I'm seeing so much orange, for a minute I thought I was back home in Clemson Tiger country.
I was wrong, of course, but those eerie Halloween decorations that have had some folks holed up in their garages for hours do have something in common with the football team that calls Death Valley home.
Both are scary this year. Only unlike my Tigers' losing record, those Wizard of Oz -esque trees I saw last week while driving through Valencia Gardens are scary in a good way.
My neighbors, Chris Fischer and Ken Frye, are back, just like those TV ghosts in Poltergeist . Even now, they're trekking to the thrift store to add more creepy things to their side-by-side haunted garages.
"It's a lot easier," said Fischer, who works in sales for Zephyrhills Bottled Water. "A lot of the big stuff is done."
For the uninitiated, Dead Run is a homemade horror fest that began two years ago in the Deer Run village of Meadow Pointe II in Wesley Chapel.
Visitors, whom the attraction's Web site refer to as "victims," line up in droves for a chance to walk through mazes made with cut-up trash bags. Popular features include Gozer, a snarling devil dog, and a body that convulses in an electric chair.
"We've had women (run) screaming out of this thing," Fischer said.
The partnership began when Frye, who owns a graphic design agency, left for work one morning and saw a body dangling from a noose in his new neighbor's yard.
He grinned.
Here was someone who was as much into Halloween as he was.
They pooled their ideas and got to work with the fervor of two mad scientists.
Dead Run caught on. Last year drew about 1,500 visitors, enough to merit posting Pasco sheriff's deputies, though the crowd always has been congenial.
This week, folks were thrilled to see the fake stone wallboard appear on Fischer's garage door, a tell-tale sign they were at it again.
Frye is 36 and Fischer is 37, but they talk about Dead Run the way boys talk about tree houses and forts.
A peek into Frye's garage reveals a pale, ghoulish face attached to a PVC skeleton. It's a grave digger in the making, he says. Fischer managed to get his hands on a coffin. He won't say exactly how it's going to be used. Can't give away all the secrets.
Also in the category of secrets is how much money they've spent on this hobby.
"I don't want my wife to find out," Frye jokes, then sheepishly admits he just spent $60 during the day's thrift store run.
The pair would love to keep Dead Run alive year after year. But they are running out of storage.
What they really need, they say, is a charity, a group that would give them space to store the jail cell, the science lab, the guillotine and, yes, the coffin.
In return, they would use visitors' donations to Dead Run to help support the charity's cause.
"We're willing to put the time into it," Frye said.
Parents also are grateful for a neighborhood attraction that is less expensive than a theme park and closer to home.
"We've taken a lot of money from Busch Gardens," Fischer said. "People tell us, "I can take them here and they get their fix."'
Dead Run is open 6-11 p.m. Friday through Sunday. Donations are accepted.
-- Lisa Buie is the editor of the central/east edition of the Pasco Times.
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Got spooky displays? Lights that cast an eerie glow over your entire street? Sound effects that would wake the dead? We want to hear about them. We'll publish a list leading up to Halloween. E-mail east/central Pasco editor Lisa Buie at buie@sptimes.com Include a name, address and description of the display, plus a telephone number. Phone numbers will not be published, though a reporter or photographer might contact you for a possible story.
