Darkoshi

This is Halloween. Now that I've turned on some appropriately-genred radio, it feels a bit more like it.

I didn't buy treats to give out, nor decorate outside this year. I had a few reasons. I am still reminded of last year, putting up the decorations, and then Serena dying a few days before Halloween. So few kids even come in a normal year (last year 6 kids in 2 groups). It's in the middle of the week. The current hours I keep have me working till late at night. I have to get up early tomorrow morning.

Yet now I am procrastinating finishing my day's work, because I want Halloween to be more Halloween. Halloween is such an ephemeral holiday.

Earlier this month I applied an orange/purple/green color scheme to the tree of lights. It is in the other room.

Scrolling through the whole over-the-air FM radio dial, not any Halloween music, not even on "Steve FM". One PBS channel is playing what might be vaguely Halloween-themed music, but not of the chipper kind. I'm switching back to streaming.

Oh, it is also the start of Diwali. Happy Diwali! Happy Halloween!

and I quite enjoy it!



Video title: Interview with a Ghost (Music Video)
Posted by: Jendrik
Date posted: Oct 31, 2024

I spent Halloween at Qiao's house. The lights I put up on his porch look truly awesome. Long purple and orange icicles on the sides, and 2 regular strands, purple and green along the front. Also, two short battery-operated strands with blinking purple and orange LEDs on the mailbox.

To begin with, I was undecided whether to give out candy from the door, or to do a self-serve table like last year. I ended up putting the treats on a table on the porch, with a baggie (paper sandwich bag) filled with these treats for each kid:

- a packet of Halloween Veggie chips
- a packet of Halloween mini pretzels
- 2 packets of strawberry twizzlers
- 2 peanut chews
- an orange caramel filled dark chocolate (horsemen of the apocalypse chocolates, courtesy of Qiao)
- a sticker

(Nowadays I only buy and give out candy which I won't mind eating up myself if there are a lot of leftovers. Now that I'm working from home permanently, I can't even give away leftover candy at work.)

About 16 kids came: a big group of about 9 first, before I really expected anyone. I had been fiddling with a radio at the time, and they were already rushing away when I belatedly noticed. I yelled after them to make sure they had all gotten treats, and a boy yelled back that they had.
Over the next couple hours I got a few kids at a time, along with parents et. al.
A group of 3 came while I was out on the porch, so I handed them the treats. The others I spoke to through the glass door.

My mom stopped by, wearing a mask.

I had an idea. Small paper cups. Candy could be put in small paper cups, set out on a table near the street.

The weather forecast is clear. The moon is full. Halloween is on a *Saturday*. It's perfect, except for that matter of a world-wide pandemic going on.

Mom has a pumpkin and reportedly has lost her pumpkin-carving volunteer. I could carve the pumpkin and put it by the treats.

Even if no one stops to get any treats, jack-o-lantern would still be doing its thing, filling the evening with Halloween Spirit. I wouldn't need to feel like I've been feeling, that I'm copping out on Halloween.

.

Then again... Having a table full of untouched, unwanted cups of treats out in full view of everyone driving by all evening... the ignominy of it all... at least when the untouched treats are inside, you're not putting yourself all out there... maybe it would make the jack-o-lantern sad, not to have anyone even stop... who am I, to put a poor jack-o-lantern through such an ordeal...

I'm still uncertain what to do about Halloween.
I bought 2 bags of candy just in case, and a pair of tongs because that will be handy for other things too (salad!). Target still had a lot of candy and costumes available. But no orange holiday light strands.

It really wouldn't be much trouble to set up a portable table by the gate, with individual baggies of candy for kids to grab. Could even have one at Qiao's place, and one at mine, and even one at my mom's as it sounds like she's going to have a jack-o-lantern. (But we don't have that many portable tables...)

But I'm still not sure it's worth it with the uncertainty if there will be any trick-or-treaters at all this year. Although with an unmanned table out front, maybe random people with kids (or even without) driving by would be more likely to stop and get something than in normal years?

But then I'd need to go shopping again to get some small baggies. I didn't want to be wasteful yesterday, buying plastic baggies that I wasn't sure I'd use. I don't think people would be comfortable picking up paper bags where they couldn't see what was inside, and I don't think they make ones that small anyway. Are there any ecologically-friendly see-through baggies? Hum, something like these cute paper sandwich bags might work.

[ another idea: small paper cups would work too ]

It all wouldn't work well if it ended up raining or sprinkling that evening.
It would really be a great year not to do anything. But then my ghosties wouldn't even get to come out of the closet.

What to do, what to do?

.

I love the title of this article: Pandemic means trick-or-treating will be trickier this Halloween

This link requires you to be logged into nextdoor.com, but the photos are worth it if you have an account:
Treat trend - "Halloween is only a week away, and some Nextdoor neighbors are getting inventive — using everything from cardboard tubes to PVC pipe to craft contactless candy chutes."


If you don't have an account, check out some of these photos:
https://www.google.com/search?q=trick+treat+chute&tbm=isch

I never had those Zotz fizzy candies before this Halloween, and had never seen them in stores. I found them on Amazon while ordering the Peanut Chews. They seemed vegan based on their ingredient list, so I decided to give them a try. I'm not fond of hard candy, but they taste ok, and the fizziness is nifty.

As I always have so much candy left over after Halloween, I take it to work and leave it on the counter in the coffee area, over a period of 2 or 3 days. Last year and this year, it surprised me each time, at how fast the candy would disappear. I'd put it on the counter, and then when I'd walk by a few hours later, all sign of it was gone. Not only the candies, but even the bag it had been in. I can't figure out if many people are eating it until it's gone, or if someone takes the whole bag.

This morning, I saw that someone else had already put a big ziplock bag of candy on the counter. It was full of Zotz candies! I wonder if they ordered it from Amazon too, or where they got it from. I put my bag next to theirs. 3 or 4 hours later I walked by, and both were gone.

The last few days were muggy and damp. Today it cleared up somewhat and got windy, enough for the ghosties on the porch to sway and the pinwheel to twirly twirl twirl. I had created a new support for it to be able to hang it from a hook, and it worked even better than expected.

The little dog, Serena, pulled a trick overnight, tearing apart a trashbag I'd inadvisably left on the kitchen floor last night rather than taking it out to the bin right away. It was all caught on video. She started on it less than two minutes after I turned the lights off to go to bed.

Heavy thunderstorms are forecast for 6 to 8pm.

The candy is ready, come what may.

I'm trying to get my work hours in for the day, but having a slow time of it. Cleaning up trash. Distractions. Headache.

I wanted to post a Halloween song video, but the song I thought of (Mad World) ends up having nothing to do with Halloween. Too much headache to think of another right now. Took Tylenol 2 hours ago but it's not helping yet.

Had a strong temptation to give the dogs a bath, but can't take the time for that as I need to work. Finally convinced myself they don't need the bath today.

...
Edited to add (4:54pm):

Oh gosh, I should have raked the driveway and walkway. What if someone comes and slips on the pine needles? But no, I need to work. And anyway, it would feel embarrassing doing that now, making it look like I'm expecting trick-or-treaters when it's likely to storm. Even if anyone does come, they're more likely to cut straight across the grass than to go along the walkway.

If you have Halloween lights lit on your porch, do you still need to leave the porch light on to indicate you're giving out candy? Or do the Halloween lights suffice? (I'd have thought they would suffice, but Q always says the porch light should be on too. In which case I'd need to screw the bulb back in).

...
Edited to add (5:59pm):
Because of comments on this page, I screwed the porch light back in. It's a yellow bug light so at least it's sort of decorative looking.

Oh yay. Tornado Warning in this area now, per my cell phone. "Take shelter now." Oh yay yay. Earlier today it was only an alert, not a warning.

Hmm. If the power goes out, the Halloween lights will go out too.

I still have at least 3 hours of work to work. You can do it, you can do it!

My mom was supposed to take my niece and grandniece out somewhere for Halloween today. But I haven't heard from them yet.

Nineteen. Nineteen trick-or-treaters! Mwah, ha, ha, ha! ::in my best Sesame Street voice::

Had
One
A group of about Ten
One
Two
Two
One
Two

Or something like that. May have missed counting a few.
Not including the parents and/or chaperones.

Buying candy for Halloween is sort of like having a party, but not being sure if anyone will come.

Such an anachronism.

Nineteen! (Now I've got that Vietnam war song in my head.)

This page has a great "prove you're human / not a spammer" test thingy at the bottom, although I fear it may be too difficult or confusing for some people, especially if they're from someplace without much public transportation. But maybe that's on purpose, as they only want locals to post comments.

https://ggwash.org/view/65334/topic-of-the-week-what-does-trick-or-treating-look-like-in-your-building-or-neighborhood

The question, and sometimes the map, changes each time you reload the page.
Even I'm not certain about some things (one question mentioned the "full time" yellow line; not sure what that means, or how one can see that on the map).