Trick or Treat

Delayed Daylight Savings had an unexpected benefit after all. Every Halloween we frantically try and fail to finish eating dinner before trick-or-treat time at sundown around 6:30. This evening, however, found me finishing dinner preparations at 6:30, as per usual, with a little panic - until I realized it was not getting dark. We were actually able to finish eating before the first ring of the doorbell. That doesn't mean I have to like it, though.

Something interesting happened this year. My son forgot it was Halloween today. We didn't discuss costume options prior to this afternoon, after he remembered (he saw someone dressed up at the store.) So at the last minute he threw on his (homemade) cloak and pointy wizard hat, grabbed his (real) wand, and away we went. We made it through our entire neighborhood in just one hour. Only about thirty percent of our neighbors had on their front porch lights. I guess that's to be expected here in the Bible Belt. One house even had a sign advertisement in the front yard for their church party. Yuck. The participating neighbors were very generous with the candy; we ended up with two full buckets (a pumpkin and a cauldron) out of a fairly small number of houses.

A cold front is apparently coming through either tonight or tomorrow as we observe the change into the darkest part of the year. Another turning of the wheel.