I understand it is supposed to be a really good weekend, weather-wise, this upcoming weekend. And my wife and I will be traveling to Iowa. Kind of a "mini-vacation." I will spend Saturday doin' the "guest/professional" thang at I-Con, a comic book show put on by the Iowa Comic Book Club. It should be fun.
And it is ironic that the first weekend in November is to be mild as all the weekends in October sucked to a degree. Some more than others as it was downright cold, and killed business at the park for a greater part of that month. The last weekend came and went, and this post is to chronicle some of the shenanigans.
I'll guess I'll start at the Wood 'n' Leather shop. Jessica Duncan, the shop lead and my assistant manager's wife, did a really good job there this season. And she always comes up with some good stuff. Here's a Halloween decoration she designed...
We did one last caricature contest. There were a lot of good ones started, and I even started one too, but only three were finished. As it turned out, Marietta's "Marilyn" won...
...and Ryan's came in second...
I finished my hairbrained idea of putting "moons" in a "Twilight" type rice jewelry necklace. They really do glow in the dark, but I still chuckle at them being nothing more than mini-Sculpy boogers. This is the "werewolf essence" necklace with Jacob's name, and the moon, in a clear vial modeled by Maren...
...and I took some snapshots of the kids. I was out all day there figuring if they had to tough out the cold then so would I. They were a great bunch this season and I had a good time. I caught Maren when she saw I had my camera, and did the "don't take my picture" dodge to no avail...
...and that picture had her rather wild-eyed, so it just seemed natural to do some photoshopping for Halloween...
...just goes to show what an idiot with Photoshop can do.
I tried to think I was going down swinging instead of coasting. I cut another "celeb" stencil for the Airbrush shop. Thought it turned out well...
...and I'll see if anyone out there can name all the celeb designs in this one...
And I finally cracked, giving in to the hype and the movie. Sold some of these too. I cut the stencil, but one of my artists, Stacie, did the painting. It turned out really well, getting a compliment from "da boss lady," Barb. She's quite an airbrush jockey, so it was a great kudo. Anyhoo, here it is...
I figured if I was going to do one of those, I'd rather do one in commemoration of when Jackson was at his height of cool.
Sunday, we were going to come up with some sort of "end of the season" prank. I heard the security guards were going to toss the leftover pumpkins off the top of the Mamba. Don't think they did, but it would've been awesome to watch. At 7:30pm on that Sunday, though, we all tired and everyone just wanted to go home. I can't blame them. It was a grueling season. Here's some of the "last ones left standing"...
They weren't, by any means, the only ones. There were others who would've stayed, such as Taryn and Kim, if it had been busier. But it wasn't, and I needed to cut some payroll. A familiar drill everywhere nowadays. I shared an "end of season" cigar with one of my leads, Jessica Bloom, and my assistant manager, Jacob Duncan. I took one last picture. And while there will be those offended by the "vulgar gesture," it was given more out of a defiant sense of fun reflecting my own sense of warm, warped humor...
I wish I could say that I influenced some young lives, hopefully making them better and happier people. In truth, I got more from each of the employees I worked with than they ever got from me. Knowing them has made my life better. Richer.
And while I'm relieved and happy this most trying of seasons is finally over, there is also a sense of sadness that a wonderful time for me has come to an end. It can't be reclaimed or relived, only remembered. Maybe this quote sums it all up better...
"Don't let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot"...
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