This is Halloween

I can remember trying to scare the neighborhood trick-or-treaters in my younger years.  A Halloween mask, strobe light and some eerie music piped through the stereo in the living room is all it seemed to take. Looking back my attempt was pretty much a feeble amateur hour effort.  If you want to see how the pros going about putting a fright in their neighbors take a stroll through the eerie side of Halloween in Tracy.

 Spooky masks and strobe lights are so last decade when it comes to terrorizing the neighbors.  Grab yourself an armful of animated monsters, some friends who like to dress up in ghoulish outfits and a yard full of macabre decorations that even the next door neighbor’s cat thinks about twice before visiting.  Add a dash of computer controlled light and music effects and pinch of steel sculpture twisted enough to terrorize visitors and you can join the elite ranks of Tracy haunted houses ready to put the screams into the Halloween night.  For a story previewing some of the Halloween Eve haunts in Tracy I paid a visit to three homes preparing to get their fright on.  

The Fulkerson family and their Kings Canyon Court house of horrors is one of the long time haunts for Halloween in Tracy.   A macabre graveyard scene greets trick-or-treaters who then face a haunted house maze of dark corners inhabited by demonic clowns and monsters of movie fame. Their next door neighbors joined in with an singing pumpkin display with computer controlled light effects and music.

 If dark, narrow passages aren't your thing then maybe a stroll through Phil Walter’s zombie infested bone yard on Lincoln Boulevard is more to your taste.  Giant spiders, a demented scientist and other horrors wait beyond the gate.

 If you want to think big then a the view of Bill Kirk’s steel pumpkin man sculpture on 2oth Street is what your looking for.  His 14-foot tall animated pumpkin man skeleton tearing apart a human skeleton will draw more than a few curious stares come Halloween night.  A hand made hanging cage rounds out the torture theme for his Halloween display.

Yes it is a different world for Halloween today.  My futile attempt to scare the neighbors pales to today’s animated, computer controlled nightmares.  I’ll be content to sit at home alone this Halloween with a scary movie on the television.  I have had my fill of haunted houses for the year.

True colors

The days are growing shorter and the hot winds of summer are turning into a distant memory as fall settles over the valley.  The colors are deepening as the leaves turn their dark colors.  This is a great time to be a photographer.

Alice and I decided to check the trails of Mount Diablo for the colors of fall and see if we kind find a tarantula or two on their daily rounds.  We chose Black Point Trail which takes us to White Canyon.Our last trip there was in February when the mountain is deep in winter.  The colors and hues are different now as the the mountain readies for the long stretch of gray.   But we had one last view of the mountain's true colors, a rainbow palate as we head into the dark months.

For this hike we tackled the steepest section of the trail first, making our was slowly up the trail looking for a glimpse of a tarantula roaming about.  We never found one but  we enjoyed the fading colors in the trees and hillsides.  An occasional new flower would sprout, one last chance before the winds of winter arrive.

It was a great hike, so different from last weeks melonchloy colors and dark tones.  The vibrant colors and sunshine across the rugged trail were reminders why I like the mountain so much.  Even as the colors fade and the rains will eventually come the mountain will take on a new life awash with streams and waterfalls and we will visit the rugged trails again.