So we had visitors from various dimensions come to our house last night for Halloween.
I had this grand idea to plunk down some money for dry ice to add to the evening's vibe.
Only it turned into one big debacle.
You ever try to use dry ice?
Well in order to get the ice to "smoke" you need to put hot water on it and - depending upon the size of the chunk of dry ice ( was using pint glass size pieces)- you may get a good 5 minutes out of it.
So there I was running back and forth from the sink with hot water for my dry ice like every ten minutes or so. I felt like I was running food at an all-you-can-eat buffet. I stopped after about 45 minutes because you really take the thunder out of the scariness by popping out of your door with a pitcher full of hot water to pour on the ice; it surely doesn't set the mood.
It also occurred to me that I just might tap out the hot water and I really wanted to save that for my shower later in the evening. Not to mention, we're still pretty much in a drought here and pouring hot water on your dry ice seemed a bit gratuitous so I opted to end the whole thing pretty much before the trick or treaters arrived.
One neighbor joked that I'd be better off with a fog machine.
"You could get the band to pay for that right?" he said with a wry smile.
So I came to the conclusion that dry ice used as a spooky device (for longer than five minutes) is a useless propostion.
I also came to the conclusion that waiting for trick or treaters to come to your house is like waiting for a date - both never seem to come soon enough.
3 comments:
My wife and I are doing the split household thing - she is Chapel Hill working while I am still in Fayetteville with the kids. She handed out candy last night in CH and said the same thing - there was a long time between kids. Maybe they were all on Franklin Street...
I've used dry ice for stage productions. It can get pretty expensive to do it right and have it last for any length of time. Kudos for trying though.
I'd recommend fog too. I think I saw some cheap foggers with the Halloween stuff in stores.
if only i had consulted with you darren before hand. i confess it was a pretty spur of the moment decision. i was at the grocery store with my youngest getting the beer i would need to man the door when i spotted somebody buying dry ice...
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