Two Months in Essex

Last Wednesday was the two-month anniversary of our moving day. 

We've done a lot of things in those two months.

• We bought new furniture: kitchen table and chairs, living room couch and chairs, bedside tables, Sleep Number bed. 
• We found a primary care physician and other doctors. 
• I got my Maryland driver's license and registration, including a Maryland Safety Inspection.
• We got a new TV and cellphones when old ones broke.

We did that even with a five day break to return to Connecticut and five days for Jeff in the hospital when I did virtually nothing.

Of course, there's a lot more to do. I am trying my best not to get overwhelmed. I need to focus and stick to my plans.

I underestimated  how long it would take me to acclimate myself to a new area. I'm still using GPS to get around, but less often. I've been frustrated with the various grocery stores. It's been hard to find things/brands I like. It's getting easier; having kandykakes readily available helps. 

We were here at Halloween and the neighborhood is into decorating. Even a part of the trail/boardwalk was decorated. Unfortunately, Jeff was in the hospital, so we weren't up for celebrating. 

Christmas decorations are pretty big too. I did our Christmas decorating on Sunday. It's pretty sparse. We decided not to buy a tree this year. In January, we trashed our old shedding artificial tree and don't want to deal with getting a new one. Hey, we need furniture. But if there are good post-Christmas sales, we'll keep our options open. 

Looking ahead to ringing in the New Year in our new home.

Sporadic Posting, Hospital Visits, and Halloween

I certainly don't intend to post sporadically. What's the point of having a blog if I only post three times this month?

Sometimes I'm too busy, sometimes too tired, sometimes too distracted. 

Two days after my last post, Jeff was hospitalized for five nights. It started with intense pain; then there were complications. I really don't want to go into the details. What's important is that Jeff's feeling much better now and has a home PT appointment tomorrow. 

I was lucky to have friends like Annette and George. They met me at the emergency room, picked up Jace, and then invited me to stay with them. I thought it would only be for one night, but I stayed for two more. It was nice not to be alone. I just vegged and watched TV. 

Apparently Halloween is a big holiday here. I didn't participate except Jace and I continued to walk the trails. Part of the trail was decorated with ghosts, witches, bats, and more. 

I caught two of my favorite horror/Halloween movies. The first: Black Sunday. I watched it without any distractions. It is genuinely eerie and atmospheric. I also watched Kiss of the Vampire. This is not as scary as Black Sunday, and the vampires were whiny brats, but it has some good parts. 

We're settling back into what passes for normal now: slowly getting furniture and learning more about our new town.

Halloween Movie Catchup

We don't decorate or dress up for Halloween, and we don't get any trick or treaters. But we do watch scary movies. We caught Horror Of Dracula at least three times, plus another Hammer Dracula movie. I watched The Wolf Man Halloween night. 

These other films, we recorded and saved.

The Uninvited--while on holiday, a brother and sister find a beautiful, abandoned cliffside house and impulsively buy it. The only catch: it's haunted. One room is deadly cold; the pets won't go upstairs. TCM described this as the first film to treat ghosts seriously. Ray Milland and Ruth Hussey (I remember her from The Philadelphia Story) star with Donald Crisp. It's a good film with strong performances especially from Gail Russell and Cornelia Otis Skinner. 

The Conqueror Worm--this is a confusing title; it was chosen for US audiences. The original title, Witchfinder General, makes sense. Vincent Price plays Matthew Hopkings the traveling witchfinder who tortures and executes witches for a fee and sexual favors during the British Civil War. After he targets a priest and his beautiful niece, a Roundhead solder engaged to the niece seeks revenge. The revenge subplot takes over the film. In the final scenes the soldier is watching his fiancee being tortured. The soldier's friends rescue them and kill Hopkins. As the fiancee screams, the solder ignores her to complain that he didn't get to kill Hopkins himself. Way to make it about himself.

House of Usher--A man visits his fiancee in a crumbling mansion and wants to take her away from her creepy brother Roderick Usher (Vincent Price.)  The film has good production values and is suitably gruesome--Roderick buries his sister alive--but I just didn't get into it. 

The Blackening--I heard some college professors on NPR discussing horror movies. One mentioned this movie and it happened to be on TV that night. A group of eight college friends rent a house to celebrate Juneteenth. The film was funnier than it was scary. I liked the joke that none of them admitted to watching Friends but knew all the black guest stars.

House of the Seven Gables--this is more of a gothic romance with a hint of the supernatural than a horror movie. Jaffrey Pynchon (George Sanders) secures the murder conviction of his brother Clifford (Vincent Price) while Clifford's fiance Hepzibah (Margaret Lindsay) waits for his release. I teared up when the lovers were reunited and appreciated the happy ending. According to TCM, Margaret Lindsay considered this her best performance. I have to agree: she was fantastic.

Happy Halloween

I took Jace for a walk around the block tonight. I didn't see a single trick-or-treater. One house on Fairview was playing light, somewhat scary music. I saw an outline of Michael Myers--with a knife in his hand from a second story window in a second house. Back on Prospect,  I saw some people gatherer around a meager bonfire. A woman was standing on the sidewalk drinking a White Claw seltzer. A door or two down, three women were standing in a driveway--one was holding a scythe. 

This is my favorite of the neighborhood Halloween lawn decorations. I've posted another photo before. I still get a kick of it. 

I've been disappointed in the Halloween movie selection this year. I'm sure I just missed some on other days. We watched a stupid devil movie this afternoon and gave up on a weird vampire movie over the weekend. I'm a fan of the classic 1930s horror films, though I also like the Hammer films. 

Happy Halloween

It was a quiet Halloween for us--no parties, no trick or treaters. Jeff got tickets for A Haunting at Mill Hill for the late show last night. But I didn't want to walk around a muddy cemetery in the rain. Sigh.

At least we watched two Dracula movies (both Hammer films) today. I also have six other scary movies recorded. Lately, we've been watching baseball. The season will end tonight with an Atlanta Braves win. 

Moving on, we'll end Daylight Saving Time next weekend and transition to the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. 

Time hurries on. 

A Hollow Halloween

Like most things this year, Halloween is different. Our friend Jenn lamented that this is the first time in 25 years, she and her husband John haven't had a party. With Norwalk in the red zone, normal trick and treating is discouraged. 

We haven't had trick or treaters in years. Jenn and John normally get about 400. Jenn is rigging a contraption to distribute treats without contact. I wonder how it will go. She estimated they would get 100 trick or treaters. But that was before we hit the red zone.

For the past few years, we've gone to A Haunting at Mill Hill; it's a fundraiser for the Norwalk Historical Society. This year it was done as a movie. It was a good movie, but not as effective as wondering the Mill Hill cemetery at night and having the actors perform in front of you.

We've been watching lots of horror movies this month--many courtesy of TCM. Some are classics such as  Dracula, Mark of the Vampire, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Diabolique, and William Castle's The House on Haunted Hill.

We saw two Hammer films: Horror of Dracula--good and The Satanic Rites of Dracula--boring--not enough vampires but Joanna Lumley appeared (Patsy from Absolutely Fabulous.)

Other films include 13 Ghosts, Friday the 13th, Halloween H20, Eye of the Devil, and Night of Dark Shadows

Some are so bad, they're almost good: The Killer Shrews with collies appearing as shrews and From Hell It Came in which a martyred tribal leader is reborn as a walking tree trunk.

Two more films of note. We watched The Beast Must Die based on a recommendation from Screen Rant. It had a good set-up: a man invites eight people to a secluded island to discover which one is a werewolf. The first half of the film was so horribly dubbed, it was hard to pay attention. 

Indestructible Man is another TCM selection.The Brute (Lon Chaney Junior) is executed, but a scientist reanimates his body and he's out for revenge. Max Showalter plays a police lieutenant who questions a burlesque dancer. At the end of the film, he proposes by telling her he got her fired. He figured she'd be too busy being his wife. How romantic.

I've also recorded The Wicker Man, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Haunting, and Haxan to watch later.

Happy movie Halloween. 

September is Here

Besides the calendar, I can tell  it's September by seeing pumpkin flavored latte commercials. I've also started seeing Halloween candy, etc. in the stores last week. 

I love September. It's a new beginning of the school year, the start of autumn, Jeff's and my anniversary, and Jeff's birthday, among other family celebrations. September is especially welcome after two months of hot and humid weather, although we're not done with that quite yet. 

In a moment of hyperbolic melodrama, I could say that Covid-19 has stolen my spring and summer. It's true that I've missed out on many things, but they pale compared to what others have suffered. That's why I bitch about what I missed in my private journal. Technically, we still have three weeks in summer, though I don't think that I can make up for summer things missed in that time. 

Let's look to the future. In two weeks I'm starting another writing class with the instructor I've been working with for two years. I'm also starting an in-person collage and mixed media workshop, socially distant of course. I've also signed up for an online seminar about women's suffrage. I'm psyched for all of these things. 

Jeff and I are deciding how to celebrate our anniversary. We're not ready to go away anywhere, though we've been invited to visit Melissa and Karl in North Carolina. We're afraid of what would happen when we come home. We thought about going to Interlaken Inn, but we're not happy with their lack of packages and dining options. So. we'll stay close at home, as we've been doing since the beginning of the year. 

September is here, and we'll make sure we enjoy it. 

Happy Halloween

We went to a Halloween Party  two weeks ago, we went to hauntings last weekend, and we get no trick-or-treaters. So, what do we do on Halloween? Watch scary movies, of course.

We started on Sunday afternoon, watching some vampire movies. Today I watched House on Haunted Hill, a William Castle classic.

Now it's Black Sunday, a gothic cult classic directed by Mario Bava with Barbara Steele in a dual role as a witch and her descendant. Now this is a good horror movie--atmospheric with good performances and no gore or torture.

Happy Halloween.

Autumn Saturday with Haunted Happenings

We hadn't heard of Cherry Lane Park until we saw it on a map on the Wilton loop of The Norwalk River Valley Trail (NRVT.) Last week after we walked the NRVT, we drove by Cherry Lane Park.

This past Saturday afternoon, Jeff, Lola, and I headed to the park (here's the trail map on page two.) We started on the orange trail, but got off on the blue-white trail which was too short. Then we found the orange trail again and continued our hike.

I call it a hike because it wasn't a smooth path like the NRVT. We had to navigate tree roots and acorns, and go up and down hills. I'm serious about the acorns: there were so many in places that it was dicey walking downhill.

We hiked for an hour. It was a beautiful autumn day, and Lola loved exploring all the new scents.

***

We've gone to the Haunting on Mill Hill for the last three years. This year Jeff told me about Haunted Victorian Ghost Stories at Lockwood-Mathews mansion. I asked which one he wanted to do. In typical Jeff fashion, he said "Why not both?"

Lockwood-Mathews: Haunted Victorian Ghost Stories

This was our first haunting of the evening. We walked around the first floor of the darkened mansion.  Early in the tour, a volunteer was reading a story and the tour guide screamed in my face: I was standing next to her. I'm proud to say I didn't react at all.

The ghost stories were good, but they suffered because the volunteers were reading them--and holding flashlights to see their scripts. That took me out of the moment. I liked that volunteers were hiding in the shadows. I recognized one guy among the mannequins before he started talking. Some were lying on the floors calling out, and there was a good use of piano to punctuate some of the stories.

The stories also suffered by attempts to include descriptions of odd things that happened at the mansion itself. These weren't particularly scary such as there was a sound of footsteps upstairs, but no one was there.

Overall, I thought the event was a bit too hokey.

A Haunting at Mill Hill 

I wouldn't have been as critical of the Lockwood-Mathews event if I hadn't been to A Haunting at Mill Hill. This was our fourth Haunting.

At Mill Hill, actors perform the stories--and they do it with relish. We started inside hearing one story, then we split into two groups and walked through the cemetery to learn about other deaths. This year including a funny story about two socialite sisters who died together. I also learned something: the term lobsterback for British soldiers.

Forensic Clean Up

That's a first for this blog. Actually I'm talking about a fake forensic clean up.

About a month ago, I dressed as an ax murderer for a House of Horror themed Halloween party. I wore a jumpsuit, wig, blue tinted make-up and fake blood.

This was my first time using fake blood: I got both a spray and a thicker, congealed liquid. I used more of the spray and just dabbed some of the congealed gel on my face. The congealed blood worked best on Jeff's zombie scar. I enjoyed using the spray; some friends thought maybe I enjoyed it to much.

I wasn't sure if I were going to wear the costume again on Halloween, so I held on my "bloody" jumpsuit for a while. I finally cleaned it today. I sprayed it with some multi-use cleaner but don't think I even needed it. I turned the shower nozzle to a concentrated pulse and that seemed to do the trick.

Somehow I don't think real blood is that easy to clean.

Happy Halloween

We saw this Halloween decoration of a dog stealing a skull on a neighborhood walk. I love it.

Four years ago my mother was in the hospital on Halloween; I visited her dressed as Carmen Miranda. She was in the hospital again today (released this afternoon,) I didn't think my criminally insane ax murderer costume was a good choice for visiting. I just visited as myself.

***

Jeff and I celebrated a double-header Halloween celebration a week-and-a-half ago.

First up: A Haunting at Mill Hill. This is our third haunting. We heard six tales of deaths of Norwalkers' deaths including deaths by explosions, a flu pandemic, and World War I. We wore our costumes to the Haunting because we were headed to a party directly afterward. We were the only costumed guests. One of the dead even complimented me on my outfit. After apple cider and snacks, we entered the haunted maze--not as scary as last year's but fun.

Next: our friends' party--this year's theme was House of Horror. My first idea was to carry a bloody ax. When I got the ax, an illustration showed a wide-eyed, wild-haired man in a prison jump suit. I had a yellow jump suit that I'd previously used as an UFO Inspector costume and a red and black "seductive temptress" wig that was more scary than tempting: some fake blood and I was done. Jeff wore grey makeup and a zombie scar with a hoodie: he looked scary.

As usual, a good party.

Halloween Happenings

After Jeff got home from work tonight, we stopped by Jenn and John's in our Halloween costumes. Most of their block was decorated, and the streets were filled with trick-or-treaters. It was awesome. It reminded me of a day that I thought was long gone: a day of trick-or-treating. OK, these trick-or-treaters went around their neighborhood with their parents; we were allowed to go by ourselves.

We spent about an hour with Jenn and John--had heaven and hell themed jello shots--their treats for the parents--handed out candy, and visited. It was fun and a big difference from our place--we haven't had trick-or-treaters in years.

On Saturday the 21st, we went to our second Haunting at Mill Hill. Like last year, we heard tales of six Norwalkers and their deaths. This year added a haunted maze. Fun.

Jenn and John had their annual Halloween party on the 14th. The theme was heaven and hell.  I wore a costume that I really liked: St. Roch the patron saint of dogs. I word a brown robe that Jeff had used for a previous costume. I bought a tonsure wig, a curtain tie as a rope, and Jeff bought me a large cross. I carried a stuffed beagle to complete my costume. Jeff went as Thor. We saw lots of angels and devils, another monk or two, even Jesus. The couple next door had the best costumes: stairway to heaven and the road to hell. Both consisted of sandwich boards (for lack of a better word.) One depicted a highway--wired with lights. The road to hell was decorated with small cars. Great from the couple who previously  used "poster boards "for devil dogs and angel food cakes.

Happy Halloween

We haven't had trick-or-treaters in years, went to a Halloween party two weeks ago, attended a  haunting last weekend. In some ways it feels as if Halloween is already over.

But at least there are still scary TV shows and movies to watch, including a Dark Shadows marathon. I watched a few episodes yesterday around the Cubs-Indians game and recorded a few more.

A Halloween surprise for me: I saw Snoopy walking down Prospect Avenue. I assume the woman was visiting someone in the hospital. (When my mother was there two years ago, I visited her dressed as Carmen Miranda.) The woman was carrying a pocketbook and had her Snoopy head perched on the top of her head.

Quite the sight.

Thanks TCM

I love classic horror movies: recent movies are too gory, too torture-y for me. I searched Netflix, Amazon, Crackle and pay-per-view lists; I only found  one film that interested me: the sub-titled version of The Vampire's Coffin, a sequel to The Vampire. I first saw these films on a late night chiller theater type show out of Philadelphia, probably on Channel 48. 

The Vampire is the better film of the two, though I haven't seen it in awhile. The Vampire's Coffin has a good scene with the Count stalking a young woman, shot mostly in shadows. I also liked the setting of the museum of torture devices--of course someone meets s a gruesome death there.

Last night TCM set things right with a a roster of classic horror.

We recorded several films, watched Boris Karloff in The Mummy last night and Bela Lugosi as Dracula today. Six more to go.

A Haunting at Mill Hill

Last night Jeff and I went to the 9 PM tour by the Norwalk Historical Society. It's something we've thought about for the past few years. Either the dates didn't work for us or we forget to register (d'oh.)

We started in the main building at Mill Hill, which was decorated in spider webs and skulls, and heard the story of "The Miser of Bald Hill" a Wilton visitor. Then we headed outside, toured the grounds, walked among the headstones and heard true stories of six Norwalkers' deaths.

The stories were interesting and the actors were superb; there was no weak performance.

My only disappointment was that there were no stories related to the people buried at Mill Hill. Perhaps they didn't have interesting or eerie deaths. Maybe they were been included in earlier hauntings.

Thanks Jeff for getting the tickets.

Another Early Halloween Celebration

Jenn and John's Halloween party was this past Saturday. The theme was alien landing, and they decorated their yard with a UFO and aliens.

We had a tough time deciding on costumes. I considered the stomach bursting alien, Star Trek and Star War characters. Jeff thought of the Coneheads. 

Jeff suggested we get hazmat suits and go as people inspecting the alien spacecraft. I loved that idea. We got yellow hazmat suits, bought a pair of zombie arms, leeches and blood tattoos. Our idea was that radiation from the spaceship caused the skin of our arms to melt away and created lesions on our faces. 

Apparently the leech package was old; the adhesive and fake blood had hardened. Luckily I already had the idea to use some of my cucumber peel off mask to make decaying skin. I had to cut some of the leeches because the mask wasn't strong enough to hold them. We used red and yellow food coloring to add to the cucumber mask. I also added some clear mask to my face to simulate sheaths of skin falling off my face. Someone said it looked like snot, and another was grossed out, so I guess it was successful. Jeff used green food coloring on his arm.

We saw a friend with the stomach bursting alien, a couple of Coneheads and a Star Trek character. We also saw other aliens (mostly glamorous), Men in Black and non-alien themed costumes. As always a fun time. 

. 

A Halloween Party

Last night was our friends' annual Halloween party. You'd think after seven years, I'd remember that even though it's a Halloween party, it's usually held two weeks before Halloween. I need to figure out my costume earlier.

Many previous parties had themes such as angels and devils, dead celebrities, and Mardi Gras. This year's was theme-less. I had two ideas: Melisandre from Game of Thrones and Magenta from Rocky Horror. I was thinking of Magenta because we're going to see Rocky Horror next Saturday. Jeff was thinking of going as Riff Raff.

I had bought a wig for a party a few years ago, but got sick and didn't make it. I wanted to wear that wig as well as red opera gloves, red tights and a "Devil's" necklace with a large red stone I had previously purchased.

When I dragged the Halloween stuff from the bin, I realized that my wig was red and black--not red as I remembered. I didn't have the right clothes to finish Melisandre. The wig was all wrong for Magenta. I'd have to get a new wig and maid's uniform. Yes I could wear both again next week, but it just seemed too much. I'm not exactly rolling in money; Halloween costumes aren't a high priority for me. They aren't usually well-made, and we don't have a lot of storage space.

Finally I decided it was silly for me to stress over a fun night with friends. I would just be a vampire. I could wear the wig, gloves, etc. and a cape we already had. Jeff wasn't sure what to wear, so we went to three costume places yesterday and got a few accessories: bat earrings and a black skirt for me.

I was a vampire in red and black. Jeff was a huntsman--wearing on old costume because it was warm. The temps dipped down into the thirties last night.

A voodoo king and queen hosted the invisible man, Batman, a devil, a Blue Moon beer, a couple of cats and others. The house was decorated inside and out with cobwebs, spiders, snakes, a crawling zombie and skulls. A neighbor contributed some home brewed beer; another offered road kill stew.

As usual, it was a fun party.

Harpo and Carmen

Our friends Jenn and John have a Halloween party every year. This year it was last Saturday--the 18th. They also have a theme: past themes were angels and devils, Mardi Gras, superheroes and once upon a halloween eve. This year the theme was dead celebrities.

Jeff came up with the idea of Harpo Marx a few weeks ago. He bought a wig, hat and horn and looked pretty good. I was going to go as Groucho. I couldn't find a tuxedo jacket with tails locally. I was also worried whether I could get the eyebrows and hair correct.

I considered some other options--Pharaoh Hatshepset, Boudica, Bela Lugosi. Then I saw a Carmen Miranda hat. That was it. I wore my own clothes--a blue and green flowered skirt with a green, long-sleeved blouse (not exactly right but part of the party would be outside and I didn't want to freeze) lots of necklaces and beads. Unfortunately, some people thought I was the Chiquita banana. Oh well.

Other celebrities were Liz Taylor and Richard Burton, Toulouse Lautrec, Jimi Hendrix, Andy Warhol, John Lennon and two Charlie Chaplins.  Good fun.

Netflix Movie Night: The Kiss of the Vampire

When we were reviewing Netflix for Halloween movies, I added the Hammer film, Kiss of the Vampire to our queue. I used to go to the Saturday matinees every week and often saw horror movies; this was one of those movies. I've seen it since then, but not in many years.

The movie holds up for the most part. It is mysterious and atmospheric, with a haunting score. The sets are stunning--from the spooky woods to the almost-deserted Grand Hotel--to the eerie but beautiful castle. The opening cemetery scene is memorable, as well as the masked ball.

But, there are a few buts. Why was Gerald so oblivious to the creepiness of the Ravnas? Why did the Ravnas try to convince Gerald that he didn't have a wife? How could they pull that off? Why didn't they convert him at the same time as they converted Marianne? Why were the vampires so whiny?

Still, I was glad to see the film again.

Happy Halloween!

I saw this painting on the window of The Silver Ribbon as part of Westport's Halloween Window Painting Contest. As a beagle fan, I especially appreciate it.

We don't get trick-or-treaters, but Jeff got candy just in case. He carved a pumpkin, put a tea light in it, and placed it in the window.  The reflection is eerie; it reminds me of the original version of Halloween. We also lit our eyeball candle.

We mostly celebrate Halloween by watching scary movies. We started one night last week. We checked out Netflix instant films, and started with Dead Snow. I'm not a big fan of zombies, but figured Nazi zombies could be interesting. Unfortunately, the film was sub-titled and we weren't up to that. Our next selection was Legion of the Dead about Egyptian tombs and mummies and the like. But this Egyptian tomb was in California--pretty hokey.

Next we watched an oldie but goodie, Black Sunday. We laughed a bit about the two doctors visiting the family tombs, accidentally knocking over the cross, breaking the window over the witch's coffin, removing the witch's death mask and dripping blood onto her face. Whoops, my bad. The movie remains atmospheric and intriguing.

Tonight we watched a newer film, Insidious. It creeped me out at first, but I got into it. We just finished The Awakening--an atmospheric ghost story. Bonus: it stars Issac Hempstead Wright--Bran from Game of Thrones.

Extra bonus points: Vincent Price on TCM.