A ghost in the window

Haunted

 

Hold on, man.  We don’t go anywhere with “scary,” “spooky,” “haunted,” or “forbidden” in the title.

~ From Scooby-Doo

The bats have left the belfry

I am not a fan of haunted houses or spooky mazes.  Like Shaggy (I’m assuming that’s Shaggy in the Scooby-Doo quote I found), I avoid “scary,” “spooky,” “haunted,” or “forbidden.”

Close encounters

When I was a young girl, around 7 or 8 years of age, my Aunt Margie took me to a haunted/scary attraction at the (Jersey) shore.  You walked through it.  There was a mirror maze where you could get lost, and people popping out at you, but what scared me so much that I froze and they had to shut the place down to get me out were the “snakes” that brushed your legs when you walked through one of the corridors.  I was already pretty terrified at that point, and even having the lights turned on so they could show me the rubber snakes didn’t make it suddenly fun and something I’d like to do again.

A ghost in the graveyard

The really odd thing is it was only a few years later that I got into watching horror films and reading horror stories and novels, the scarier the better.  I blame it on Edgar Allan Poe.  He grabbed me with “The Telltale Heart” (required reading in an English class in middle school), and I couldn’t get enough.  I still enjoy the occasional horror novel, but not as much as I used to, and horror films are almost out of the question for me now unless I watch them during the daylight hours.  Maybe the horror genre has lost its appeal because real life can be so much more frightening at times, in real ways.

How about you?  Do you like haunted houses?  How about the horror genre of films and books?

First frost

We had our first frost here at the Wabi-Sabi Ranch overnight.  Back in the Bogs (northeast Ohio), they had their first snowfall.  Apparently it was a heavy snow in some areas, causing downed tree branches and power outages.  Some folks, as is often the case in that area, didn’t have more than flurries.

Jack Frost’s touch

That’s all for today from the Wabi-Sabi Ranch.  Thank you for stopping by.  It is gorgeous here today.  Chilly, but sunny and clear.  Perfect hiking weather.  The sunsets have been lovely.  I’d forgotten how much earlier they occur here on the east coast and sometimes miss them.  Let’s head out to the dock in a little while and see what Mother Nature cooks up for tonight.

Red

Be good, be kind, be loving.  Just Be.  🙂  And have a great weekend!

Jack Frost nipping at the rose