Fall’s Here, Finally
October 31 is sort of a triple-fright date. It means Halloween, of course. It also means property taxes are due. And it’s also the last day we season-procrastinators can straight-facedly say it’s still summer. So, I’ll just out with it - summer’s over. It’s downright cold here, hovering around 30F. We’ve started turning on the heat, which means closing the door to the upstairs and grievously inconveniencing the cat in his peregrinations from foodbowl to papyrus plant (where he chooses to obtain his drinking water these days) downstairs, to butt-warming down comforter on one of the beds upstairs. We all have to make sacrifices.
In spite of these manifold privations, we managed to score a double-dose of social life Saturday night. We went out for dinner with a neighbor couple who were taking a break from enforcing a middle-schooler’s homework weekend. As we arrived home, another neighbor couple was just emerging onto the street in hilarious costume, on their way to a party. They asked us if we’d like to join them. If they thought they were safe in issuing the invitation due to our apparent lack of costume, they were wrong - we rustled through our closet, which normally yields stuff we’re looking for only grudgingly, and in 10 minutes had passable costumes on.
Attendant to the party was a rather elaborate haunted-house with several chambers, the last of which was a blood-spattered, body-part-strewn abattoir manned by a clown-butcher who was deep-frying what he averred were “fingers”. He served them in the house later as “spring rolls”. We ate them cheerfully, and said nothing to the other guests.
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How was your fright-night?
