Halloween came and went. I didn’t take this picture on Halloween but earlier in the month and it seemed appropriate and I intended to post on Friday but when it came right down to it, I didn’t have much to say. We don’t ever get any trick or treaters here, never have had a single one since we bought this place and were here on the day, the street having no children. That has changed a bit, three or four houses with children now but we years ago stopped buying candy and keep the porch light off. Even so, if these kids trick or treat they don’t do it on this street, going elsewhere or to parties or events like Trunk or Treat at churches or organizations, you know, for a safe Halloween, taking the place of roving bands of kids.
So if your kid is bouncing off the walls this product spied at the grocery store earlier in the week might be useful for sugar induced mania, or just kids being kids getting on your nerves, a new mother’s little helper, calm those kids the fuck down. In case you can’t read the label it says “Supports a calm and relaxed mood.” Better alternative than codeine cough syrup I guess which you can’t get over the counter now anyway.
Thinking about Halloween when I was a kid, one of the neighbors would make popcorn balls, which was always a favorite, and some people would make cookies. None of that now. Homemade treats are now suspicious as fuck. And more along those lines, reading on social media when the topic of gifts of food like welcome to the neighborhood cookies or pot luck dinners at social gatherings I’m astounded at the number of people who won’t eat anything someone else made, acquaintance or stranger. Has that always been a thing or is it just part of the new culture of fear and suspicion that has overtaken this country.
I now have three full boxes of pecans and almost half of a fourth. Picking up pecans is kind of like a meditation, walking slowly, gaze cast to the ground. I used to walk a grid, now I just wander aimlessly and now that leaves are starting to cover the ground I use my feet to swish them around; step, swish, step, swish with the other foot. When that isn’t effective enough Marc will mow and mulch the leaves. Probably 90% of these came from the one undamaged tree from Hurricane Beryl. Surprisingly enough most of the 10% came from the tree that lost five major limbs, maybe a handful from the one that only lost two limbs.
I finally shortened the very first skirt I made all those years ago, not quite ankle length but within a few inches. Pockets were an afterthought so it has patch pockets and I didn’t care for those because they gape open. I only wore it once because it was too long so I cut four inches off it and redeemed it but I’m not taking it apart to put in side seam pockets like I did the other three skirts. I’ve about worn out one of them so we’ll see if shortening this one will make it more wearable.
What else, I went ahead and hemmed Paisleigh’s skirt based on the measurement I took and my fears of the waist being too small were totally unfounded. It’s so loose she can barely keep it on and it’s supposed to hit her mid-thigh. So I need to shorten the elastic. Upside is, it will fit her for a while as she grows by just running a new longer piece of elastic in the casing.
Anyway, I’ve put a new curtain for my closet on the back burner again and have decided to frame the cross stitch so I put away my sewing machine to get out my watercolors and colored pencils (little painting in progress). Besides picking up pecans every day, I dug up the pink crinum lilies and planted them at the end of the flowerbed as intended, picked up sticks in the yard, raked most of the leaves out of the barn, dug up the little sinkhole in the little backyard to see why it was forming to discover that the concrete cover that provides access for sucking out all the crap (literally) from one of the septic tanks had shifted exposing a half inch gap so I covered the gap with a concrete paver and filled the hole I dug back in. These tanks are only about a foot below ground. The weather has been perfect for getting stuff done outside.
I could write about the horrible wall to wall floored white marble with black streaks clad remodel with gold (of course) fixtures and crystal chandelier of the Lincoln bathroom and how cold and hard and uninviting it is and I can’t imagine being naked in there. Or that Trump is remodeling the Lincoln Center with I imagine the same tasteless result as if he thinks artists won’t play there and people won’t attend because of the current decor instead of the fact that he has MAGAfied it. Plenty of money for his tasteless renovations all to the glory of him but no money to make sure the American people get a decent meal. Or his tone deaf Gatsby themed Halloween party. And that’s being generous. I’m sure it was completely intentional, we’re rich and fuck everybody else. Let them eat cake, except we won’t even let them have cake. Or that Trump and the republicans knee jerk reaction to everything falling apart in tis country is the Democrats fault and all they have to do is capitulate and reopen the government but how the hell they are expected to do that since Johnson has sent House republicans home and refuses to call a session where he’ll have to swear in Grijalva. I could write about all that so as to have something profound to say instead of detailing the minutia of my life but what’s the point.
So, now, the last of the October skies, 28th - 31st. When I conceived of this, photographing the sky every day for a month, it seemed like a fun little project. Some days I only took one picture, some days multiple pictures because it was constantly changing and it was difficult to select just one for that day. Some days the camera had a hard time focusing on the skyline. But what I didn’t expect was that a whole month of the sky, day after day, would get a little boring. I mean how many times can you show a blue sky day or one with big white puffy clouds. I don’t get up early enough for sunrises and we really didn’t have that many colorful sunsets this month. I may post some of the alternate pictures later but for now, this is done.
