And little he knew, of the things that ink, or song, or film may do...
So, this Day of the Dead finds me, as most of them do, in a fairly wistful and melancholy mood. This mood is certainly helped by the fact that we buried our cat Tri today. He died several weeks ago of natural causes. I was with him when he died, and held him for several hours as he slowly and fairly peacefully slipped over the border between this life, and where ever it is spirits go when the body dies.
It is not an easy or pleasant thing to do… but I have managed to be with several of my cats, at least six so far, during their last hours. I hope I can be there when all of the animals I live with pass over, as it does seem to give them some sort of comfort, even if it does tear me apart.
This time of year always finds me in this mood, no matter what is going on in my life. I think it is my psyche’s way of preparing for the onset of winter, when I will be spending more time indoors, and travel will be harder, so I will see even fewer people than I do now.
The previous evening, All Hallows eve, was a very pleasant one. The weather was warm and wet. The rain kept all but a few trick-or-treaters inside, which is OK, as that means more candy for me! I always make sure to buy candy that I like for Halloween, because I always end up with left overs.
I did do some decorating of the house for Halloween, though it was in my usual, minimalist style. When it comes to special effects and decorating to scare… less is more I always think. So, we did not put vast spider webs; blow up ghosts and plastic tombstones all over our lawn.
Instead, I took just one of the fairly realistic fake severed hands I have lying around, modified it slightly by putting a real bone sticking out from the back of it where the ulna normally would attach to the wrist, and dropped it off to the side of the front step; just the one decoration.
See, I think that just the one, very realistic severed hand is much more effective than a plethora of plastic do-dads. When you have a bunch of decoration of a scary nature, it is obvious that you are decorating for Halloween, but with just one, placed slightly out of the way… it is not so obvious that you purposefully decorating. People are much more likely to be made nervous by a single severed hand laying in an out of the way corner, than they are by a dozen animated Casper the Friendly Ghost blow up dolls and tacky tombstones in your front yard.
Perhaps I will just leave that severed hand there as my Christmas decoration as well… just move it where it will not be continually be buried by snow. If the single severed hand is not an overly obvious Halloween decoration, it will be far less obvious that it is a Christmas decoration! Perhaps I should put a single, blood red light behind the hand to help indicate that it is a Christmas decoration?
So, since Marti was not feeling up to going out, and preferred to stay home and dispense candy to the vast hordes ( in this case, a vast horde equals four), of trick-or-treaters, Joanne motherschizo and I decided to go see the movie Zombieland. The closest place the movie was playing was in Bellows Falls Vermont, and so we hie’d off through the warm rain to Bellow’s Falls.
Zombieland is a good movie, but not great. It is good for splatted zombies and semi-clever one liners, and there are a couple of parts in it that really amused me, and no, there will be no spoilers in this entry.
After the movie, Joanne and I wandered around Bellows falls a bit. Bellows falls is an odd little town, and has a very odd feel to it. As we were wandering around, we saw a Haunted Grist Mill attraction, and so decided to go in. It was amusing enough, but very sparse and amateurish, which is fine… for what it was. Many of the modules I did when I worked at Legends were much better, and scarier. But, the people at this little Haunted attraction had heart, and they tried. I think perhaps next year I will try to get in touch with them, and hopefully I can lend a hand and make their Haunted Grist Mill that much more haunting... as well as educational. They have an amazingly perfect setting for it! So, since the price was low, and we were vaguely amused, all was well.
After that, a bit more wandering around Bellows Falls, which is a great town to wander in on Halloween… it has a very Cthuluesque feel to it, what with all the ancient houses and old cement structures in various states of disrepair that one encounters if one wanders at all!
During the drive home, the weather was almost tropical so warm and wet was it, and Joanne and I drove home listening to one of my favorite groups, Pentangle, on the CD player, singing tunes of magic, murder, drowning and betrayal… one of my all time favorites songs by them is Cruel Sister, which includes all four! It is also one of my favorite versions of any of the Child Ballads, and was one of my absolute favorite songs during my high school years. Yes, I listened to the Child Ballads in high school, as well as the Clash and Ramones, so sue me!
And today, other than burying Tri, I spent the day with Marti… and reading. For on this Day of the Dead, communication with the dead is supposed to be easier… but for me, there is no easier way to commune with someone long gone than to read their words. Reading is the dead speaking to you, and you agreeing to listen. And I can think of few better ways to honor the dead, than to listen to them. So today, I “listened” at great length to Lord Dunsany, and he told me many tales of wondrous and far off places, and also several tales of a cautionary nature.
So all in all, a very good couple of very magical, if nostalgic days, hanging with the living, and the dead.
It is not an easy or pleasant thing to do… but I have managed to be with several of my cats, at least six so far, during their last hours. I hope I can be there when all of the animals I live with pass over, as it does seem to give them some sort of comfort, even if it does tear me apart.
This time of year always finds me in this mood, no matter what is going on in my life. I think it is my psyche’s way of preparing for the onset of winter, when I will be spending more time indoors, and travel will be harder, so I will see even fewer people than I do now.
The previous evening, All Hallows eve, was a very pleasant one. The weather was warm and wet. The rain kept all but a few trick-or-treaters inside, which is OK, as that means more candy for me! I always make sure to buy candy that I like for Halloween, because I always end up with left overs.
I did do some decorating of the house for Halloween, though it was in my usual, minimalist style. When it comes to special effects and decorating to scare… less is more I always think. So, we did not put vast spider webs; blow up ghosts and plastic tombstones all over our lawn.
Instead, I took just one of the fairly realistic fake severed hands I have lying around, modified it slightly by putting a real bone sticking out from the back of it where the ulna normally would attach to the wrist, and dropped it off to the side of the front step; just the one decoration.
See, I think that just the one, very realistic severed hand is much more effective than a plethora of plastic do-dads. When you have a bunch of decoration of a scary nature, it is obvious that you are decorating for Halloween, but with just one, placed slightly out of the way… it is not so obvious that you purposefully decorating. People are much more likely to be made nervous by a single severed hand laying in an out of the way corner, than they are by a dozen animated Casper the Friendly Ghost blow up dolls and tacky tombstones in your front yard.
Perhaps I will just leave that severed hand there as my Christmas decoration as well… just move it where it will not be continually be buried by snow. If the single severed hand is not an overly obvious Halloween decoration, it will be far less obvious that it is a Christmas decoration! Perhaps I should put a single, blood red light behind the hand to help indicate that it is a Christmas decoration?
So, since Marti was not feeling up to going out, and preferred to stay home and dispense candy to the vast hordes ( in this case, a vast horde equals four), of trick-or-treaters, Joanne motherschizo and I decided to go see the movie Zombieland. The closest place the movie was playing was in Bellows Falls Vermont, and so we hie’d off through the warm rain to Bellow’s Falls.
Zombieland is a good movie, but not great. It is good for splatted zombies and semi-clever one liners, and there are a couple of parts in it that really amused me, and no, there will be no spoilers in this entry.
After the movie, Joanne and I wandered around Bellows falls a bit. Bellows falls is an odd little town, and has a very odd feel to it. As we were wandering around, we saw a Haunted Grist Mill attraction, and so decided to go in. It was amusing enough, but very sparse and amateurish, which is fine… for what it was. Many of the modules I did when I worked at Legends were much better, and scarier. But, the people at this little Haunted attraction had heart, and they tried. I think perhaps next year I will try to get in touch with them, and hopefully I can lend a hand and make their Haunted Grist Mill that much more haunting... as well as educational. They have an amazingly perfect setting for it! So, since the price was low, and we were vaguely amused, all was well.
After that, a bit more wandering around Bellows Falls, which is a great town to wander in on Halloween… it has a very Cthuluesque feel to it, what with all the ancient houses and old cement structures in various states of disrepair that one encounters if one wanders at all!
During the drive home, the weather was almost tropical so warm and wet was it, and Joanne and I drove home listening to one of my favorite groups, Pentangle, on the CD player, singing tunes of magic, murder, drowning and betrayal… one of my all time favorites songs by them is Cruel Sister, which includes all four! It is also one of my favorite versions of any of the Child Ballads, and was one of my absolute favorite songs during my high school years. Yes, I listened to the Child Ballads in high school, as well as the Clash and Ramones, so sue me!
And today, other than burying Tri, I spent the day with Marti… and reading. For on this Day of the Dead, communication with the dead is supposed to be easier… but for me, there is no easier way to commune with someone long gone than to read their words. Reading is the dead speaking to you, and you agreeing to listen. And I can think of few better ways to honor the dead, than to listen to them. So today, I “listened” at great length to Lord Dunsany, and he told me many tales of wondrous and far off places, and also several tales of a cautionary nature.
So all in all, a very good couple of very magical, if nostalgic days, hanging with the living, and the dead.