I'm afraid it's looking like this Halloween is going to be a bust. We didn't bother to decorate this year, mostly because there are other things afoot to be detailed at a later date. Didn't even carve a pumpkin. I'm not even sure we're going to have candy out, even after last year's moderate success. (The photo above is the boyfriend last Halloween, when spirits were high. Literally.)
The real distressing news on the Halloween front comes via our neighbor Jim, the Exterior Decorator. And just when things were looking up, too.
We were driving past his house last Sunday and noticed a couple of squad cars parked in front. I don't know the nature of the unpleasantness with Bakersfield's Finest, but the very next morning every stitch of Halloween gear was gone. No doubt alcohol was involved - that's a given when there's a sign over your front door proclaiming "Happy Hour 24/7". Maybe he violated some unspoken quota on inflatables. Perhaps he was arrested for bad taste, although if that was the case everyone in this town would be doing time.
Whatever the case, it's all gone. And the neighborhood is all the sadder for it.
