What's That Noise? Who's Following?

I hear it when I'm out walking the dog... often late at night. Scritch... scritch... sort of like a foot dragging on the ground. I imagine a stranger behind me... the sound stops when I stop... and then as I move forward again - Scritch, scritch.

My mind goes a little wild with the idea of the stranger behind me. What might he look like? Why is she following me? What weapons might he have with him? Scritch, scritch, scritch.

October must be coming. I could go the lighter way with the Halloween decorations. You know, pumpkins and fall themes. Or I could dress the house in giant spiders as I did one year.

I could put gravestones on the garden as I did some years ago. That ended up coming down before Halloween. My fertile imagination paired with the fact that my husband was traveling for two weeks meant that I was coming home at night to a very scary house. I mean - graveyards and ghosts go together, right? Somehow the home does not seem to be the place to host a ghost.

One year I built a Styrobot. I'm still working on making that move. There's so much I could do.

This year, I'm looking forward to the Queen Mary's Dark Harbor. There's a new maze that takes you into the heart of the ship where visitors are planned for dinner. Honestly, I'm always terrified when I go to the Dark Harbor. Afraid of the dark, yes I am... but there's this sense of terror followed by pure relief. Adrenaline rushing. Sometimes I give way to my fear and back out of doing the maze. Yes, even after I've started. Why do I do it? Why do you?

EEK!

The fun at the Queen Mary’s Dark Harbor starts September 28th. In addition to the many mazes in the event area, there'll be 4 onboard mazes, the newest being FEAST! The story is that during WWII :

"when the Queen Mary was in service as a troop transport ship, an enlisted military man serving in the ship’s kitchen quickly moved up the ranks to become a highly-decorated Chef. Unbeknownst to the soldiers traveling aboard, Chef had a dark side. Quietly he would sedate soldiers in the middle of the night to prepare them as ingredients for his latest dishes. Eventually caught, the Chef was thrown into one of his own ovens and cooked alive. Loyal to their leader Chef’s dutiful kitchen staff sacrificed their lives to become his evil henchmen, burning themselves in the same oven. The spirits of Chef and his evil crew went into hiding aboard the ship for many years. Now, these long-time stowaways have resurfaced to resume their deadly duties of collecting and preparing victims for Chef’s latest concoctions. "

Wait, is that for real?

Yum. I wonder what's on the menu for dinner?

Now I'm thinking I need to make shortbread finger cookies. You know, the kind that looks like fingers with red fingernails.

Of course, I'm looking forward to seeing my old ghostly friends again. The Captain and Graceful Gale, the Ringmaster. And yes, it'll be a scream!

Hey, I should mention that the scritch... scritch... turns out to be the plastic sleeve that covers my dog's bandaged foot. Not a stranger, but definitely limping. Scritch... Scritch... It's quite a relief and such an innocuous cause! It's going to be a long, long October!