Life decided to give me a big ol' kick in the pants, so articles may be spotty. But I figured a low-effort micro wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility, so here we go. I also want to test the RSS builder and see if it shows up on a few aggregator sites. Kill two birds and all that.

In the same vein of pant-kicking, I've found the need to do low-cost things to get in the spirit. And by low-cost, I mean free if possible. So what better way to avoid paying for a fancy light show than to go to someone's house who puts the commercial outlets to shame?

There's no shortage of festive homeowners who go all out on their property and invite the public to drop by for a casual show. Backyard haunts are all the rage for Halloween, so a backyard stroll works just as well.

Starting with the Clark Griswold home, the path throughout the yard winds its way amidst a giant locomotive and about a thousand vintage (and contemporary) blow mould displays. There's everything from the religious offerings to the entire Disney catalogue, past and present.

A bonus is the graveyard in the middle, which just happens to be part of the property, not some spooky Halloween/Christmas mashup. Based on the slate stones, I guesstimate they're from the early 19th century. Because I'm something of a cemetery snob, you see…

I also went to a sincere Christmas flea market full of crafts created by the elderly. There were only two tables full of 3D-printed dragons, so I call that a win. I did pick up something, but maybe I'll reveal that in a later article. I need to fix my Python script so it uploads the images associated with this post.