The morning is just so pretty. The sun is bright. It is fall sharp. Everything seems to pop in the light. It is in the high 50’s, and the strong wind is finally gone, but an every now and then wind still blows. The world is awash with leaves and pine needles. They cover everything. Even my driveway has disappeared. Some fallen branches and limbs are strewn about the yard. Leaves still hang from branches but most are brown. I have no plans for today. I do have a list of things to be done, but there is no timetable. I may vacuum Henry hair. It is back.

The mouse count is now 6. Only one of the mouse hotels was occupied last night. The mice are all small. I’m thinking a family, and the first mouse I saw, bigger than all the others, might be the patriarch.

Last night I had maybe twenty trick or treaters. The first group was the largest, 6 boys around 11 or 12. Each of them wore a costume. Every one of them was polite and said thank you. I heard them talking as they leaving, marveling at getting big bars. I know that feeling. Little kids were next. Their parents hovered around near the car. One little girl had a cascade of lights hanging behind her. She was a dancer. A parent yelled and said this was the best house on the street. She had seen the Hershey bar in her daughter’s bag.

When I was a kid, we always had the day after Halloween off. It is a holy day of obligation, All Saints Day. I had to go to mass or suffer the pains of hell. I used to go early to get it over with. I sometimes saw the public school kids walking to school. They didn’t get to stay home, watch TV and eat candy.

I always thought of fall as my favorite time of year even back then, but for different reasons than I do now. They were kid reasons. First came Halloween. Everything was good about it, and we got the next day off. Thanksgiving was close. We got to have turkey. When I was young, we only had it for Thanksgiving and Christmas so it was special. After Thanksgiving, all my thoughts were of Christmas. It took so much planning. It was the best day of the whole entire year.

This entry was posted on November 1, 2025 at 1:15 pm and is filed under Musings. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.