Typing a little weird here. Last night I got tangled in a table in the dark and fell on the sidewalk. I think I hit my hand on our fountain on the way down. After laying on the ground for a while taking inventory (landed on both knees- ouch!) I got up and looked at my hand. My little finger was swollen in a weird way and reeeeally didn't look right. I flexed it and found I could bend it so I decided to carry on. I was on my way to pick up Paige from a party. My hand hurt a bit but I figured I was ok to drive and I'd ice it when I got home.
When I was a little more than halfway there (and it wasn't far) a WAVE of lightheadedness swept over me. Delayed reaction, I guess. I debated whether or not I should pull over but it was late and there wasn't much traffic and I figured I could easily pull over if I felt like I was going to pass out. Besides, I wanted to get to Paige because I knew she could help me. So I started talking loudly to myself saying, "Hold it together! Hold it together!" Then when I turned down the last street I was chanting, "Paige will help you. Paige will help you." I pulled into the driveway and she was right there waiting. I rolled down the window and told her to go inside and call jim, that I thought I had broken my hand. She ran inside and came back out followed by the parents of Paige's friend. They were very sweet and stayed with me and gave me water and ice for my hand.
Hoo lordy, I was messed up! I didn't want to get out of the car because I was afraid I would just keel over. Just before Jim and Lindsay showed up I started to feel better. I moved to the passenger side and Jim and I took off for the hospital. After much walking around but not much waiting I left there with a hand brace and some Vicodin. The doc didn't seen anything on the xray except my fabulously intact bones so we were good to go. My hand is bruised and it's hard to use it but this morning it feels better.
SO! I can decorate for Halloween today! Jim is out doing the kid run and getting some Starbucks right now. When he gets back we'll spring into action. I think it's going to be a good one. Several musicians are going to be there so I think we'll have an excellent Bone Band going.
See you later!
BOO!
5 comments:
Oh, man, Doni - I fell down earlier this year - it really messes you up to fall as an adult!
And, ow, ow, ow! is right!
Mary
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Your friend's finger did sustain trauma, dang!
Heh, heh! Good one.
Well! Once again we are home after Halloween more tired than we'll be all the rest of this year. It was a good one. I was stressed because we were way behind but everything ended up looking fabulous.
We spent most of the day building a, um, gypsy tent? We got some steel (like HEAVY DUTY) supports that Jim found in the junk yard that I guess were made for some kind of portable wall system. We used four of them for posts. We already had an awning frame that we used for the roof. It took a long time to drill holes in the steel so we could connect the whole thing together with 2X4s. Then we carted the pieces and all our other crap over to Kevin and Mary's.
I was reeeeally stressed because we usually get started decorating around 10 in the morning. Today we didn't get going until about 3. Assembling the structure took up a lot of that time. Jim did some running around getting hardware while I started in on setting up the displays that didn't have anything to do with the tent. Even if we hadn't done the tent the yard would have looked pretty.
But the tent really made the display. Once the structure was erected Mary and I covered it with a big purple sheet for the roof and our huge piece of light orange fabric that I painted with black Halloween figures a few years ago. I put the big Morticia chair inside along with a table and shelves for the witchy potions and props and a table and chair for fortune telling. I hung the spooky chandelier from the awning frame so it was just above the table. The whole thing looked really good. I wanted to go over the top with the props but I just didn't have time. I have skulls and shrunken heads and bones and rats and body parts that I wanted to hang from the frame. I have bottles of potions and icky things in jars and cool lanterns, all KINDS of neato props that didn't make it into the display. Oh well.
When the first group of kids showed up they all wanted their fortune told. I barely had time to get into my costume and frizz out my hair and no time at all for any make-up. Some of the kids enjoyed the fortune telling but a lot of them said, "That's IT?" when I was done so after a while I just gave them the candy with some goofy banter.
One of the houses down the street had their whole back yard decorated. It was pretty cool. We noticed that this year there were a lot more houses in the neighborhood that had big, wonderful displays. I love it!
Lindsa, Paige and Rory showed up a little later. This was Rory's first real Halloween, the first time he's ever carved a pumpkin. He wore Jim's dark blue jumpsuit with knee pads and a skin tight gas mask that really made him look pretty scary. When people came up he made grunting noises at them which scared a lot of teenage girls and was also very funny. Jim started calling him Grunty. One extreeeemly cute, very little girl in a fairy costume went right up to him and held up her trick-or-treat bag like hey bub, give me some candy. It was precious. Rory had a good time.
They all carved some great looking pumpkins. We brought them home so we can enjoy them for the next few days.
Poor Kevin was feeling poorly tonight so he stayed inside most of the evening. Kevin and Mary's friends came by for a party and stayed in the house the whole time while we stayed outside. It's been that way every time we've done Halloween at their house. It's ok but it just seems kind of odd to me. We do the decorating and trick-or-treat thing outside and they stay inside and eat and watch tv. Kevin and Mary usually float between us and them and generally have a good time. I felt bad for Kevin this time.
Lindsay and Paige were sooo helpful today. Thank you, girls. Ken and Sherri came by for a while. I think they had a good time. Later, Stacey showed up with Dad and B. Brendan sure does love the Halloween stuff. Next year I want to have a party and have him help me with the decorating. I think he'd really enjoy it. Stacey and B. left and Dad stayed with us. He got a little tired and Paige wanted to leave so Jim took them home. But Dad had a really good time.
We thought we were going to have a bone band this year but it just didn't materialize. The whole evening didn't go as planned but it turned out great so I'm happy. And my hand didn't bother me at all today and that's saying something. I hoisted heavy metal all day with no pain. But oh, my back, my feet. Ouchies. But hey, I've got Vicodin!
Tomorrow we're going back to pack it all up and bring it home. Kevin is going to get us some grinders for lunch.
But now, the Vicodin is kicking in. Goodnight.
We missed the fabulous evening with you. We had no kids visit our house, our street was pretty well deserted by trick-er treators.
Liam had friends over to party and trick or treat so we hung out with them.
Glad the fall is in the past, I hate falling. It's weird how it's so scary as an adult, as a kid it was nothing...remember?
xizdv = The sound Gumby makes when he zooms his way around
Dang! I posted a comment to reply to Dean and it never showed up. Hmmm.... anyway..
I was talking about falling with Kevin yesterday and we were saying the same thing. Falling down as an adult is UPSETTING. And in maybe ten years or so falling down could mean a broken hip. Ok, that's it, new rule! No more falling!
Next year we're going to do our set up in Kevin's back yard. That way, we can start on it a few days ahead of time and do all those things I never have time to do. Like a giant spider web. I love doing those. We can also do some repairs on some of the older special effects. Yes, this will be much better.
So that means you HAVE to come by next year. Besides, it looks like the whole neighborhood is catching on. There were some awesome displays this year.
The packup and carry home phase went nice and easy; Doni's dad came with us and helped, and Kevin bought us all a nice sandwich lunch from Delia's grinders.
I don't know if we'll be able to afford it next year or not, but I'd like to have another Halloween decoration contest, and play it up a little bit bigger than we did last year (we didn't do that this year) to help boost halloween in the Merrrillish neighborhood.
Doni didn't mention that she tripped and fell down again at the end of Halloween night (it was dark by the van). No damage, but two falls in two days!
To do the backyard properly, we need a haunted driveway, maybe as a tunnel, or an elongated graveyard, with signs indicating it's okay to walk back there, and probably something to help alleviate the fears of the little kids. Some are bold (Trick or treat, trick or treat, TRICK OR TREAT!), and some are afraid to walk down the driveway even to the house.
Maybe light it well, and make it only slightly spooky (ah, at last a use for "cute" halloweenisms), and maybe have some alternative path for those that don't need to get that scared.
For years I've wanted to make some sort of variant of the witch's castle sign from Wizard of Oz; we could use that to point to the path on back, perhaps...
We'd better get hoppin'! (well, we'll see about hoppin' in, say, May '06) ;->
jyqqqu - a rare polynesian bird. Four syllables.
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