today is halloween!

finally the high holiday is here.  i look forward to Halloween, and autumn, all year long & then it suddenly arrives.  this time tomorrow we'll be full in to the holiday season.  & i'll be looking forward to Halloween, again.  i have an app on my phone, the first app i downloaded, a Halloween counter.  today it says, Happy Halloween!  tomorrow it will say, 365 days till Halloween.

not that the passage of time and the fragility of our place in it bums me out.  i'm one of those dudes who lives with Halloween in his heart (& on his shoulder, i have a jack o'lantern tattoo) every minute of every day.  sounds excessive?  not really.  i love the horror genre, & Halloween/horror decor, imagery, & iconography makes me happy.  i watch/read/listen to Halloween things all year long.

but then so, i took the day off to enjoy the holiday.  i did little but watch the Halloween movie franchise, including the oddest flick of the lot, halloween iii: season of the witch, the one movie of the long running series that does not have the great villain, michael myers, in it, & read a little, & texted with a couple of brothers in life & the art.

it's been a warm & sunny fall.  i had the front door open, the screen door was closed, & the windows propped open to let in the warm autumn air.  a delightful day.  however, i got reversed tric 'r treated.  say what?  around 4:00 pm i was sitting on my couch, going thru a couple of twitter feeds on my phone, & watching the 4th movie in the michael myers series, when a young woman pops up on the porch.  she knocks on the screen door & says, trick 'r treat.  it's a bit early don't you think, i said.  no, she said.  i'm giving you candy.  her tattooed hand reached into her plastic bag with the Rite Aid logo [there is a Rite Aid down the street on the corner of L st &  Alhambra blvd], pulled out a few pieces of candy, handed them to me, & said, you've got a gorgeous house.  she jumped off the porch, gave the house an admiring look, & disappeared down the street.  i think she said something about liking the pictures of the house.  i don't know what she means, what pics?, or where she came from.  i think the tattoos on her hand & wrist were of bats!  a cool, spooky, Halloween kinda gal.

okay so, after dinner we were prepared to greet the trick 'r treaters.  it gets dark early.  we figured they should be out in force.  they were, in the swankier fab 40s.  there, you'll get stuck in traffic jams while the kids & their parents/guardians number in the 100s.  our street is a bit more quiet.  but by 7:30 pm the trick 'r treaters were here.  i was in heaven.  i love the kids, their costumes [the family from the animated film, the incredibles, was a popular choice.  & one kid dressed in a spooky garb that i thought was a version of the invisible man.  anna told me the costume was slender man], & the atmosphere of celebration.  there were more kids than we thought would knock on our door.  we were in danger of that great heresy, running out of candy.  i wondered if there were more kids than usual this year.  anna pointed out that until recently we would be out with nick as he trick 'r treated.  slap my face!  the passage of time strikes again.

tomorrow the calendar ticks over another year.  the Halloween counter app will register another year until the high holiday.  christmas commercials will coagulate the airwaves.  so be it.  i like christmas.  i really like thanksgiving, which is a mere 3 week away.  hopefully, the weather turns colder.  not freezing.  california cold, which translates to sweaters & a light jacket.  in the meantime, tonight it is Halloween.  the great 1978 film Halloween is on TV.  & in case you were wondering, yes, that pic above is a self-portrait of me as a Halloween pumpkin dude. 

until next year, keep Halloween in your heart, & stay spooky brothers & sisters.  keep your senses of humor, humility & awe.  we are going to need them in our near to mid futures.

boo