This is Halloween

 I can't say I'm feeling extra writery these days.  I've got a lot on my mind.  But that's no excuse to not document my life, especially when i have all these pictures I don't know what to do with.  And it's a good reminder to me that no matter what's going on, life always marches on.  Just like we learned earlier this year when the pandemic was new and rocked all of us.  Never knowing what to do about it, unable to plan or anticipate anything anymore, time passed still. The seasons changed. Summer came. And we were still alive.  And as it's gotten colder, the days shorter, the sun more distant, we know how to hunker down for winter, having been well-trained in the preceding months. Stay home and don't go anywhere like I usually do every winter? Please. I don't even bat an eye this time around.  And new bad news comes and we feel new bad feelings. And we cope because we know how. But even if we don't, we give it to the day, and let it lead us because we can rely on knowing we'll get a new one, at least.  

And, too, holidays come and we must reconcile traditions with new ways.  This year, a lot of people didn't trick-or-treat. I live in a place where it's easy to spread out so being in crowds outdoors is rarely a concern.  We let Julian go with a friend which was the first time we didn't go with him. It was weird. Are we empty-nesters? I guess we are now. This is the first phase.  So Sean and I donned our matching fuzzy skeleton suits, enjoyed an unseasonably mild Halloween, and sat out on the driveway with our fire pit and candy spread out on a table with our jack-o-lanterns.  And we actually chatted with neighbors, other humans, which was really, really great.  Here is the photographic evidence of what I've just described:

I love this little floofer so much.  She is my service animal   My comfort cat.  Keeper of my zen. Not to make light of service animals. But really, pets are therapy.

my friend and I both purchased this sweatshirt. Gotta find that pic somewhere. It just felt right. 

I looked up a bunch of pumpkin-carving ideas and discovered the DRILL. Perfect. 

As it may be his close-to-last, we let Julian choose his costume this year. He loves money and coolness and naturally that results in him being....

He called it Rich Man. But no yeah, he's a pimp. That's a pimp costume.  Complete with pimp stick.  We could not be more proud.  

Seanifer by the fiery glow. 

Ah, here we go: 

appropriate.

This is my pumpkin. I know, I actually did one this year. I love her. 

Good one, Sean. We drilled holes in the top and stuck in suckers, as if it wasn't obvious. 

Our table. 

The haul.  He had to work hard for it. I miss candy from the old days. I feel like it was more varied.  These days it's all the same. Not even anything sketchy or unlabeled.  I wanted to hand out something different so this year I got a bunch of Pocky boxes. They lasted like 30 minutes but that's ok. It got me thinking about next year.  It's gotta be different. Maybe even weird. Whatever to make kids put it into a category of its own, perhaps to add some interest, which is sort of how I live my life  and view myself in general.