time to bust my near-week long silence. been bummed a bit about the state of the world. everytime i fired up the laptop to scratch a few words i found myself reading instead. a lot of blogs, journals and movie sites. and the news, which is fucked up. which we all know is the state of the world.

then the weather breaks and damn if it don't feel like fall. if i keep repeating myself regarding fall it is only because i love it so. in n ca fall is the best two days of the year. the only thing that would make it feel most like fall is if the rice farmers of the great central valley all started burning the stubble from their fields. it is illegal to do that now for the air gets so polluted from the smoke. but the smoke, the thick grey haze and the rich acrid smell of it, takes me back to childhood, zips me directly to memories of halloween.

and halloween is a mere 48 days from today. so time to start planning. yep, we got nicholas a costume already, a baby lobster outfit that we're afraid he'll outgrow in a month. i think maybe we can stuff him into it long enough to take photos.

then for the trick-or-treaters i'm debating on what type of candy to hand out. perhaps it'll be wax lips, sure to be a hit with the young-uns. but then those are made from wax and don't taste real good. so how about packs of candy cigarettes instead. but i can just feel right now a punch in the nose from an irate parent as i hand out those little goodies. so then perhaps i'll go with my old stand-by: ice cream. scoops of rocky road for little ghouls and goblins.

when the tykes knock on the door they'll be holding out their bags and pillow cases already abrim with sweets. i'll take my little scooper and say, here ya go. and plop a bit of the creamy stuff to mix-in and up the candy. i can see their eyes now. oh i love halloween!

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(um, in the phrase of triumph the insult comic dog, i kid!)