Halloween Night 2009

Written by Dave Sunday, 01 November 2009 13:24

The Soggy Pirates of North Court

I had set everything up by Friday afternoon and had intended to get the lighting worked out and left out for the big night. Little did I know that mother nature had other plans. The forecast was for rain Saturday evening (sometime between 5:00pm and 9:00pm).

Everything was going as planned, the props were out and tested with the lighting set up. This was when I should have taken my evening photos but I didn't. For whatever reason, I was just looking at my display and watching how everything worked. The lighting was OK, the 2 motorized props were working nicely and there was no wind or rain.

At 10:00pm I was satisfied that the display was set, the lighting was fine and I put everything to bed for the evening. Then the phone rang at 11:45pm, I wasn't awake enough to know it was the phone I was hearing. I got up and listened to the message ... "Hi, just wanted you to know that it was raining so you might want to bring in some of your things".

OK, now the weatherman said NOTHING about rain on the 11:00pm news, it wasn't supposed to rain until Saturday evening. I rushed outside and brought in my motorized props, a few of the cardboard things and covered up the lights. It wasn't a hard rain, but it was rain and it was starting to get things wet.

I worried most of the night so there was very little sleep. When I got up at 6:00am on Halloween morning, it was still raining. It never stopped until around 4:00pm, long enough for me to make some emergency repairs. I made a few quick repairs and then the rained started again. Trick-or-Treating is from 6:00pm to 8:00pm so I was really wanting it to clear up for those 2 hours.

At 5:30pm I set out the rest of the props but not everything. The ground was so wet and soggy that it wasn't worth risking. At 6:00pm the kids started coming and it was looking to be a nice evening. It didn't last long, by 6:20pm it was raining again. On and off it would rain until it starting pouring at 7:00pm. After a few more minutes it was decided to shut down and bring things into the garage.

I had bought some nice little glow braclets and they were even better than the candy! Of course we gave out candy, but EVERYONE wanted those glow braclets. I bought 300 of them so when we dried off, I counted about 110 were gone. So for that 1 hour of time we had about 110 TOTers stop by and visit. Not bad considering the weather.

The one thing that was surprising was how many people thanked us for the display. This is the third year and one group stops by just to see what's new. They never want treats, just stop by and say how nice everything looks.

Things I learned:

• Cardboard is now out, so it will be replaced with PVC
• Setup earlier so it can be tweeked
• I need better lighting but not too bright
• Remember to take pictures when you have a chance

So, for Halloween 2009, it was a bad night. We did the best we could but this was the worst year of the display. Now it's time to take a much needed break for a few months and then it's back to prop building.

To see the only pictures I have, check out: Halloween Setup 2009.