Well, it is November 1st, the sun is shining, and I am in a pretty good mood. I always kind of dread November -- October is so much fun (usually) and it's hard to let that go -- but when November arrives it's never as bad as I thought it would be. Nice to have a break from the excess. Nice to focus on serious stuff. Speaking of serious stuff, I have already turned in my ballot for the November 5th election. I'm really wondering how that's going to turn out -- there's a chance that the Boulder City Council will flip back to "build, baby, build," which I would be sorry to see.
I'm hoping November isn't as snowy as October was, because the snow and cold have been overwhelming recently. HOWEVER, I'd take snow and cold over fire and smoke any day. I've been obsessing over the California fires this past week or so, and every time I go out to shovel or do anything that's affected by the snow and ice and below-freezing temps I remind myself that it's better than fire. And smoke! When I talked to Rocket Boy the other night, he asked whether the smoke from the fires had made it to Colorado yet, but I sure haven't smelled any. He asked about the quality of the sunsets (which would indicate the amount of particulates in the air) and I reminded him that our high was 8 the other day and except for shoveling, I have been spending most of my time indoors. I certainly have not been going out to look at sunsets!
While indoors, I have been spending a lot of time reading, as always. In my last post I showed a picture of seven spooky books I'd gotten from the library -- as of today, I have read four of them and nixed the other three. No point reading something that doesn't thrill you. My favorite, though, was one of the better books I've read so far this year (I'm up to 100, and counting). It was
The Remains of an Altar by Phil Rickman, book 8 in a so-far 15-book series, and I am now planning to go back and read all the others. This will be a challenge, since our library only has a few of them, and I can't spend a lot of money on frivolous things right now, not having a job and all that. But I suspect they're the type of book that I won't want to read a dozen of right in a row -- better to space them out. And anyway, it's November, so I have to read serious books. Biographies, general non-fiction, classics -- that sort of thing. Not supernatural mysteries, a type of genre fiction I only learned about this year.
Yesterday was of course Halloween, and I really wondered how much celebrating the twins and I were going to do. We had gotten three pumpkins the week before -- at the grocery store, which made me feel terribly guilty. The local farms need the money they make off their pumpkin patches, but this year with all the snow, we just didn't feel like trekking out to one, not even Munson's which is quite close. So we had our pumpkins, but they weren't carved. I had bought several bags of candy (varieties I don't like) while the twins were on their Outdoor Ed trip, and stashed them in the garage. I'd asked the twins over and over what they wanted to be for Halloween, but got very muted, uninterested responses. Finally, on Halloween afternoon we carved the pumpkins (I scooped the guts out and each of us carved one face) and the kids got into their costumes. Kid B decided he would be a wizard one more time. We have really gotten our money's worth out of that costume, and amazingly, it still fit him (just a little shorter than in years past). Kid A decided to be a "blue-haired purple-shirted eye-knifer," whatever that is, but at least it was easy to assemble. I had bought him some blue hair dye for "Crazy Hair Day" at middle school (which is actually today), so that worked for Halloween too.
They took some time getting ready, taking off their costumes in order to put sweatshirts on underneath and all that sort of thing -- because it was COLD. Even when they were ready, they hung around, handing out candy to the first few trick-or-treaters, getting their courage up. This was their first year going out on their own, because I had to stay behind and hand out the candy (usually Rocket Boy does that). That means they probably didn't say thank you to any of the people who gave them candy, because I always have to yell, "Say thank you!" Oh well. They finally set out and did Dartmouth, 36th, and 35th -- and then ran home to tell me all about it and use the bathroom and warm up. Then they went out again and did 32nd Street, after which Kid A came home for good, saying he had enough candy (this was about 7:15). I worried about Kid B trick-or-treating by himself, all alone in a wizard costume, but we have a very safe neighborhood, brimming with kids, and of course he came home safely at about 7:45, with an enormous bag of treats.
So now it is November, and we have an ungodly amount of candy in the house, but so far I have stayed out of it. That is, I've eaten two small Almond Joys, but those were formally given to me by the twins, because they don't like almonds or coconut. I have not put my hands into any of the bowls and poked around (the middle bowl is the leftovers of what we handed out). Unlike previous years, I'm letting them eat all they want, in the hope that it will be gone quickly. This morning they had candy for breakfast (and a glass of milk each). They have to learn some self-regulation at some point, so this is an experiment to see if they can do it at all. If they can't, at least the candy will be gone quickly.
Well, it is November 1st, the sun is shining, and I am in a pretty good mood. I always kind of dread November -- October is so much fun (usually) and it's hard to let that go -- but when November arrives it's never as bad as I thought it would be. Nice to have a break from the excess. Nice to focus on serious stuff. Speaking of serious stuff, I have already turned in my ballot for the November 5th election. I'm really wondering how that's going to turn out -- there's a chance that the Boulder City Council will flip back to "build, baby, build," which I would be sorry to see.
I'm hoping November isn't as snowy as October was, because the snow and cold have been overwhelming recently. HOWEVER, I'd take snow and cold over fire and smoke any day. I've been obsessing over the California fires this past week or so, and every time I go out to shovel or do anything that's affected by the snow and ice and below-freezing temps I remind myself that it's better than fire. And smoke! When I talked to Rocket Boy the other night, he asked whether the smoke from the fires had made it to Colorado yet, but I sure haven't smelled any. He asked about the quality of the sunsets (which would indicate the amount of particulates in the air) and I reminded him that our high was 8 the other day and except for shoveling, I have been spending most of my time indoors. I certainly have not been going out to look at sunsets!
While indoors, I have been spending a lot of time reading, as always. In my last post I showed a picture of seven spooky books I'd gotten from the library -- as of today, I have read four of them and nixed the other three. No point reading something that doesn't thrill you. My favorite, though, was one of the better books I've read so far this year (I'm up to 100, and counting). It was The Remains of an Altar by Phil Rickman, book 8 in a so-far 15-book series, and I am now planning to go back and read all the others. This will be a challenge, since our library only has a few of them, and I can't spend a lot of money on frivolous things right now, not having a job and all that. But I suspect they're the type of book that I won't want to read a dozen of right in a row -- better to space them out. And anyway, it's November, so I have to read serious books. Biographies, general non-fiction, classics -- that sort of thing. Not supernatural mysteries, a type of genre fiction I only learned about this year.
They took some time getting ready, taking off their costumes in order to put sweatshirts on underneath and all that sort of thing -- because it was COLD. Even when they were ready, they hung around, handing out candy to the first few trick-or-treaters, getting their courage up. This was their first year going out on their own, because I had to stay behind and hand out the candy (usually Rocket Boy does that). That means they probably didn't say thank you to any of the people who gave them candy, because I always have to yell, "Say thank you!" Oh well. They finally set out and did Dartmouth, 36th, and 35th -- and then ran home to tell me all about it and use the bathroom and warm up. Then they went out again and did 32nd Street, after which Kid A came home for good, saying he had enough candy (this was about 7:15). I worried about Kid B trick-or-treating by himself, all alone in a wizard costume, but we have a very safe neighborhood, brimming with kids, and of course he came home safely at about 7:45, with an enormous bag of treats.
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