drifting off to sleep lulled by the myriad noises large and small that told me that my ship was alive and well, and that my shipmates on watch would keep me safe.

*** I liked quiet mid-watches with the aroma of strong coffee -- the lifeblood of the Navy permeating everywhere.

*** And I liked hectic watches when the exacting minuet of haze-gray shapes racing at flank speed kept all hands on a razor edge of alertness.

*** I liked the sudden electricity of "General quarters, general quarters, all hands man your battle stations," followed by the hurried clamor of running feet on ladders and the resounding thump of watertight doors as the ship transformed herself in a few brief seconds from a peaceful workplace to a weapon of war -- ready for anything.

*** And I liked the sight of space-age equipment manned by youngsters clad in dungarees and sound-powered phones that their grandfathers would still recognize.

*** I liked the traditions of the Navy and the men and women who made them.

I liked the proud names of Navy heroes: Halsey, Nimitz, Perry, Farragut, John Paul Jones and Burke. A sailor could find much in the Navy: comrades-in-arms, pride in self and country, mastery of the seaman's trade.

An adolescent could find adulthood.

** In years to come, when sailors are home from the sea, they will still remember with fondness and respect the ocean in all its moods - the impossible shimmering mirror calm and the storm-tossed green water surging over the bow. And then there will come again a faint whiff of stack gas, a faint echo of engine and rudder orders, a vision of the bright bunting of signal flags snapping at the yardarm, a refrain of hearty laughter in the wardroom and chief's quarters and mess decks.

*** Gone ashore for good they will grow wistful about their Navy days, when the seas belonged to them and a new port of call was ever over the horizon.

*** Remembering this, they will stand taller and say, "I WAS A SAILOR ONCE, AND I WOULD DO IT AGAIN."

By Pete Lembo

It's Autumn!

So the Spouse & I had a lovely few days away from home. 

So it was raining while I was posting last, so the next couple days were chilly, damp & windy.  But that's OK!  We explored random places around the Petoskey / Charlevoix area and spent much needed time together alone. 

The Tunnel of Trees / M119 isn't very impressive when the trees haven't changed colors yet.  

It's a narrow, twisty turny 2 lane highway along the coastline that clearly has a lot of trees.  The scenery was still nice, tho. 

The Spouse humors me and always plans some cemetery explorations when we travel. 

My Halloween display is called the Maple Grove Cemetery and there happens to be 32 real Maple Grove cemeteries in Michigan, so we're eventually going to visit all of them.  We hit #21 & #22 on this trip! 

We also stopped a couple other little cemeteries - this one belonged to the Odawa Indians.

I love visiting cemeteries like this - it was one of the creepier ones that we've been to, tho. 

The main part was actually clear and mowed, but some of the white crosses were out here in the woods. 

We got home Saturday night on the 7th.  

Rare family photo taken at the VFW family picnic. 

We just swore in to the VFW this gentleman who is 99 years old and was at Normandy on D-Day.  

Such an honor to meet him! 

It's officially Spooky Season! 

I put this guy & the sign out first, then I've been gradually adding more here & there. 

Actual set up will happen this weekend (if I can hold out that long!)

I got my Disco Ball Skeleton!  So excited!

Yesterday was Exhumation Day, when we dug the big skeletons out of the garage. 

They hang from the rafters in the back corner and we have to move 1000 boxes & totes to get to them. 

Now my patio is crowded! 

I also have a box of smaller critter skeletons.  The agenda for this week is...

 

1. Take the grandkids to the apple orchard with their daycare on Wednesday.  The Spawn has to work at said daycare so I get to go with them!

2. Get the smaller critter skeletons & fence out of the shed. 

3. Get the blowmolds out of the add-on behind the garage and get them cleaned up and their lights tested. 

4. Have the Spouse help me drag the shack out to the front yard.  He designed it to be easy to store but the darn thing weighs a ton and soon we're going to have to figure out an easier way to transport it other than by hand! 

Anyhooo, that's all the excitement around here. 

I signed up to do the Countdown to Halloween over on my other blog so I'll be concentrating more on that for the foreseeable future.  38 days until Halloween and I already feel behind!