The morning is dismal. It is cloudy and dark. I turned on the heat so the house can get a bit warmer before I take my shower. Speaking of showers, one is expected tonight. Right now it is in the high 50’s, but the dampness and the clouds make it feel colder, a bit closer to the bone. I do need a few groceries, and I have my uke practice tonight so I will be forced to wear outside clothes and leave the comfort of my house. Such is my lot in life.

When I was a kid, I walked to school. The weather didn’t matter. My father took the car to work and left early in the morning so he couldn’t drive us. When it rained was the worst. I’d get to school with wet shoes, wet clothes and even wet hair. I remember my shoes sometimes got so wet water bubbled from the toes. My socks were wet. It took all morning for me to dry. I think I left puddles. We never went out for recess in the rain. After lunch we’d walk around the classroom and chat until the nun silenced us and had us take our seats. I remember when I’d get home, I’d put my soaked shoes under the radiator to dry. Sometimes they dried with the tips of the shoes sort of bent in the air like a genie’s shoes. They felt weird to wear.

Halloween decorations went up around now. I remember a cardboard hang up on the wall with Happy Halloween in letters spread across it and cardboard ghosts in the windows. They looked friendly, like Casper. Witches always rode brooms. Scary Halloween came later, when we were older. The boogeyman was a threat to scare us. He always wore black and had no face you could see. He sort of flew close to the ground rather than walked. When I read Harry Potter, I recognize Voldemort, the Bogeyman of my childhood. We all know about the hook left buried in the car door. The closet and under the bed were well known hiding places for monsters.

I love all the old black and white horror movies. I watch a few every year. The Mummy is my favorite followed by The Invisible Man. Bella Lugosi is the scariest character. Those eyes of his bore into your soul.

It is time for me to pull out my decorations. I have giant spiders and rats. I have one which is just the head, shoulders and hands of a man. It looks as if he has dug himself out of the ground. I have cute stuffed monsters I got a long time ago from CVS. They issued one a week. I have strands of orange and purple lights. I go all in for Halloween.

Today I’ll bake my pumpkin bread and sweep downstairs. The dog hairs have taken over again. The piles look like tumbleweeds. In a science fiction horror movie they’d have teeth.

Yesterday’s rain was heavy at times and has given way to a chilly, damp morning. Clouds cover the sky, but the sun is supposed to be here by the afternoon when we’ll jump from the current 50’s to the low 60’s. Fallen leaves are all over the driveway and the backyard. Most of them are yellow. Fall is firmly entrenched.

When I was a kid, fall meant darkness came early so we had shorter afternoons for outside playing after school. My mother didn’t care about the time. She cared about the streetlights. We’d usually watch TV until dinner or do homework if we had anything but mostly we didn’t. I remember watching Superman, not a bird, not a plane but Superman. I can still remember the whole opening. I had a lot of questions. How did Lois and the rest never recognize Superman as Clark without his glasses? How come nobody noticed he was wearing something under his suit and did he go back for his clothes?

Supper was usually around six. We ate at the table. We would rather have eaten in front of the TV, but that was only a Saturday morning treat. I remember the Melmac dishes, especially the ones with a sheaf of wheat as the design. They never broke, but they did crack usually straight across the middle of the plate. My mother had one or two of those plates for years. They had been free at the supermarket, a dish a week. I remember the gravy boat.

My weekdays were mostly the same when I was growing up. My mother would shout up the stairs to get us out of bed. She usually made us a hot breakfast. My favorite was dropped eggs on toast which I found out later were officially poached eggs. My other favorite was soft eggs in eggs cups. I ate the oatmeal, lumpy and palatable with only lots of sugar and milk. I always drank cocoa. My mother also made tea and served it in a teapot. While we ate, she made our lunches.

There are three concerts this week, but I will probably only play at two of them. Practice and my lesson will finish off my uke for the week. I do have a list of chores but they are suggestions.