First week of November.

Just wanted to share a couple of quick thoughts with you on Halloween and the start of November...

1) The schools closed early on Halloween. Yup, our local school system, to which I have just contributed almost nine thousand bucks, sent all the kids home around lunchtime. Now, they called it an educator enrichment session or something like that, but I think it was really a we don't want to deal with your kids who're all worked up on Halloween session. But the joke's on them, because they had to deal with the kids the day after, when they were suffering from horrible candy hangovers (possibly in the high school, hangover hangovers).

2) Junior Varsity Dog Nipper, who barked at the moon a couple of weeks ago, saw this candy bucket that I'd left on top of the coat rack:

It had a sack of candy in it, including Reese's, and if any candy will attract dogs it's probably them, which is bad because chocolate is bad for dogs. Anyway, Nipper saw that ghostly face and went growling and was a second away from losing his mind barking. I hustled the thing out of eyeshot quickly. This kid is on high alert.

3) Definitely saw more scarecrows around as decorations this year. I think Walmart may have been selling cheap made-in-China scarecrows. They're nice because they're attuned to autumn; you can use them as Thanksgiving decorations too. Keep 'em up until you put up the Christmas lights.

Come to think of it, though -- I haven't seen as many crows around lately!

😨

4) It's November! And the weather started off great! And we still have leaves! Pick your colors! Do you like yellow?

Or red?

Either way, every bit of blue sky we can get in November feels like a lucky break.

5) I came about as close as I ever have to getting just the right amount of candy. I would have been almost perfect except I belatedly thought to get some Tootsie Rolls and Tootsie Pops, in case we had any Teal Pumpkin kids. We didn't, as it turned out. So, I overbought, which is fine. As with so many things, it's better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

6) Hi from the chickens!

Okay, they're are not my chickens. I saw them on Sunday. Whoever owns them I'm sure was thrilled that the CDC said it was safe to dress up your chickens in little chicken costumes for Halloween. I'm sure these chaps were decked out appropriately on Wednesday. Ready for a little cluck-or-treating.

🐔🐔🐔

So now the next blow is the end of Daylight Savings Time, the brighter mornings and the dark, dark nights. Come right on in, seasonal affective disorder!