;)
Each year, it gets a little worse. Last year, maybe a dozen trick-or-treators showed up. This year - two, both of them pretty big. The first looked to be a boy about 12 or 13 and he came with his mother. No one else could be seen on the street. Well, his mother said, it's pretty cold. That probably explains it.
Cold? The temperature was in the 20's F - and that's above zero.
Hell. When our kids were small, the streets were crawling with trick-or-treators, even on sub-zero Holloweens. Gusts of deep, white, breath would pour out through mouth, nose, and eye openings on frost-encased masks - but they were there, the trick-or-treators, not giving a damn about the weather, knocking on doors, scarfing up their candy.
Part of it just may be the new subdivisions, such as Serendipity, the ones that have destroyed the woods in which we used to frolic. These are filled with huge, expensive, homes that appear to be inhabited by rich people. Last year, we drove by Serendipity and saw a fair number of trick-or-treators on their streets, whereas ours were all but empty.
So maybe that's where the trick-or-treatos have gone - those still brave enough to venture out - to the rich people's homes.
So now we have all this damn candy left over - not only what's in this tray, but the bags that were waiting to be dumped in once these were given away.
The problem is, I will probably eat it.
As you can see, it all seems to have chocolate in it.
So I will be eating it.
No one will be able to stop me.
I had better eat it fast so that we can be rid of it and I won't be tempted by it later on.
;)
Earlier, Melanie and Charlie had appeared and the three of us went out to get a coffee. Metro is closed on Sundays, so we wound up at the hut on the corner of Seldon and Fishhook.
I pulled up to the drivethrough window, we placed our orders and then I looked through to the car sitting at the opposite window and there I saw Superman.
I could not believe it! I had forgotten my camera. All I had was my iPhone and the lens was too wide to get close to Superman. Charlie offered to let me borrow his camera.
So I asked the barista if she would tell Superman and his mom that I would like to get a picture for my blog.
The mom said yes, but noted that there were two more in the back seat and they should be in the picture, too.
Then, two Supergirls came bounding over the seat into the front.
The problem was, I could not see all of their "super" insignias. As we were trying to figure this out, the photographer on one side of the hut and the Superman/girls on the other, the smallest Supergirl got crowded out, so that she could not be seen at all.
She began to cry. Superman and big Supergirl did what they could to comfort her.
And such was Halloween, 2010, right here in Wasilla, Alaska.
And today is the day before the big election. Today, I expect there to be many people in costume, right here on the streets of Wasilla. Later, I will go out and see what I can see.
I might add that there is great deal of debate here in Alaska as to whether people should vote their conscience or "be pragamatic" and vote not for our highest hopes but rather against our worst fears.
I say, we should vote our conscience. This would also be pragmatic, I think, because if enough people were to step beyond their worst fears and vote their conscience, the election would turn out ok.