The morning is dark and rainy. It will stay that way all day. When I woke up, the rain and the wind were heavier. Now the wind is quiet, but I can still hear the rain, a gentler rain. Henry has been barking all morning. The men came to put in the new water heater, and every time they make a noise, Henry barks. Nala keeps ringing the poochie bells to go out, but the gate is open. They are both driving crazy.

I always used to keep a dictionary by my bed in case I ran into a word I didn’t know. It was a paperback. Downstairs, I had a huge, hardcover American Heritage Dictionary with a red cover. Though I still have both of them, I rely on disembodied voices to tell me definitions. I remember learning how to use a dictionary, how to hunt down a word. I learned what the abbreviations meant. I learned to look at the top of the page to find quickly what I was looking for. We even had to take tests. I always thought it was one of the best skills the nuns taught me. Now it is obsolete.

All my Halloween candy is ready. I taped on the pencils last night. I also filled a few small brown bags with a Halloween pencil, eraser and small pencil sharpener. The bags are my back up in case I run out of candy or, more likely, I decide to save a few bars for myself. All the Snickers are gone, all five of them, but there are still Milky Ways.

When I was a kid, I don’t think my parents ever watched the news. My father read the newspaper, the Boston American. My mother did the crossword puzzle. I do both, but I read the Boston Globe. I also read the Cape Cod Times. Some people are amazed I still read an actual paper. My day always starts with two papers and two cups of coffee. It is a ritual.

It’s raining, loudly right now. It will rain all day, but the storm clouds are lighter than I expected. It is also warmer than I expected at 51°. My deck and lawn are covered with leaves. When I look out the back window, I can see the leaves being tapped by the rain. I can hear the rain on my window.

My sister in Colorado has a foot of snow, and it is still snowing. It is freezing at 31°. She said she had expected snow but not enough to see her entire world buried. She is happy to be home, warm and cozy.

The new water heater will be installed tomorrow. There was a leak in the back which caused the flooding. The plumber emptied the heater before he left, no hot water until Monday. I suppose I could always heat water and take a bucket bath. I am proficient at bucket baths, even with half full buckets. That was one of the unexpected talents I brought back with me from Ghana.

I’m going to get ready for Tuesday. I have chocolate bars and Halloween pencils. I’m going to tape a pencil onto each candy bar, a double treat.

On Halloween I’ll be glued to TCM. The schedule of films is amazing. It includes all of the classics starting with The Mummy at 10am and ending at 5am with The Bride of Frankenstein. Looks like an all nighter, a right night.

When I was a kid, I never saw a ghost or a goblin, but I believed they existed, and Halloween was their special night. Walking home in the dark after a long night of trick or treating I was alert, just in case. A loud noise or even worse, footsteps, would have sent me running. I would not have looked back but would have kept running at breakneck speed while protecting my candy bag the whole way.

I do remember being scared one night but not on Halloween. My parents had gone grocery shopping. We, my brother and I, were home alone with each other. I was watching television in the living room when I heard a noise, a rapping at the window. I looked out and saw nothing, but I heard more rapping a short time later. Thoughts of the man with the hook ran through my mind. I was scared. I locked the door and we hid. Next we heard knocking at the front door then we heard the door being opened. The lock had been breached. We thought death and mutilation were imminent. We didn’t dare move. The next sound we heard was my father laughing. He had been the intruder. He thought it was funny. We didn’t see the humor.