Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Something Wicked This Way Comes



Borrowed from 1983's Something Wicked This Way Comes.  I love this movie.


By the pricking of my thumbs,

Something wicked this way comes.

It's Halloween and I haven't posted in a few months, so what the hell.  What can I say - I've been busy.  But, as many of you know, I've been lurking about on various blogs.    Anyway, this was the first thing I thought of for a Halloween posting in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.  The worst thing is that Springsteen did a song called 4th of July, Asbury Park, but it is colloquially known as Sandy - and being that this is the Land-o-Springsteen, that's all I hear on the local radio.  

 Sandy, the fireworks are hailin' over Little Eden tonight Forcin' a light into all those stony faces left stranded on this warm July
Down in the town, the Circuit's full of switchblade lovers, so fast, so shiny, so sharp
As the wizards play down on Pinball Way on the boardwalk way past dark
And the boys from the casino dance with their shirts open like Latin lovers on the shore
Chasin' all them silly New York virgins by the score

And Sandy, the aurora is rising behind us
This pier lights our carnival life forever
Oh, love me tonight, for I may never see you again
Hey, Sandy girl
My, my, baby

It does conjure a nice visual.  Although Bruce was singing about Asbury Park in the northern shore area, this could apply to all of the boardwalks along the New Jersey coast.  And they are all a long way away from ever being like that again.  The Atlantic City and Ocean City boardwalks got smoked.  Hundreds of yards of boardwalk just ripped to shreds with massive flooding and erosion on Long Beach Island.  The Mrs., The Pudge and I were fortunate enough to visit the Ocean City boardwalk in early October (for the annual Fall Block Party).  A nice memory, but I'm not really looking forward to seeing it again after what I saw on the news.  It'll take years to rebuild.

And old Buzz and stately Buzzkill Manor (with the newly completed north wing) fared very well.  No trees came crashing down to kill us in our sleep.  No large branches speared through the roof to impale us.  No hoards of storm-ravaged psychopaths came busting down the doors to steal our food.  No shivering in our cold, dark hovel for weeks...waiting for the National Guard to rescue us.  Hell, we lost power for less than a minute.  In other words, all of the things The Mrs.  tortured The Pudge and me about - didn't happen.
  The worst thing was that she insisted we all sleep in the basement on Monday night where I woke up with a major league back ache from the friggin' couch.  She's calmed down now - sort of.  We only got about 3" of rain officially, but it sure seemed like more.  The Pudge won't be going back to school until Thursday because parts of our town are still without power and there are a lot of trees down across roadways and traffic lights still out (as of Wednesday morning).

 Halloween has been officially moved to Friday.  This works out well for The Pudge because he will be able to go Trick-or-Treating with his buddies and still participate in the local haunted house, which was moved to Saturday.  They had the haunted house this past Friday and Saturday when the weather was near perfect and the turnout was huge.  For reasons I don't want to go in to, the haunted house was moved to our local swim club this year.  And I have to tell you, this was the best one ever.  I'll post some pictures if I can get them from The Pudge.

Friday is also The Smashing Pumpkin's concert in Camden.  The Mrs., The Pudge and I will brave the elements (it's an outdoor venue) to go see one of The Pudge's favorite bands.  I just hope The Mrs. doesn't bitch about the cold (temps will be in the 40s) the whole time.

Happy Halloween to all!!!