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10.31.2012 Happy Halloween<br /> <br /> Halloween is my second favorite time of the year. For Halloween night I enjoy making my house look spooky. Halloween is all about witches, ghosts, and goblins. No fairy princesses or super heroes for me. This is fright night: the time for scary costumes, creepy music, and terrifying decorations. Because haunted houses are supposed to look run down and dilapidated, it makes no sense to me to spend a lot of money. Most of my decorations are home made, and the stuff I've bought has been accumulated over the years usually at deep discounts (anywhere from 50% to 90% off) at post-Halloween sales.<br /> <br /> If you didn't guess by now, that is me in costume above. I wear the same costume every year. Why mess with success? It is at the same time one of the simplest and also one of the scariest costumes you will ever see. One year I won a prize for scariest costume at a friend's Halloween party. Little kids routinely avoid me, and teenagers either compliment me (mostly boys) or say it creeps them out. But what I like best about the costume is I can put it on or take it off in 30 seconds or less. No messy face paint. No long preparation or complicated straps or ties. I put on the gown and zip it up, pull the mask over my head, slip on the gloves and voila! I'm the Grim Reaper coming to claim his next victim!<br /> <br /> I added the small graveyard a couple of years ago. My "stones" are made of Styrofoam that came in packing boxes used to ship stuff.I dirtied them up with some ready mix patching cement that I had lying around the house. Most were already in rectangular form, but a couple I trimmed to have rounded tops. I straightened out some coat hangers and pushed the wire through the Styrofoam with about 4"-6" sticking out the bottom. I push the wire into the ground and that holds the stone in place. <br /> <br /> Every year we carve a pumpkin of course. I have one of those little pumpkin carving kits, and they are fine for detailed work, but for removing the top and carving basic triangular eyes, nothing beats a Sawzall.<br /> <br /> Unfortunately this year we have no power thanks to Hurricane Sandy, so I won't have such an elaborate display.<br /> <br /> Happy Halloween everyone, and safe trick or treating!<br /> <br /> <a href="http://sannerud.com/house/halloween.html">http://sannerud.com/house/halloween.html</a>
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10.31.2012 Happy Halloween

Halloween is my second favorite time of the year. For Halloween night I enjoy making my house look spooky. Halloween is all about witches, ghosts, and goblins. No fairy princesses or super heroes for me. This is fright night: the time for scary costumes, creepy music, and terrifying decorations. Because haunted houses are supposed to look run down and dilapidated, it makes no sense to me to spend a lot of money. Most of my decorations are home made, and the stuff I've bought has been accumulated over the years usually at deep discounts (anywhere from 50% to 90% off) at post-Halloween sales.

If you didn't guess by now, that is me in costume above. I wear the same costume every year. Why mess with success? It is at the same time one of the simplest and also one of the scariest costumes you will ever see. One year I won a prize for scariest costume at a friend's Halloween party. Little kids routinely avoid me, and teenagers either compliment me (mostly boys) or say it creeps them out. But what I like best about the costume is I can put it on or take it off in 30 seconds or less. No messy face paint. No long preparation or complicated straps or ties. I put on the gown and zip it up, pull the mask over my head, slip on the gloves and voila! I'm the Grim Reaper coming to claim his next victim!

I added the small graveyard a couple of years ago. My "stones" are made of Styrofoam that came in packing boxes used to ship stuff.I dirtied them up with some ready mix patching cement that I had lying around the house. Most were already in rectangular form, but a couple I trimmed to have rounded tops. I straightened out some coat hangers and pushed the wire through the Styrofoam with about 4"-6" sticking out the bottom. I push the wire into the ground and that holds the stone in place.

Every year we carve a pumpkin of course. I have one of those little pumpkin carving kits, and they are fine for detailed work, but for removing the top and carving basic triangular eyes, nothing beats a Sawzall.

Unfortunately this year we have no power thanks to Hurricane Sandy, so I won't have such an elaborate display.

Happy Halloween everyone, and safe trick or treating!

http://sannerud.com/house/halloween.html

halloween2007962

  • 10.31.2012 Happy Halloween<br /> <br /> Halloween is my second favorite time of the year. For Halloween night I enjoy making my house look spooky. Halloween is all about witches, ghosts, and goblins. No fairy princesses or super heroes for me. This is fright night: the time for scary costumes, creepy music, and terrifying decorations. Because haunted houses are supposed to look run down and dilapidated, it makes no sense to me to spend a lot of money. Most of my decorations are home made, and the stuff I've bought has been accumulated over the years usually at deep discounts (anywhere from 50% to 90% off) at post-Halloween sales.<br /> <br /> If you didn't guess by now, that is me in costume above. I wear the same costume every year. Why mess with success? It is at the same time one of the simplest and also one of the scariest costumes you will ever see. One year I won a prize for scariest costume at a friend's Halloween party. Little kids routinely avoid me, and teenagers either compliment me (mostly boys) or say it creeps them out. But what I like best about the costume is I can put it on or take it off in 30 seconds or less. No messy face paint. No long preparation or complicated straps or ties. I put on the gown and zip it up, pull the mask over my head, slip on the gloves and voila! I'm the Grim Reaper coming to claim his next victim!<br /> <br /> I added the small graveyard a couple of years ago. My "stones" are made of Styrofoam that came in packing boxes used to ship stuff.I dirtied them up with some ready mix patching cement that I had lying around the house. Most were already in rectangular form, but a couple I trimmed to have rounded tops. I straightened out some coat hangers and pushed the wire through the Styrofoam with about 4"-6" sticking out the bottom. I push the wire into the ground and that holds the stone in place. <br /> <br /> Every year we carve a pumpkin of course. I have one of those little pumpkin carving kits, and they are fine for detailed work, but for removing the top and carving basic triangular eyes, nothing beats a Sawzall.<br /> <br /> Unfortunately this year we have no power thanks to Hurricane Sandy, so I won't have such an elaborate display.<br /> <br /> Happy Halloween everyone, and safe trick or treating!<br /> <br /> <a href="http://sannerud.com/house/halloween.html">http://sannerud.com/house/halloween.html</a>
  • I came out of work at the end of the day to find my bike covered in icicles. It turns out that snow on the roof above had melted and dripped down and then refroze. My right brake and shifter were frozen solid and unusable. However, I was able to ride home, slowly and carefully. Once I got home I brought the bike into the house to thaw out.
  • Does anyone remember the 1970's? Ronnie Montrose, hard rock guitarist, died yesterday of prostate cancer at the age of 64. I still own his first two albums on vinyl. Ironically, Montrose may be most famous as a footnote in rock and roll history: he gave Sammy Hagar his start in rock and roll. Sammy later joined Van Halen after David Lee Roth left the band. RIP Ronnie. Rock the Nation.
  • I have a solar filter on my telescope and I was all ready to observe the Transit of Venus, but unfortunately the weather here in southern NY state (USA) did not cooperate. The sun was almost totally obscured by clouds. As luck would have it, it wasn't a total washout. A little hole in the clouds opened up briefly, and we were actually able to see Venus for about two minutes. I quickly called my neighbor and a passerby over for a peek through the telescope, and we all enjoyed the view before the hole closed for good.<br /> <br /> My kids were not impressed with the Transit of Venus. I think they expected it to look like a solar eclipse, when in reality it looked like a tiny round black dot on the sun. We tried looking at it through #14 welders glass but without magnification, I could not see Venus at all. But my eyes are not the greatest to begin with. Even my son with the eagle eyes couldn't really see it, but through the scope it was readily apparent.<br /> <br /> This picture is a composite of two shots, my first time using the HDR automation in Photoshop. The sky was much more overcast than it appears in this shot. You can see the blue holes that opened up. Clouds were moving towards the camera, and we never saw the sun again after this. Oh well, hopefully we will have better weather in 2117 for the next Transit of Venus!
  • We are having our house painted. This is one job I'll gladly pay to have someone else do. I don't like being up on a 40-foot ladder!
  • My son graduated from high school today. He will be attending Brown University in the fall. We're very proud of him. Congratulations to the White Plains High School Class of 2012, a very talented group of young men and women. Best wishes for the future.
  • June 22, 2012. Thunderstorms arrived with heavy rain and lightning. I was trying to get a lightning photo when I looked up and saw this patch of blue sky surrounded by black clouds. It was only later that I saw the face in the clouds on the left. This is unprocessed, right out of the camera.
  • June 23, 2012 It looks like the city is planning to replace the telephone pole in front of my house.
  • 6.24.2012. My kids loved this playset when they were younger. There was never any grass around it and the dirt was trampled down by lots of little feet. But now that they are in high school -- and one soon to be in college -- the playset has sat unused and is slowly being reclaimed by the lawn.
  • July 1, 2012 We spent the day at Mystic Seaport for the small boat show yesterday. After leaving the seaport, we visited Mystic, CT for dinner and then took a walk around town. This is the drawbridge over the Mystic River. A ship had just passed through and there was quite a backlog of cars waiting to cross. The bridge is very low over the water and I think they have to raise it for anything bigger than a kayak or rowboat.<br /> <br /> This is a composite of three images that I created using Photoshop HDR. I normally don't like HDR because you lose all the shadows, but I'm happy with the way this one turned out. I guess I'll have to play with it some more.
  • 10.28.2012 Bees on pink flowers. We have these huge pink flowers in front of our house. I have no idea what they are, but they attract bees like crazy. There are only two bees here, but I've seen 5-10 at a time on one flower.

  • Jan Tore - foto

    on January 5, 2013

    Nice and scary!

  • johnchapmanphotographer

    on December 11, 2012

    Hi, Scary!!!!!

  • Gene Hyder

    on December 4, 2012

    Outstanding.

  • Hershy

    on November 20, 2012

    very well exposed SP!

  • janmadsenphotography

    on November 15, 2012

    Cool work

  • dalystock

    on November 1, 2012

    i am not sure i would come for candy...:)

  • L Perry Fuqua (perryfuquaphotos)

    on November 1, 2012

    great costume, you wear it well...and the self-portrait was done well

  • PAULBELLINGERSR

    on November 1, 2012

    Cool Jim!

  • Donna McCommon

    on October 31, 2012

    Great decorations!

  • fotoeffects

    on October 31, 2012

    Great shot and costume!

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