The morning is warm. The weather prediction said morning showers then sun. I think I slept through the showers because I can see sun and blue sky. Last night it rained, at times a heavy rain. I went out on the deck a couple of times to keep an eye on Nala, the escape artist. I just hope the branch keeping the fence upright will force Nala to stay in the yard.

When I was a kid, it never got dark early enough on Halloween. We’d try to go out in the late afternoon, but my mother stopped us, “Too early,” she aways said. We had to eat supper first. That made me unhappy for a couple of reasons. The first was I was still home with an empty pillowcase, and the second was I didn’t want to fill up on food. I wanted candy. I wanted to munch as I roamed.

We went all over town. The red house on Main Street, the one with the porch, was a nickel bar stop. I still think of that when I drive by the house. It is now a business of sorts, but it looks the same. We didn’t have the miniature bars back then so candy was often wrapped in a napkin twirled at the top. We also got apples. My favorite apples had a few pennies even the big jackpot, a nickel, pushed to the apple through the peel. I never ate the apples. Fruit on Halloween was wrong, so very wrong. Popcorn was also wrapped in a napkin sometimes with candy corn in the mix. I never liked candy corn, too grossly sweet.

My mother put the costumes together. She also did the make-up. I was a bum a couple of years. I wore tattered clothes and black make-up as if I had a beard. I carried a stick with a bundle at the end. My mask was just the mask to cover my eyes, a usually black mask. It had an elastic connected on both sides of the mask. The elastic often broke away from the mask. I’d have to make a couple of small holes to hold the elastic. Those masks never lasted beyond one Halloween.

I bought Hersey’s candy bars in case my Amazon candy didn’t come in time. That was a mistake. I’ve already eaten two bars.

Amazon came through this morning. I am giving out the regular size M&M’s. The Hershey bars are at the bottom of the plastic blue pumpkin holding the candy. I don’t expect to get down to the bottom of the pumpkin. All those Hershey bars will be mine, all mine!!!

Rains and wind are predicted for today. It rained earlier and stopped but scattered showers are predicted for the afternoon. The high will be 62˚. The sky is a dark grey. There is an occasional blast of wind which moves even the top most branches.

My neighbor from the next street behind my house came to tell me Nala had been running in his yard. By then she was back in the house. I went to the backyard to check. Two sections of the fence are leaning and not connected. A huge branch from a pine tree hit the fence exactly between those two sections. The hole between them is big enough for Nala. I did what I could, but the fence sections are far too heavy for me to lift back into place so I propped a branch hoping for the best. Another section further down is not connected but is still upright. I tried to block the hole. I’m thinking I need to take Nala into the yard on a leash. I called my friend and landscaper. He can’t come today. My factotum, Skip, does not answer his phone. I’m stuck with a downed fence.

Yesterday the world was out and about. Everywhere was busy. I went to the dump though it wasn’t on the list. I figured what the heck. After that I got my first shingles shot. My arm hurts if I lift it. I was warned that on the second day it would hurt. She called it a thick vaccine.

When I was a kid, I had all the childhood ailments. I remember chicken pox the most because it itched. My mother put mittens on my hands so I wouldn’t scratch and get scars. Our neighbor, an adult, got it and scratched. I remember the scars on her face. When I got the measles, my bedroom was kept dark so I wouldn’t go blind. I had to lie there and do nothing. I couldn’t even read. When I had the mumps, my face felt lumpy and strange. I kept looking in the mirror.

My viewing pleasure for today and tomorrow will be classic monster movies. I am not a fan of slash and bleed. I find Dracula scary enough when they highlight his eyes. One of my favorite black and white movies is Them, about the giant ants. What is strange is when the name Them first appears on the screen, it is red and squiggly. There is no color in the rest of the movie.

I remember when the The Exorcist was released. A bunch of us went to Boston to see it. The line snaked around the corner. It was worth the wait.