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.

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