all hallows eve

halloween is different here. growing up, i used to a little fanfare on the front lawn, similar to the image at right. a jack-o-lantern, maybe a ghost. the weird families might have a witches' cauldron on the porch.

here, the house at the right is the minority. these families are butchering bodies on the front lawn in the name of all hallows cheer, see below.



seriously, those are heads on stakes! maybe they hate trick or treaters so much that they've placed the embalmed, severed heads of last year's victims in the front yard to ward off any newcomers--richard the lionheart style.














because everyone needs a good graveyard at their stoop...and a weird einstein mask on their lion statue.















whoa there! giant spiders!?

if those things lay eggs...















a ghoul's ball! this one is pretty awesome, except that the ghosts look like little klan members 'dancing' in front of someone's house--yikes.














this one is actually not that amazing. but usually that orange thing is a giant pumpkin. it drives franny crazy. the skeleton coming out of the ground doesn't make her happy either. she stares at it pensively when we walk by.











this freak show is the masterpiece. i couldn't capture it all in one shot and even multiples don't do it justice. see the video below. yes, that is theme music you hear in the background. people live here.













do you think they call their house "haunted valley?" i hope so.

road rage

on sunday, we visited a church in webster grove, about 15 minutes away. the service itself was great and we enjoyed a nice lunch with the members afterward. as we left the neighborhood, we heard tires screech and i slammed the breaks as a ford escort with racing stripe flew down the street we were about to turn on.

we were in a pretty quiet neighborhood, without much of shoulder and no sidewalks, so it was kind of scary to see car go flying by right in front of us. my wife decided she should let the chump know how frustrated she by honking the horn. that's when everything became really fun.

naturally, psycho hit his breaks, flipped the escort around and started barreling towards us. not wanting to instigate a high speed chase, i had no choice but to sit, listen to the sound of squealing tires and a red lined engine and await my fate. when he got right in front of us, he, shirtless with bright orange hair, leaned out of his car and shouted, "if you wanna do something, do it!"

then, he raced off in the opposite direction. of course, we were all more than a little rattled and drove slowly home. we passed him once, at a gas station up the street. he eyed us suspiciously as we drove passed. i wonder if he even recognized us. i kept an eye in the rear view mirror the entire ride home, all sorts of disasters playing out in my head.

i've experienced crazy drivers before, but this opened up a entirely new chapter to me. welcome to st. louis!