Fall Back
Hello World,
Happy November! We left October behind on Sunday, which was not only Halloween, but Reformation Sunday for Protestants the world over, and a red-letter day for all of us Lutherans especially. The new month started off with a bang on the first with All Saints Day, followed by All Souls Day on the second, which was also Election Day, although I'm sure that any connection with the dear departed of yesteryear is strictly hypothetical in this case. Meanwhile, this weekend is when we finally get to throw off the shackles of Daylight Saving Time and fall back to another temporary foray into the bosom of Standard Time, which since it only comprises a tiny fraction of the year any longer, should probably be called Non-Standard Time nowadays, I suppose. Or since it only lasts four months, they may as well call it Winter Time, and leave the Daylight Savers to have the other eight months, which they can call Ordinary Time. After all, these are certainly ordinary times that we live in, heaven knows.
And speaking of changing times, there was certainly no joy in Mudville around here lately, as the fabled Yankees of lore and legend were eliminated in the baseball playoffs by the unheralded Texas Rangers, in a surprising development, especially to the wide-ranging pinstripe faithful, who expect their high-powered franchise to automatically win the World Series every year, as it should be. The second round of the playoffs included match-ups between the winners of the first round, with the Phillies-Giants in the National League and Yankees-Rangers in the American League. As the playoffs progressed, I could see the way things were going, and I said to Bill that the media moguls must be tearing their collective hair out, because no one wants to see San Francisco and Texas in the World Series for heaven's sake, the ratings would be right through the floor. It would be as bad as the Stanley Cup playoffs in hockey, which have been known to go into negative numbers, and make congressional hearings look like a ratings blockbuster. It turned out to be just as well, since the local cable operator and the Fox network picked this of all times to get into a bureaucratic donnybrook over licensing fees, and all of the Fox programming on all of their channels was summarily yanked off the cable system for several weeks, including the Fall Classic, which you would think would be against some kind of law, or at least the "cruel and unusual punishment" provision of the Bill of Rights. So it turned out that the World Series that nobody wanted to see, ended up being the World Series that nobody could see anyway, and the last I heard, Detroit was leading by three lengths, but Charleston had brought in a replacement kicker, while Pasadena had cleared the bar at 16-feet, and was planning to bring in Nashville for the last lap. Of course, that's the whole problem with baseball, it's so predictable.
Sunday turned out to be a beautiful day for Halloween around here, it was clear and crisp, like those classic fall days of yore, back in the times when weather did what it was supposed to. I had a nice and relaxing day, starting with church followed by a meeting, then the bank, lunch and feeding the birds, before starting to set up for the holiday in the afternoon. I'm beginning to think there should be some sort of law that Halloween is always celebrated on Saturday, giving us all plenty of time to get ready, so at least I'm not running around at the last minute to sweep the steps and move obstacles out of the way before people start ringing our doorbell. Fortunately for our guests, the gigantic spider that we usually find on our front porch (AKA "The Rock") decided to make himself at home inside the house this year, rather than being a hazard to delivery people and unwary visitors to our front door, which could be described as a mixed blessing, if you know what I mean.
I set up the pumpkin lights and threw a seasonal tablecloth over the more unsightly clutter in the area, then went to grab a table for the goodie bags - but forgot it was the wobbly three-legged one that the cats kept knocking over, so I attached it to the piano with bungee cords, and now it seemed like way too much work to undo all of that and then have to tie it back up again later. I ended up pressing another table into service, but it was a pretty tight squeeze for everything to fit. I was upstairs when I heard a first tentative knock at 5:00 PM, but we were still opening presents at the time, and I hope they took some candy from the bowl that I left out in the vestibule. After a quick dinner, we had our first callers at 6:00 PM, who were wearing coats against the chill, so that I couldn't tell what their costumes were. Of course, sometimes I just don't recognize their costumes anyway, even if I can see them or they tell me what it is, like Captain Rex, whoever he may be. One of the first to arrive was a toddler in a witch costume along with an older escort who said she was a cat burglar, except as I pointed out, she was carrying a broom - she said it belonged to the witch, and I had figured as much, although I did say that the prospect of burglars sweeping up after themselves was not such a bad idea after all. Then it seemed that I was having a run on monkeys, including one of my favorites, the toddler in a monkey outfit who arrived with his mother, who was dressed as a banana. Did I laugh!
Someone who needed no introduction was one of the neighborhood youngsters, Emmett (alert readers may remember Emmett the Elephant from a previous Halloween) and although I didn't recognize his costume, I could tell it was him because his parents said hello to me. This is Emmett's third go-round in this event, so I figured he was old enough now to ask him about his costume, so I asked him who he was, and he announced in a loud voice, "EMMETT!" We all laughed. Luckily, the father explained the Buzz Lightyear costume that had baffled me, and I also met baby sister Fiona as a bumblebee, who was too cute. Although in the cute department, I would have to pick the toddler who came as a hula girl, complete with the junior version of the coconut bra, who was simply too adorable for words. Another toddler who came to the door was being prompted by his parents with whispers of "what do you say," and rather than coming up with the expected "Trick or treat," instead blurted out: "THANK YOU" before I ever gave him anything, and we all got a kick out of that. Of course, I always say there's no such thing as too much politeness, but this might have been carrying it just a bit too far.
Considering that we started at 6:00 on the dot, I was surprised that it took until 6:45 to give out my first 20 bags, but by 7:45, there had been 50 callers, so it picked up a bit after the first hour. It was basically all over by 8:00 PM, except for a couple of late stragglers, suddenly it's like shutting off a water faucet, they all just stop coming as if by some telepathically transmitted message throughout the region, even if you still have plenty of candy and your lights are all turned on. I can tell you that back in the day, when I was on the other side of the door, nothing short of being carted off in handcuffs by the Police would have gotten me to stop at that hour, and don't think they didn't try it, believe me.
In the end, we wound up with a total of 68, which I thought was disappointing, considering it was a Sunday and the weather was fine. In terms of costume choices, witches once again won the day with 6, followed by 3 cats, 3 vampires and 3 princesses. In the broader overall category of heroes, there were 12, which included Superman, Supergirl, Batman and Zorro, while we had 4 villains, including Michael Meyers, the Grim Reaper and the Wolfman. Among the doubles were 2 monkeys, 2 burglars, 2 devils, 2 Darth Vaders, 2 bumblebees, 2 cheerleaders, 2 mouses, and there were individuals as Igor, Harry Potter, ninja, fairy, jester, fireman, ghoul, banana, bunny, gnome, skeleton, butterfly and of course, the tiny hula girl. Yet another 10 came with no real costume, identifying themselves as "a mom," "a cool kid," or "a loser" and things of that nature. Of course, it's true that we have no standards here, and are happy to hand out goodie bags to anyone who comes to the door (just ask the UPS man who made a delivery one Halloween and got a goodie bag for his trouble) but it's a lot more fun when they have actual costumes for the entertainment of the tireless Treat Brigade, that does all of the hard work for the event. On the other hand, the Treat Brigade does wind up with all of the left-over candy when all is said and done, so I guess this could be considered a job with its own reward built right into it, and the compensation is exactly the perfect size. Fun-size, that is.
Elle
Happy November! We left October behind on Sunday, which was not only Halloween, but Reformation Sunday for Protestants the world over, and a red-letter day for all of us Lutherans especially. The new month started off with a bang on the first with All Saints Day, followed by All Souls Day on the second, which was also Election Day, although I'm sure that any connection with the dear departed of yesteryear is strictly hypothetical in this case. Meanwhile, this weekend is when we finally get to throw off the shackles of Daylight Saving Time and fall back to another temporary foray into the bosom of Standard Time, which since it only comprises a tiny fraction of the year any longer, should probably be called Non-Standard Time nowadays, I suppose. Or since it only lasts four months, they may as well call it Winter Time, and leave the Daylight Savers to have the other eight months, which they can call Ordinary Time. After all, these are certainly ordinary times that we live in, heaven knows.
And speaking of changing times, there was certainly no joy in Mudville around here lately, as the fabled Yankees of lore and legend were eliminated in the baseball playoffs by the unheralded Texas Rangers, in a surprising development, especially to the wide-ranging pinstripe faithful, who expect their high-powered franchise to automatically win the World Series every year, as it should be. The second round of the playoffs included match-ups between the winners of the first round, with the Phillies-Giants in the National League and Yankees-Rangers in the American League. As the playoffs progressed, I could see the way things were going, and I said to Bill that the media moguls must be tearing their collective hair out, because no one wants to see San Francisco and Texas in the World Series for heaven's sake, the ratings would be right through the floor. It would be as bad as the Stanley Cup playoffs in hockey, which have been known to go into negative numbers, and make congressional hearings look like a ratings blockbuster. It turned out to be just as well, since the local cable operator and the Fox network picked this of all times to get into a bureaucratic donnybrook over licensing fees, and all of the Fox programming on all of their channels was summarily yanked off the cable system for several weeks, including the Fall Classic, which you would think would be against some kind of law, or at least the "cruel and unusual punishment" provision of the Bill of Rights. So it turned out that the World Series that nobody wanted to see, ended up being the World Series that nobody could see anyway, and the last I heard, Detroit was leading by three lengths, but Charleston had brought in a replacement kicker, while Pasadena had cleared the bar at 16-feet, and was planning to bring in Nashville for the last lap. Of course, that's the whole problem with baseball, it's so predictable.
Sunday turned out to be a beautiful day for Halloween around here, it was clear and crisp, like those classic fall days of yore, back in the times when weather did what it was supposed to. I had a nice and relaxing day, starting with church followed by a meeting, then the bank, lunch and feeding the birds, before starting to set up for the holiday in the afternoon. I'm beginning to think there should be some sort of law that Halloween is always celebrated on Saturday, giving us all plenty of time to get ready, so at least I'm not running around at the last minute to sweep the steps and move obstacles out of the way before people start ringing our doorbell. Fortunately for our guests, the gigantic spider that we usually find on our front porch (AKA "The Rock") decided to make himself at home inside the house this year, rather than being a hazard to delivery people and unwary visitors to our front door, which could be described as a mixed blessing, if you know what I mean.
I set up the pumpkin lights and threw a seasonal tablecloth over the more unsightly clutter in the area, then went to grab a table for the goodie bags - but forgot it was the wobbly three-legged one that the cats kept knocking over, so I attached it to the piano with bungee cords, and now it seemed like way too much work to undo all of that and then have to tie it back up again later. I ended up pressing another table into service, but it was a pretty tight squeeze for everything to fit. I was upstairs when I heard a first tentative knock at 5:00 PM, but we were still opening presents at the time, and I hope they took some candy from the bowl that I left out in the vestibule. After a quick dinner, we had our first callers at 6:00 PM, who were wearing coats against the chill, so that I couldn't tell what their costumes were. Of course, sometimes I just don't recognize their costumes anyway, even if I can see them or they tell me what it is, like Captain Rex, whoever he may be. One of the first to arrive was a toddler in a witch costume along with an older escort who said she was a cat burglar, except as I pointed out, she was carrying a broom - she said it belonged to the witch, and I had figured as much, although I did say that the prospect of burglars sweeping up after themselves was not such a bad idea after all. Then it seemed that I was having a run on monkeys, including one of my favorites, the toddler in a monkey outfit who arrived with his mother, who was dressed as a banana. Did I laugh!
Someone who needed no introduction was one of the neighborhood youngsters, Emmett (alert readers may remember Emmett the Elephant from a previous Halloween) and although I didn't recognize his costume, I could tell it was him because his parents said hello to me. This is Emmett's third go-round in this event, so I figured he was old enough now to ask him about his costume, so I asked him who he was, and he announced in a loud voice, "EMMETT!" We all laughed. Luckily, the father explained the Buzz Lightyear costume that had baffled me, and I also met baby sister Fiona as a bumblebee, who was too cute. Although in the cute department, I would have to pick the toddler who came as a hula girl, complete with the junior version of the coconut bra, who was simply too adorable for words. Another toddler who came to the door was being prompted by his parents with whispers of "what do you say," and rather than coming up with the expected "Trick or treat," instead blurted out: "THANK YOU" before I ever gave him anything, and we all got a kick out of that. Of course, I always say there's no such thing as too much politeness, but this might have been carrying it just a bit too far.
Considering that we started at 6:00 on the dot, I was surprised that it took until 6:45 to give out my first 20 bags, but by 7:45, there had been 50 callers, so it picked up a bit after the first hour. It was basically all over by 8:00 PM, except for a couple of late stragglers, suddenly it's like shutting off a water faucet, they all just stop coming as if by some telepathically transmitted message throughout the region, even if you still have plenty of candy and your lights are all turned on. I can tell you that back in the day, when I was on the other side of the door, nothing short of being carted off in handcuffs by the Police would have gotten me to stop at that hour, and don't think they didn't try it, believe me.
In the end, we wound up with a total of 68, which I thought was disappointing, considering it was a Sunday and the weather was fine. In terms of costume choices, witches once again won the day with 6, followed by 3 cats, 3 vampires and 3 princesses. In the broader overall category of heroes, there were 12, which included Superman, Supergirl, Batman and Zorro, while we had 4 villains, including Michael Meyers, the Grim Reaper and the Wolfman. Among the doubles were 2 monkeys, 2 burglars, 2 devils, 2 Darth Vaders, 2 bumblebees, 2 cheerleaders, 2 mouses, and there were individuals as Igor, Harry Potter, ninja, fairy, jester, fireman, ghoul, banana, bunny, gnome, skeleton, butterfly and of course, the tiny hula girl. Yet another 10 came with no real costume, identifying themselves as "a mom," "a cool kid," or "a loser" and things of that nature. Of course, it's true that we have no standards here, and are happy to hand out goodie bags to anyone who comes to the door (just ask the UPS man who made a delivery one Halloween and got a goodie bag for his trouble) but it's a lot more fun when they have actual costumes for the entertainment of the tireless Treat Brigade, that does all of the hard work for the event. On the other hand, the Treat Brigade does wind up with all of the left-over candy when all is said and done, so I guess this could be considered a job with its own reward built right into it, and the compensation is exactly the perfect size. Fun-size, that is.
Elle
posted by El Tango Fandango @ 8:27 PM
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