Oh, c’mon, you’re doing something for Halloween, even if it is just turning off the porch light and huddling behind closed curtains.
So whatcha doin’?
Takin’ the kids out? Buying candy “for the children” and then eating it all yourself? Rolling your eyes at inflatable lawn ornaments?
Me? I don’t have kids, but definitely the other two.
There’s also the lovely tradition of “Half-Price Candy Day” but that’s a few days down the road.
I used to go All In for Holloween. Never had any (or few, like very few) Trick-or-Treaters.
I quit about 10 years ago. But the neighborhood has had a massive die-off of the old fogeys, and there seems to be some actual kids about now and then.
Maybe I’ll give it a go. Worst case, I end up with a bunch of candy that I shouldn’t be eating.
I’ll batten down the hatches at my house, turn off all the exterior lights and spend the evening 5 miles away at my daughter’s, handing out candy and allergen-free treats at their door while they take the grandkidlets 8,4 and 7 months out trick or treating in their neighborhood. Last year there were so many extremely cute and polite kids we ran out of treats before the street ran out of kids.
This scheme also has the advantage of keeping my car in a zip code much safer from hooligans.
Up, caffeinated, and sheveled. Off to heave. It’s currently 53 degrees Ferret Height(11.6 Centipedes) and raining.
There are kids in the complex, but I never see Trick-or-Treaters. I’ll probably do something spiritual. Maybe a martini.
Wouldn’t a Vieux Carre be more fitting?
Cheers!
Also a good choice!
Morning.
I have purchased a small quantity of chocolates in case of actual trick or treaters, because there are some little kids round here that do it, even if they’ve never knocked at my door, but after about 7pm it’s batten down the hatches time.
It’s more daft stuff like trying to have a big bonfire in the park in the middle of the long grass area than actual intentional trouble making in this area, but a few suburbs over it can get quite nasty with older youths. I don’t mean just TPing buildings, the year I moved in it turned into a full-blown riot- setting stuff on fire, throwing bricks at cars, smashing shop and house windows, firebombs thrown at police and similar. There were smaller incidents the last few years as well, but they got stopped before anything much happened.
The last few years, retailers have agreed to not sell fireworks in the city, but I think this year they’re allowing a few on sale again. It somewhat takes the fun out of the holiday locally, though I don’t think it’s ever really spread outside that suburb.
Anyway, back to irk today. I’m not quite 100%, but when am I ever?
Halloween is not really a thing here in Australia. Some kids take a half-hearted approach, but it’s not widespread and has yet to properly catch on. That doesn’t stop retailers from trying to cash in with iconography and themed sales, though.
Ditto in Europe. There’s no trick-or-treating at all. There are a few house parties for students, but that’s it. Nothing for adults like in the US.
I’ll edit myself on the trick-or-treating: the American chamber of commerce hosts an event where kids can sort of trick or treat. There’s a small convention hall, several businesses set up tables, and the kids go table to table collecting candy. It’s kind of lame by American “canvas the neighborhood” standards, and it’s exclusively attended by expat kids. But hey! free candy.
Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 61 Amurrkin out and cloudy with a predicted high of 68 with rain/tstorms/apocalypse all day. We shall see. Obviously today is a day to be inside and dry. As we are RDOS, we can definitely do that! Sup will be beast stew and cornbread muffins. Maybe I’ll make the baby ones with jalapeños and cheese. So gooooood!
We don’t do ToT here. I tried a couple of times years ago, but never got candy beggars. Church is doin’ a trunk or treat/Fall festival thing on Wednesday. We will not participate as it’s not our thing. It has been advertised all over social media and seems to attract a crowd every year. Glad for that, but no thanks.
Nuts and BooFae is Guy Fawkes (Remember, remember the fifth of November!) day a big thing in Great Britain still?
Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then, onward into the day!
Happy Moanday Y’all!
You got it in one. As I’ve mentioned a few gazillion times, I live in a neighborhood of big lots and widely spaced houses. The one and only year I handed out candy, we only got about a dozen kids, one of whom was driven around by his parent. Never since. And especially not with controlling Otis every time the bell rings. Nope.
Speaking of whom, no, the deer could not have been shot or hit by a car. It was in the corner of our yard absolutely farthest from both roads. No one hunts in this neighborhood - it’s not only illegal, it would be beyond stupid and close to impossible considering how many of the yards are fenced. Otis has to have killed it, considering how many deer we’ve had in the yard in the past with zero fatalities.
And I’m thinking his noshing on the carcass has upset his tummy. He didn’t want his midday kibbles yesterday (tho he did snarf down supper) and this morning he only ate about half of his food. He also was banging around in his crate last night and early this morning - he’s never done that before, but he needed to go out. We’ll see what the next couple of days bring.
JtC - regarding the FedEx deliveries: I don’t believe we have a regular driver doing deliveries. I’ve seen different types and sizes of trucks pull into our drive. The only consistency is that the boxes are always left where one or the other of our vehicles could run over them because it’s apparently sooooooooo difficult to set them on the porch step that’s literally next to the garage/driveway. This photo is 21 years old, but the garage hasn’t moved (and the lions are long gone:)
I believe the main problem is the warehouse/hub/whatever management in Upper Marlboro. There was (maybe still is) a FB page overflowing with complaints about deliveries from there, so it’s not just me. I saw yesterday that the email telling me my package was delivered has a link to rate/comment. I used it yesterday and I will continue to use it.
As for today, I’ll be running to Food Lion and Aldi. I’ve decided on some food to take to Mom on Weds, and today and tomorrow will be spent cooking and packing it up. I got a message from the sister who lives with her and she’s asking the rest of us to come (in turn) on Weds so she (sis) can get a break and not worry about leaving Mom home alone. I’d already planned to go there this Weds, so it worked out. And this sister doesn’t cook, plus she’s doing the low-carb thing. I’ll put together easy-to-heat for a few meals. Hope I didn’t misplace my list of what to make and take…
That’s the plan. We’ll see how it goes.
Happy Moanday!
It’s sprinkler system blowout day in this neighborhood. Somebody from the groundskeeping company will hook up a compressor to the lawn sprinklers and blow out all the water, so it won’t freeze when cold weather comes.
Mrs. Nott has a rotation of seasonal banners she hangs outside. She put a new one out a couple days ago. The current banner has fall leaves on it.
My computer tells me it’s Bat Appreciation Week, perhaps alluding to Hallowe’en, or perhaps the World Series.
As in the past two years, we’ll be doing nothing for Halloween. The building doesn’t allow trick or treaters, even if they are grandchildren of residents. The wife, a kid at heart, thinks this is wrong. I don’t miss it.
A dreamless night for a change after cleaning up Sadie’s barf. She was really wanting her breakfast this morning.
Time to get breakfast going.
We’re curmudgeons who turn off the porch light and shut the blinds. But still a few hopeful kids climb the steps and ring the doorbell in our darkened entryway. We can hear the moms telling the kids that they won’t find candy here, but the kids try anyway.
I’ll be happy when it’s over. I like to see the skeletal dioramas around town, but a neighbor across the street has a witch figure she hangs in her tree. It has a motion sensor, and the witch cackles and talks whenever it senses nearby motion. That means whenever the wind blows the bushes around, the cackling starts up. And it goes on all night long for three weeks leading up to Halloween because the neighbor never turns it off.
Someone on NextDoor made a good point. They have really small kids, and wanted to know of a neighborhood that didn’t have such over the top scary lawn figures. They said their kids were terrified of them and wanted a less intense experience. I agree with them. I’ve seen houses that had mock mutilated and bloodied headless corpses scattered over their lawn. One house had a “dead body” duct-taped with trash bags and painted with blood, hanging up side down in a tree. Another had psycho snarling killer clowns wielding bloody machetes. It’s too much, in my opinion. This stuff belongs in adult haunted houses, not where small children have to walk past them.
Today I think I’ll yank my New Guinea Impatiens out of its planter barrel and replace it with some new cyclamen for the winter. I already have some wine red and white cyclamens, so the new ones will be light pink.
I think costumes ( not ones about death or fear) are great but in NE Ohio its almost never warm enough to go out without a coat so whats the point?
i have the trick or treat bags at the ready. we set up in the lobby of the condo from 5-6, the kids stop by collect the goodies and then can meet up with friends and go through the neighbourhood. my office will have a halloween party on thursday. there is a costume contest as part of it. last year i won 50 dollars!!
for the office, i usually wear something i can have on all day. i’m not sure for this year, so far i’m leaning toward cheetah/leopard. or i could go hogwarts related… who knows. today i have on my scooby doo shirt. i’m thinking my crayola shirt tomorrow. perhaps i’ll stop by the pop up store on the way home.
Our kids were ten or twelve when they quit wanting to go trick-or-treating. There aren’t any little kids in our neighbourhood, so really the only thing we do for Hallowe’en is hit the stores for cheap candy after the holiday. (Same with Easter.)
Mornin’ all.
It’s 42°F and rain is falling. The rain will probably stop around 8:00 a.m., and we’ll have a mixture of sun and clouds with a daytime high of 55°F.
Our porchlight will also be turned off. The dogs would lose their everlovin’ minds, and so would we because of the barking.
I clearly remember trick-or-treating when I lived in Germany back in the late sixties. However, I lived on an American military installation in base housing. But we definitely did not trick-or-treat in my mother’s little village.
I hope Otis’ tummy settles down, FCM, and that he doesn’t require a trip to the vet because he ate something bad.
Welp, I suppose I should get the day started. You all take care.
Mornin’ all - the crack of 10am as I start to drivel.
I’m up, fed, beached, and back home. Shevelment next.
We had a monster thunderstorm settle over my part of town at about 7pm. It quit slamming about 10pm. One of the longest and most intense I’ve experienced here in FL. We lost power twice for about 3-5 minutes, first time that’s happened since I moved here ~18 months ago. And both came directly after a very nearby lightning strike. Around midnight a text came in from the local PD that the main boulevard about 3 miles from me was closed with 4 feet(!) of water on the roadway. Because everything here is super flat, minor undulations in the roads can lead to road ponds 6" deep by 300’ long & wide. Saw a couple of those on the way to / from the beach.
This morning is bright and sunny. I see lots of ponds on the golf course that don’t belong there. And the ponds that do belong are much larger than usual. 
Such excitement.
As to Halloween: I’ll be in Myrtle Beach for my reunion. That evening we’ll be having a cookout in the backyard of this years’ hosts before we all reconvene to the VRBO to spend the night. They live in a nearly new neighborhood of smaller houses that are probably a mix of empty-nesting retirees like themselves, and starter families in their starter homes. So maybe we’ll have kidlets and maybe not.
One thing there won’t be is costumes. With all of us traveling to get there, the consensus was that it’s just not worth the hassle. Besides, we’re not getting together for Halloween. That just happened to the weekend enough people were available to make a quorum.
The rest of the reunion plan as to GF is still pending. If I do anything useful today, getting that settled ought to be job one. But first: sloth!!
Cheers and happy Moanday to those who celebrate. 
I’ll likely go over to the complex party / TOT for an hour or so. I may pick up a witch’s hat to costume myself to hand out treats and instant oatmeal (SNAP benefits likely won’t be paid the next day, so any kid who wants a breakfast or two on me will get one) to the kiddos.
Even if she did cook, having some easy meals there would be welcome, given the appointments and care responsibilities related to getting your mom back on her feet. You’re building up some seriously good karma.
I agree with you. Although I admire the effort involved for the good ones, they’re definitely a PG-13 thing, not for the littles.
Up, caffeinating, breakfasted and fixing to do KP. I’ve even adulted some this morning! Go me!
I have a toe owie, so I called the PCP to set up an appointment for Wednesday morning, plus, I called the Cologuard folks to let them know that Brown (snerk) never showed, so I’ll do a drop off today.
Whilst I’m out doing a drop off, I’ll do my Monday neighborhood exploration and likely make a quick stop at Aldi. So far, the dog food from there is working out, but there are a few other things that I tend to pick up there simply because I either like their stuff or it’s just a much better deal.
Stay safe and healthy y’all!