We are hurtling towards Halloween and, unfortunately, I am concentrating on everything but my favorite holiday. It’s been one of those weeks where once one thing shits the bed, then everything around it catches a whiff and says “Hey, that looks like a fun time!”

I currently have a pair of plumbers working on my outdoor spigots. The one up front is very rusted but still works. They have been here for a couple of hours and cannot figure out how to access it from inside the house. Apparently there is a maze of crawl space (crawl spaces?) below the house. We knew that there were different access points, but have not actually been down there.

Why? Because, ugh, why would we? And to be totally honest, there’s no way my fat ass is going to fit through one of those access points.

From what they have been saying, it looks like they won’t be able to replace the front yard spigot, but will be able to get to the one in the back of the house which we had previously written off after getting an astronomical quote on it. That one is really more of a convenience as there is a second spigot back there so water access isn’t a problem. In fact, the one in the front isn’t really necessary either as it does work.

Sigh.

Added to this is the fact that our hot tub is acting up. It is showing the same signal that we had on the display before — a sensor issue. It’s an easy fix if you know what you are doing, which I do not. Someone will be coming out to look at that next week.

I spent about an hour on a chat to try and get the home internet working better. Eventually I lost the signal with the support person. By that time I was too hangry to try again so that’s still on the list of things which I need to finish.

Oh, and did I mention that I had also scheduled an oil change for next Thursday and a chimney sweep to come out next Friday?

Ah, the joys of home ownership.

Listening To: I have about an hour and a half left on Monika Kim’s The Eyes Are The Best Part. It was a bit of a slow starter, but it’s really burning along right now. I went in with a healthy dose of trepidation as I have a real issue with eye trauma, but I’ve been handling it OK.

Currently Reading: How to manuals for all of the appliances, just in case.

Current Obsession: I needed something lighter than my usual fair, odd for this time of year, so I found Castle streaming and started an on again off again rewatch.

The big news for the week is that Frank Oreto’s short story collection is now available! Check this post to see where.

If you are interested in reviewing It’s Dark in Here, click this link to be taken to the NetGalley listing.

Normally Halloween represents the time of year when our con season is starting to slow down. Not this year! We’ve just added two new shows to our 2025 line-up.

On 7 November we will be at the Ypsilanti Freighthouse for the Creative Feature Artisan Market. The show will be filled with various cryptid based material. We will have our Hidden Menagerie anthologies front and center.

Two days after that we will be heading to the next town over for the A2 Community Bookfest.

And the following weekend (15 Nov) we will be at another new show, The Book Fair for Grown Ups at the Sloan Museum of Discovery.

Of course, you don’t have to wait until next month to grab some great horror fiction. This Saturday (18 Oct), we will be in Flint for the Spooktastic Haunted Book Fair. DRP authors Peggy Christie and Ken MacGregor will also be attending at their own tables.

Last weekend The Mrs and I took a rare trip to the movie theater together (she goes out to the show even less than I do). I had been looking forward to seeing the movie Good Boy, but was approaching it with more than a little reservation. I had already checked to see if the dog died, because there was no fucking way I was going to see it if that was the case. Still, a dog being in danger the whole time could be more than a little triggering.

In the end, the idea of seeing a movie told from the dog’s POV was just too intriguing. We set out to our local theater, a first for The Mrs. Yep, three years and she hadn’t been to the local movie theater yet. She was super impressed with the VIP seats and their zero-g tilting thing.

The Good: Indy, the star of the film, is amazing. Even after watching the post credits explanation of how they were able to obtain the different shots (I would love to see a feature length feature about this three year production), his performance was still pretty amazing. It was also interesting to see a movie with so little focus on the facial features of the characters. It is a bold choice that pays off, for the most part. The story, which deals heavily with coming to grips with grief and impending loss, was well done.

The Bad: The character of Todd (Shane Jensen), is a bad dog owner. I know that he is supposed to be going through a lot, but even before his not going to mention to keep this spoiler-free thing happens, he’s still an asshole. EVERYONE knows that the first thing you do when you get up in the morning is that you let the dog out. Who lets their dog run freely where there are FOX TRAPS? And there is a scene towards the end that was very heart wrenching, but a little too real for me. To the point where I almost walked out.

The Conclusion: Good Boy is an interesting film, especially from a story-telling POV. It is worth seeing from that angle alone. The story does drag a bit in the middle and there are scenes that a dog lover will have a difficult time with (you can kill the kids but you better not hurt the dog). A good flick, but not one that you need to rush out and see in the theater. You can wait for this one to come to the free streaming service of your choice.

Note: The plumbers got both of the spigots working. Yay!

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