Happy Winter Solstice

Happy First Day of Winter.

Wish it felt a little more wintery here....going to be in the 70's Christmas day here.

Snowmagedon 2015

Over the last 2 weeks we have been buried under snow. That is sorta odd for SW Virginia. The first storm was only 5 or so inches. The second, over 15. A few flurries after that dumped only 4. Then we got over 30 inches a week ago. The last one graciously dumped only 7 inches. My home town is mostly 1 way streets with 3 to 4 foot walls of snow on the back roads. There is over 2 feet of snow on my back porch roof and car port. When I go to work, the parking lot has several 10 foot piles of snow you have to navigate. Parts of my county have had no water or electricity for weeks. We have been declared in a state of emergency with the national guard called out to help stranded people and to remove the snow. The salt trucks with the blades have been mostly out of commision with several of them sliding off the road or just breaking down from having to push so much snow and ice. The national guard has been helping to clear snow from the main roads with bulldozers and dump trucks. WHAT A WINTER! I cannot wait for Spring to get here!!!!

Beware Old Man Winter on this Winter Solstice.

Today is the first day of winter believe it or not. I have been dealing with snow one and off since before Halloween. We are supposed to have a white Christmas in my neck of the woods, hope he takes it easy on us all. 

I hope everybody is having a great Holiday and staying warm! I am off to go eat WAY too many home made cookies!

March...in like a Lion, out like a....

Out like a zombie lion...because this winter refuses to die!

Driving out into the snow for another week of training...dodging white walkers along the way!

Cold and Creepy

This is a statue.....

The following is an article from Boston.com:

A realistic-looking statue of a man sleepwalking in his underwear near the center of Wellesley College has created a stir among the women on campus, especially as more than 100 students at the all-women’s college signed a petition asking administrators to remove it.


However, the statue of the sleepwalker -- which is hard to miss in a high-traffic area by both pedestrians and drivers near the campus center -- has caused outrage among some students in just one day after its Feb. 3 installation. Zoe Magid, a Wellesley College junior majoring in political science, started a petition on Change.org with other students asking college president H. Kim Bottomly to have the statue removed.The statue, called Sleepwalker, is part of an art exhibit featuring sculptor Tony Matelli at the college's Davis Museum. The exhibit, New Gravity, features sculptures that are often reversed, upended or atomized.


"[T]his highly lifelike sculpture has, within just a few hours of its outdoor installation, become a source of apprehension, fear, and triggering thoughts regarding sexual assault for many members of our campus community," says the petition. "While it may appear humorous, or thought-provoking to some, it has already become a source of undue stress for many Wellesley College students, the majority of whom live, study, and work in this space."
Davis Museum director Lisa Fischman wrote on Wellesley College's official website that the sculpture was meant to evoke response.
"We placed the Sleepwalker on the roadside just beyond the Davis to connect the exhibition -- within the museum -- to the campus world beyond," Fischman wrote, also posting it on Change.org as her response to the petition. "I love the idea of art escaping the museum and muddling the line between what we expect to be inside (art) and what we expect to be outside (life)."
Fischman noted that reactions on campus have been "varied," and even wrote that she has heard that some find the statue "troubling." However, she noted that the sculpture's whole intent was to start discussion.
"As the best art does, Tony Matelli’s work provokes dialogue, and discourse is at the core of education," she wrote.
However, Magid said over the phone Tuesday that Fischman's response failed to address students' concerns.
"We were really disappointed that she seemed to articulate that she was glad it was starting discussion, but didn’t respond to the fact that it's making students on campus feel unsafe, which is not appropriate," Magid said. "We really feel that if a piece of art makes students feel unsafe, that steps over a line."
At the college on Tuesday, many drivers could be seen slamming on their brakes as they approached or passed the statue, craning their necks for a second look. Many students were seen making a casual beeline for the new addition on campus -- some smiled and laughed as they got closer; others frowned and seemed apprehensive. All reached for their smartphones to take a photo.
"I honestly didn't even want to get too close to him," said Laura Mayron, a Wellesley College sophomore. "It honestly makes me a little uncomfortable with how real he looks. It's odd."
Bridget Schreiner, a Wellesley freshman, said Tuesday afternoon that she had already signed the Change.org petition that was posted late Monday night.
Schreiner said she felt “freaked out” the first time she saw the statue, thinking for a moment that a real, nearly naked person was lingering near the campus center.
“This could be a trigger for students who have experienced sexual assault,” she said.
Others said while the statue came as a surprise, they understood the artist’s intention.
“I find it disturbing, but in a good way,” said Sarah Wall-Randell, an English professor at Wellesley. “I think it’s meant to be off-putting – it’s a schlumpy guy in underpants in an all-women environment.”
Wellesley College senior Annie Wang, an art history major, said she acknowledged that the statue forced passers-by to contemplate the very nature of art.
However, she said she wished to see the statue moved out of such a public space.
“I think art’s intention is to confront, but not assault, and people can see this as assaulting,” Wang said. “Wellesley is a place where we’re supposed to feel safe. I think place and a context matters, and I don’t think this is the place to put it.”
Matelli is slated to appear on campus next week at a screening of 2001: A Space Odyssey, which is one of four films the college is showing this semester to complement his exhibit. Matelli is expected to speak after the screening on Feb. 12. The event begins at 6 p.m. at the Collins Cinema.
Tony Matelli: New Gravity will be on exhibit from Feb. 5 through May 11 in the Bronfman and Chandler galleries, and Feb. 5 through July 20 in the Jobson and Tanner galleries. The exhibition is free and open to the general public

It's the first day of winter....Mother Nature has lost her mind.

So the first day of winter rolls in with record high temps. 70 degrees!

What kind of world do we live in where Halloween is almost canceled due to snow and you can get a decent tan on Christmas eve? 

wicKED Blizzard!

This picture doesn't do justice to the mass snowfall we encountered in less than an hour. I was at work at about 12:30 pm when it started sleeting. I was helping an investment client for about 30 minutes when I got up to get some paper work and noticed we had over 4 inches of snow on the ground that fast! My employer did close early but unfortunately not early enough. My Mustang has two speeds in snow. Spin and slide. 

I got stuck on an exit ramp, had to help a teenage girl and an old couple dig their vehicles out (and in the process seriously upsetting an old injury in my hip). To make a long story short, it took me 5 and a half hours to get back to Ye Old Wicked Woods last night.  

Some places saw as much as 16 inches of snow. Over a foot fell in less than 2 hours. 

My shed full of wicKED things slumbers peacefully under a blanket of snow.

The snow mocks me in my back yard!

At least the sky is clearing and there is no more snow!

Gotta 3 day weekend coming up after working 6 day work weeks for over 7 weeks. Can't wait. Also the wicKED mother just went through a major surgery with flying colors and is coming home today! M is being dispatched to retrieve her as soon as she can get to her vehicle and dig it out (25 miles away on the side of the highway). 

Hope everybody out there is staying safe and warm! 

The best Halloween yet!

I will admit that things started heading out for the worst Halloween ever but it took a sharp turn at the corner of  Awesome and Cool and ended up completely different.

Here is the short list of obstacles we had to overcome to get to the Awesome Halloween position:

• It snowed....LOTS of snow. We only got an inch or two, but EVERYWHERE around us was covered in up to 14 inches or more!

This is the weather on Halloween. 

Surrounded on all sides by a foot or more of snow.

• After the snow, it rained constnatly. It was raining right up till 1:30pm on Halloween. I had exactly 3 hours to get what I could out. I had almost given up on putting out the animatronic stuff, but at the last minute I did. Still, I only managed to put out at 70% of what I had planned.

• Due to the rain, I had to re-run several electrical cords to keep them out of puddles and standing water. I was unable to put my fog machine in the manhole cover with the escaping skele because the water main was flooded to the lip, but M saved the day by getting a 6lbs chunk of dry ice that did a fantastic job! The rain has also caused damage to many props that I will have to sort out next year.

• It was cold! WICKED cold! 30 degrees and the windchill was even worse. We could not put on our zombie makeup because of this. It would have cracked and peeled and our noses ran like faucets when we stepped back in the house. I went with a skeletal, faceless wraith and M was a spider.

• We assumed that there would be no kids due to the weather, cold, and a thousand other curses. Boy was I wrong, We had record numbers. We actually ran out of candy! First time ever! Not sure if the publicity in the local paper, or the new facebook page, or maybe even the blog was the reason, but they came in droves!
• It started to sprinkle right around 8 but only slightly. Still, it greatly impacted my time to shoot video and take pictures. We also could not prepare the skull torches due to the constant damp and rainy conditions.

Like I said, there was some obstacles but we pulled it off and it was great. Hundreds of kids, parents running for their life or trying to run into the house to get away from me, and mom continued our age old Meade tradition of making soup beans and cornbread and helping to hand out treats.

We also had our favorite future Haunter come over. My Goddaughter Addison. 

I had also invested a ton of money into the new Fog Machine and a state of the art timer. It paid off big time and kept the yard nice and creepy without me touching it once!

What makes this the best Halloween ever is the fact that I asked M to marry me. I had it planned out diffidently in my mind and I had plan to do it dressed as a zombie, but I still pulled it off. After we had shut down for the night, I asked her if she would help me shoot a quick vlog about the haunt. She never skipped a beat and grabbed the camera to help me. I had her ring on a severed finger and she had no clue what was to come. Here is the video (warning it is cheesy and corny... you have been warned!):

I am off work today so I can try to put up my soggy and soaked outdoor decorations and start the long process of storing our beloved Halloween treasures for another year. I had a friend ask me how long it takes to make our house look "normal" again. I replied, "Well usually I start in early September and it stay normal until November 1st"

It will be a few days before I can post any good night shots or vids of the haunt. We have lots of cleaning up to do and I have to work Friday. I may not be able to post much in the next few days as I try to get a decent video compiled of the haunt. 

For those of you suffering from post Halloween blues... never fear!

Hope you all had a wicKED Halloween!