hallowed eve

it's raining. it's been raining off and on for the last hour, and we're supposed to get storms pretty much straight through tomorrow evening.

rain and storms on Halloween.

that just doesn't seem fair. especially after the gorgeous weather we had earlier today:

isn't that pretty?! and it was in the high 50's, too - a perfect fall day! Mom and i put it to good use, coiling hoses and putting the patio furniture in the shed. she mowed the lawn, and i dug trenches in the ground for my strawberry plants (and apologized to the nightcrawlers). i ate guacamole, worked on two clients, then packed up and drove to E's for the night. by some weird miracle, i do not have any clients scheduled tomorrow (but they could call me in if someone books), and i wanted to surprise E. Halloween is her favorite holiday, but she's been so exhausted that she hasn't had time to buy candy or decorate. so, in the morning, she'll come home to this:

and this:

suitably spooky and festive, yes? i love the pumpkin bucket - got it at Target, and it's exactly like the ones K and i used for trick-or-treating as little kids! and naturally, it's full of candy:

snack-sized Butterfingers, Crunch bars...i think there are Baby Ruth bars in there somewhere...and, most importantly, Hershey's miniatures, because that is what we ALWAYS gave out when i was little and you do not fuck with memories like that. (seriously. they had a large bag of miniatures in "fall-themed" wrappers on sale, and i bought the not-on-sale traditionally wrapped ones because i am a purist.) i remember that we always bought a few bags, and one was for family use only. Dad, K and i had a three-way battle for the Special Darks, K went for the Krackels, and i was all about the Mr Goodbars (Mom didn't discriminate).

ahhh, Halloween. the Devil's Night curfews (that's just in and around Detroit, folks), school parties, the months-long costume planning (making sure said costumes can be worn over winter coats if necessary, and it was almost always necessary), the cartoon specials on TV. the year you figured out that pillowcases held more candy than plastic buckets. memorizing which houses had really great treats (regular candy bars and full-sized cans of Coke!). dumping your candy on the living room floor and sorting it by type, then the inter-sibling bartering process that was more involved than some peace negotiations are today. the year the squirrels ate your pumpkin two days before Halloween, the pumpkin you had carefully chosen and picked from an actual pumpkin patch, the pumpkin that the nice man in the Great Pumpkin costume told you was named Lydia, who loved lasagna, which was your favorite food, too. but we don't speak about that year. ahem.

having already carved our jack-o-lanterns (while watching It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown), our night will consist of handing out candy to those trick-or-treaters hardy enough to brave the rainy weather; eating hot dog mummies (hot dogs wrapped in thin strips of biscuit dough) and macaroni and cheese; and watching Hocus Pocus while eating as much chocolate as we can hold.

Happy Halloween!