My son texted me Saturday afternoon with photos from his latest adventure. You might recognize the house, which is quite infamous.
Why yes, that is the real-life Amityville Horror house on Ocean Avenue in Long Island. It’s just a quick 33-minute train ride from Rusty’s place in Queens. I don’t know if I’ve ever been so jealous of my own offspring before, but that is way cool! Even if the Lutzes made up all the paranormal stuff, Ronald DeFeo Jr. still killed all six members of his family there 50 years ago this month. I believe negative energy like that imprints itself on a place. The house is creepy AF even if there was never actually green slime seeping from the walls or demonic flying pigs with glowing red eyes.
Rusty, btw, has been living in New York City for the past couple of years. After spending his whole life in the PNW, he decided on a whim to move clear across the country in 2022. I love that he did this!
Hmm…big cross-country move, weekend explorations…whaddaya know, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree!
Rusty timing his trip to coincide with Halloween weekend was perfect. As if that isn’t enough, my friend Jess is visiting Romania, where she attended a Halloween party at Dracula’s castle, and another buddy by the name of Mark Petruska (world domination, remember?) spent the night at the Stanley Hotel in Colorado, Stephen King’s inspiration for The Shining, this weekend.
I feel kinda lame for doing nothing more than raking leaves and watching Snoopy this year, so I am living vicariously through all three.
When Rusty texted, Tara and I were on our way to Mukwonago, a village about 45 minutes away. We wanted to hit up the Elegant Farmer (home of the famous paper bag apple pie) and grab lunch at Badger Burger, just for something to do on a Saturday. I’d spent several hours John Deere-ing the remaining leaves in our yard to death and was ready for a treat.
My Bloody Mary did not disappoint.
It’s been a long time since I’ve had one so dressed up. For the record, it came with a strip of bacon, a skewer of sausage and cheese, one shrimp, mushrooms, olives, and a pickle spear. Believe it or not, this was the least fancy bloody on their menu; other versions came with mini sliders, boneless chicken wings, and skewers of jumbo shrimp. I almost didn’t need the burger and fries, ha (but the burger was phenomenal).
This being Wisconsin, when you order a Bloody Mary, you always get a beer chaser. I’ve been drinking these things a long time and had never heard of that before. It seemed strange to me, and I’m not a beer fan anyway, so initially I’d skip the chaser. But then Tara reasoned that it’s included in the price, and she likes beer, so at the least I could give it to her. Excellent point!
But then a funny thing happened. I tried the beer chaser and, what do you know, I actually really liked it. Somehow, the combination works. So much for Tara getting a free beer out of the deal.
The chasers vary in size. This one at Badger Burger was manageable, and what I expect a chaser to look like, but a couple of times, they’ve been full-on pints.
Sometimes, Wisconsin feels like a completely different planet.
A little while ago, a woman rang our doorbell. She was wearing a Kamala t-shirt, so I graciously opened the door. She stood there, in the rain, and wanted to make sure Tara was voting on Tuesday (I voted via absentee ballot weeks ago). My wife assured her she will be at the polls that day, come hell or high water.
Which, given all the rain in this week’s forecast (hallelujah!), might just be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Mark My Words 
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