Halloween of Shadow
Oct. 31st, 2023 09:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ismoIt could have been a rather sad Halloween. Sometime in the afternoon, it started snowing. "Oh, it's just a few flurries," said I to myself. "Sure, it seems intimidating so early in the year, but it won't stick. It will be gone in no time, ha ha." Yeah sure . . . and then the wind began to blow, and the snow fell harder and was driven by the wind through the shivering trees. Pretty soon there were a couple of inches of white covering the ground and thickly coating the ragged leaves still left on the branches. Slightly north of here, where the Duchess lives, they had 6-9 inches! I guess it's too late to quote Rilke now. "Herr, es ist Zeit," indeed. But the "last sweetness" has already come and gone. I've had a few moments of my thoughts slowing to a stop and tears rising to my eyes as I remembered those who are gone. I know they're not really gone . . . but gone beyond me.
However, most of the world did not fall into melancholy like me, but merrily posted jokes about Halloween dressing up as Christmas this year, and so forth. We carved our giant pumpkin (it weighed 30 pounds--that's why I had trouble carrying it in my arms through the market.) It had just the proper amount of grinning spookiness. Although we were afraid not many people would come, we had about 50 kids, maybe a few more. I encouraged them to take plenty, but we still ended up with leftovers. The costumes were great this year, and the kids were very cute. Trick or treating officially ended at 8, but we left the lights on a little longer because we still had a lot of candy. I was glad we did, because the last caller was the best. We saw the car pull into the driveway, and a dad wearing a reflective vest got out and helped the most adorable little girl toddle up to the door. Her puffy coat covered most of the costume, but her hair was done up in puffs and her sweet face was glittery. I heard her dad talking to her in some language I don't recognize. I put an extra handful of candy in her bag, and she was excited about it.
Other than that, I made another shopping dash today, because it's a new week, and there were things on sale only until today. This time, my receipt claimed I'd saved 87 dollars! Definitely a new high. That's because they had an inexplicable number of items that were "buy two, get three free!" You can't help but save doing that. As a result, I have a lot of pork chops and bacon in the freezer, as well as two bags of potatoes, celery, onions and carrots stashed away. They were having a sale on the store-made take and bake pizza, too, but there wasn't any available when I got there. They said another batch would be ready in an hour. I got the Sparrowhawk to nip over and get it then, and we had some for dinner. I also made soup with the leeks I got last week, and some of those onions and potatoes.
Another thing that made it a happy day was a surprise package from the Philosopher and his Lovely Friend. In a role reversal, they sent us some Halloween goodies! We have our very own treat bowl--very nice chocolates, including two black cats. That was a sweet moment--as were the pictures of grandsons in costume! Raptor was a convincing yet exuberant pirate, and Aquinas in his very first costume, as a flamingo, was adorable to an extreme degree.
However, most of the world did not fall into melancholy like me, but merrily posted jokes about Halloween dressing up as Christmas this year, and so forth. We carved our giant pumpkin (it weighed 30 pounds--that's why I had trouble carrying it in my arms through the market.) It had just the proper amount of grinning spookiness. Although we were afraid not many people would come, we had about 50 kids, maybe a few more. I encouraged them to take plenty, but we still ended up with leftovers. The costumes were great this year, and the kids were very cute. Trick or treating officially ended at 8, but we left the lights on a little longer because we still had a lot of candy. I was glad we did, because the last caller was the best. We saw the car pull into the driveway, and a dad wearing a reflective vest got out and helped the most adorable little girl toddle up to the door. Her puffy coat covered most of the costume, but her hair was done up in puffs and her sweet face was glittery. I heard her dad talking to her in some language I don't recognize. I put an extra handful of candy in her bag, and she was excited about it.
Other than that, I made another shopping dash today, because it's a new week, and there were things on sale only until today. This time, my receipt claimed I'd saved 87 dollars! Definitely a new high. That's because they had an inexplicable number of items that were "buy two, get three free!" You can't help but save doing that. As a result, I have a lot of pork chops and bacon in the freezer, as well as two bags of potatoes, celery, onions and carrots stashed away. They were having a sale on the store-made take and bake pizza, too, but there wasn't any available when I got there. They said another batch would be ready in an hour. I got the Sparrowhawk to nip over and get it then, and we had some for dinner. I also made soup with the leeks I got last week, and some of those onions and potatoes.
Another thing that made it a happy day was a surprise package from the Philosopher and his Lovely Friend. In a role reversal, they sent us some Halloween goodies! We have our very own treat bowl--very nice chocolates, including two black cats. That was a sweet moment--as were the pictures of grandsons in costume! Raptor was a convincing yet exuberant pirate, and Aquinas in his very first costume, as a flamingo, was adorable to an extreme degree.
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Date: 2023-11-01 05:37 pm (UTC)