Halloween Die-ary: September 18, 2018

Oh man, the rainstorms today. I guess the far-out effects of Hurricane Florence finally reached us here in the northeast. I felt like my commute was more submarine than Civic. By the time I left work, the sun had come out again, although dodging flooded spots in the roads made the commute home interesting.

Turning into my neighborhood, I saw a fat groundhog amble across the cul-de-sac and into the overgrown yard of the abandoned house. Which reminded me, we have an abandoned house in our neighborhood. It was a big selling point for me moving here, honestly. I’m firmly of the belief that every neighborhood needs one of those, especially this time of year.

It’s one of those homes that got foreclosed on a few years back, then mummified in red tape to the point that it all but disappeared from the historical record in the shifting sands of bureaucracy. A lost soul of a house. On top of that, over the two years that I’ve lived here, I’ve seen it go from generally fine to the beginning stages of dilapidation. I’m giving it two or three more years before the house looks like the neighborhood haunted house I hope it to be. Until then, my black domicile set back from the road and against the woods at the end of the street is still the spookiest house on the block.

My house at night from halfway to the street.
It'll look totally different once we decorate the exterior.

 
My big accomplishment today was buying tickets to The House with a Clock in Its Walls on IMAX for the family. I was always planning to watch the movie (especially since I discovered the book it was based on a few Halloween Seasons back when I visited the author’s Massachusetts grave), but I wasn’t planning on IMAX-ing it until I learned that they’re playing the 3D version of Thriller before the movie for the first week it’s in IMAX. Gonna be a good Saturday.

Lindsey and I still haven’t gotten into a good rhythm of winding down with horror movies this season, despite our décor being complete. Not sure why, but we’ll get there. I’m also trying to figure out a horror movie series for us to watch together from beginning to end since I haven’t done that in many, many years and she’s never done it. I’m waffling between Psycho, Elm Street, and Phantasm.

I did watch a horror movie tonight, but it was by myself and I dozed off and on through it on the couch. It was Ouija: Origin of Evil. I didn’t see the first one, but I knew Mike Flanagan directed the sequel so wanted to check it out. It seemed fine. Probably minor and unnecessary, but fine. I kept waking to the sight of a tiny girl with a demon’s face that seemed pretty effective.

I finished the night cutting an OTIS video on a Vermont site we visited last weekend, so keep your bowl of grapes peeled for that at some point in the next week or so.