Halloween Cheer-Up

 Who's Ready for some Halloween pics? Despite my friend's sad situation (he lost his job a few days ago. No drama involved; they simply closed his whole department. Maybe I'll elaborate on that some other time) that wasn't going to stop us from roaming around to ironically get some scary pictures to try and cheer us up.

Google-eyes in those two upstairs windows are enough to make this whole house cute. Already cheered-up a little bit.

It was still a little early but already trick-or-treaters out workin' on getting some of that candy. 

Michael Bolton? That's what my brain did when I saw this sign. Along with the bit from Office Space where they argued "why not just go by "Mike"? Why should I be Mike?..." It was election season and the ads were all still up.

Trying not to think about the probability of moving away, my friend was a little more "appreciative" of this small town's Halloween Spirit. There's a lot of giant gothic houses decorated, and the local police block off the street, and it's an American dreamland for the night.

A lot of the houses have set-ups near the fence. Why make the kids walk all the way to the porch?

Giant DIY-construction Ghostbusters Echo 1 car? Yeah that's the type of thing that goes on around here.

Massive crowds of people walking around! I tried to get more than a few of these, so you could zoom in and check out costumes and stuff.

I probably could have taken a picture of each house, too. Some of them had themes and some were just random Halloween stuff.

Look at the bucket of candy! So much candy to give away! It's for the kids... no way is this Little Pony asking for any candy.

The simple window panels are very effective. It's nice of them to not make you walk under that clown. They could have made you do that, and that would have been awkward.

Another yard full of stuff. If they have so much stuff in the yard, you think they have better candy that the other houses?

Nightmare Before Christmas themed house. You have to take a moment to step back beyond the decorations and see that the houses themselves are pretty cool all on their own.

Are those from Monty Pyton's Quest for The Holy Grail? "Just a flesh wound!" that scene?

I tried to get a picture of Rey and Other-Jedi-Guy who had a baby dressed as Grogu, but they were quickly trying to get in the candy line there. Check out Luigi and Wario already in line.

This rescue EMT truck did not seem like it was part of any decoration or show. There's a ton of people here, so it's probably just plain smart to have something like this ready to go for any reason. Later I think they were giving kids a look inside the truck.

The local police department was handing out glow bracelets and necklaces. So many police! But, like... in a good way.

Another crowded-street picture. I probably could have withheld a few of these, but there might be something of interest in here, so if you have the time, zoom in and check.

There's some kind of monument in the middle of the street. Pretty sure I took like, this exact same picture, before.

A lot of the houses had big stereo systems rocking Halloween tunes, but a few porches had live bands. Here's some empty instruments for now.

Dino riders bopping along the street. 

This one house had the volume turned waaaayyyy up on the stereo system. So loud! But there was a big crowd there, so... good job on the music?

The "main event" house is the one with real gargoyles on the roof. That blow-up dragon is for Halloween, but that other gargoyle is there year-round. The guy was blasting rocking tunes and karaoke-singing to them. This house had the biggest crowd by a wide margin.

Finally reached the other end of the street they had blocked off. In the dark, the lights are so blinding! You almost can't see anything at all in that direction until you pass by the lights.

Ketchup and mustard! It was hard resisting the urge to get pictures of like, everybody's costumes.

Some costumes are must-have-pictures-of. That Charlie Brown Ghost sheet with the tons of holes in it is sooooo funny! I mean... awesome. Good grief.

Since I was walking around, I thought I'd get a pic of the town sign. I've taken this picture before.

The fire station is right next to that sign. I didn't go over there to peek inside although it looked like they would have been okay with that tonight.

MANDO! That costume was amazing. Like it was really him! You can see those other people on the edges of this picture happy that we were so happy to sneak this picture. It's Halloween people! We're all having fun!

Another pic of the big house. The crowd around it is insane! It's just a stage with a couple people dancing around like maniacs, but their energy is so intense!

I mean, look at this crowd! Zoom in and see how far down the street it goes!

An actual Day of the Dead display with relative photos and everything! This is known as an Ofrenda, and while the night was generally cheering my friend up, this was an unexpected hit in "the feels" for him. I mean, these shrines are supposed to honor and remember those no longer with us, and the loss of a job is not the exact same thing, but... emotions, right? He was able to recover quicker than expected, I guess because it was a sweet bit of serious-ness among the other silly Halloween decorations, if that makes any sense.

Colonel Sanders walking around with little Ronald McDonald! Two of our favorite places! And just like that, we're back to cheering up.

That previously-empty porch was rocking out! Part of me wanted to Halloween-prank them by shouting "PLAY FREEBIRD!" which, if you didn't know, is kind of a heckle, since Freebird is a notoriously difficult song to pull off with like, a 10-minute guitar solo.

I had to get another picture of the Madalorian with Grogu. Just in case that first picture didn't come out good enough. There were lots of people stopping him to get pictures with.

I tried to get a picture of this kids' glowing jellyfish costume. Some of the costumes were very cool and clever even without any kind of character to base it off of.

Hmmmmmm...... I guess that's just a ghost hanging from the top of it's head.... Somehow it seemed inappropriate still, but I guess it's alright.

Caught somebody wearing the David S. Pumpkins jacket! Any questions?!

That's a pretty sign. You think they could have spent that effort on some candy instead? I'm trying to be funny, of course. Pretty sure this house was handing out candy earlier and they probably ran out.

Barney alone was not good enough to get a picture of, but there was literally dozens of kids screaming excitedly about it! OMG BARNEY!!! AHHHHH! IT'S BAAARRRNNEEYYYY!!!! BARNEY!!! So of course I gotta get a picture, now!

Another crowd picture to zoom in on, but I don't think I can see many costumes. Eh... I'll post it anyway.

Anybody remember Chicken Boo from Animaniacs? That's not a trick or treater, that's a giant chicken! What did you say about them?! I'm saying they're a giant chicken! You take that back! Haha that's the Chicken Boo bit.

Lawn Gnomes! Awesome.

Minecraft decorations around this house.

This didn't look like a Halloween thing, but I had to get a picture of this cool bird sculpture in this yard.

Is it raining? Looking at those lights, you can see it, but it really didn't feel like it was raining... yet.

This is a blurry picture, but that guy in the grey suit looked a lot like Pee Wee Herman, and once I saw the white platform shoes, I was certain it was! That's the source of my friend's go-to karaoke song; Tequila. Although, he's not done it in a long time.

It was starting to rain a little more, but not too much. On the way back to the car we spotted this approprite tombstone in a yard: R.I.P. Last Year's Trick or Treaters. I mean, it's kinda funny and also kinda.... yikes.

Next to where we parked, that google-eyes house again, but in the darkness we see the porch had teeth in it that we didn't notice before. Our teeth were smiling for most of the night, so overall it was a great idea to come out and join in on the fun.