Unbilled Time

It’s November 1 and I have an extra hour this morning to contemplate the 5-gallon bucket of unopened candy inside our front door. My wife and I were looking forward to last night, the first Halloween in our new house, where we put aside the awkwardness of apartment Halloweens and enjoy treating the children from our own homestead. Darkness fell, and I wrenched myself away from the Val Lewton classic films playing on TCM to wait by our lighted porch for the parade of costumed children.

No one came. Not one in two hours. No goblins or ghouls, no superheroes or princesses, no shy little ones accompanied by their parents or exuberant packs of kids anxious to see how we would add to their bags of goodies. No one came.

Today I consider the possible explanations — we’re facing a main thoroughfare and close to an intersection, we’re new to the neighborhood and still an unknown element, and (why not blame?) the economy. Maybe the old rituals are casualties of the trends toward private parties, or the co-opting of Halloween festivities by young adults.

In any case, I hope that our experience was an isolated one, and the Halloween we knew as children isn’t dying. For me, it was more than consolation over the end of summer and the return to school, or a fantasy and candy-filled way station before the spectacle of Christmas. It was a chance to roam my neighborhood and meet people I’d had no occasion to see during the rest of the year, despite our proximity. For one night we all put aside our preconceived notions of privacy, security and propriety to approach our neighbors as neighbors, all the while mocking our fears with candy and silly costumes.

How will artfully organized parties compete with that in the future? Technology already allows (or subtly encourages) us to build all of our relationships as comfortable grooves of like-minded, like-interested cliques of mutual reinforcement. Maybe the fundamentalist’s wrong-headed opposition to Halloween celebrations will become a self-fulfilling prophecy, and Halloween is destined to become an expression of our escalating fears rather than our rejection of them. And that will be more frightening than any little ghoul or old dark house.

or “Trumbo: First House Part II”

or “Hey! Didn’t I used to have a blog somewhere?”

I’m back with a story that’s strange but true. The deal on the house we thought we bought last month fell through in the strangest way. No one knew it at the time, but through some bizarre oversight that house was scheduled to go up for auction at the same time it was offered for general sale to the public. The bank counter-offered to us with terms we could accept, but in fact the house was sold at auction that very weekend.

So it was back to house searching for us. Not to worry — two weeks later we found a nice fixer-upper in a more central location. Not only is this house cheaper, but it’s a shorter commute for my wife.

Any money we’ve saved in the purchase price will go into making some light repairs and completing some renovations rudely interrupted by foreclosure. All things considered, it’s a great deal for a neighborhood we had given up hope in ever finding a home in our price range.

The adventure continues.

At last I can reveal the Project that has kept me offline and preoccupied for so many weeks.

My wife and I have just accepted a seller’s counter offer on a home purchase. We expect to take possession of our new house before the last week in July.

I sound pretty calm for someone about to sign away our inheritances, savings and tax refunds.

A thousand pardons for my shocking neglect of the blog these past few weeks. Something came up that has occupied my every spare moment, and will likely keep me busy through the summer. I hope I can go into detail later.

I have the 3M Ergonomic Mouse and I’ve been using it for nearly three weeks. I’ll post a proper review as soon as possible, but for now I’ll just say I’m generally happy with it. Stay tuned…

Once again, delays in keeping up with the blog. Taxes, writing, cats, chores, participating and voting in a short story contest, and as always, the quest to drum up new business. I intend to return with something more substantial soon.

A test post, while I explore different themes.

OK, this theme seems a good mix of visual appeal and a readable font size.