Happy Halloween

Truth be told, I'm a sort of Ebenezer Scrooge of Halloween. I've never liked it that much. As a child I wasn't really into candy, I didn't like wearing costumes (except that beautiful 1800's dress that my mom made me one year). In Wisconsin the weather was always crappy on Halloween so even walking the neighborhood wasn't fun, I didn't really like the begging part, and I really hated being scared. The only enjoyable part was getting home after the whole trick-or-treating ordeal was over, sorting my candy (I loved sorting anything) and then using it to bribe my sister for future favors (I suppose this was the precursor to my brief career at the Chicago Board of Trade).

My Halloween experiences as an adult haven't done anything to change my mind. I spent years in elementary schools...do any of you non-teachers have ANY clue what it's like to have a room full of 30 5 -7 year olds hyped up on pillowcases full of colorfully wrapped sugar, wearing costumes that ALL involve face paint, glitter, and some form of hand held instrument which ALL in the end become swords no matter the original intended purpose? It's not enjoyable.

I still don't like candy. I've done a lot of therapy to learn to be myself and not to live in fear, so the whole costumes and scary stuff is (still) out and I got that Board of Trade thing out of my system a lot of years ago (Laur, if I had a bag of candy now I'd just give it all to you, if you let me sort it first). And the straw that broke my Halloween back (or, as it were, the final nail...), my dear first dog Sparky died three years ago on Halloween. Suffice it to say, I'm still not fond of this holiday.

But, having said all that...it's been a perfect Halloween day here in Maberga. Interchanging waves of fog rolling through the mountains engulfing the house and pissing down rain.

Not wanting to impose my biases on my impressionable dogs, I let them go trick-or-treating. Yeah, ok, I just let them run around on the mountain because I didn't want to stand out with them in the pissing down rain.

Q got this goody from neighbor Giuseppe.



I'm pretty sure Giuseppe didn't answer the doorbell and hand this to Q but rather left a bowl of them on the front stoop.

Want to see a close up of that one?




Now I'm going to put on a movie (not a scary one) and finish this







while I wait for all the trick-or-treaters to come to the door. I hope there aren't many, all I've got is a half eaten chocolate bar in the fridge.