Halloween

Although it rained most of the day, it's warm and dry outside and yet hardly a trick-or-treater around. Two years ago it had been raining for days and the yard was soggy and gross, but tons of trick-or-treaters. Last year it was dry and beautiful but cold and we had tons of trick-or-treaters.

Scott and I don't even like kids. We generally don't like other people's kids and we certainly don't want any of our own. Yet every year at Halloween, we carve pumpkins. We string up fake spiderweb. We hang a skeleton in the window. This year, I even put scary music on my iPod and set the player outside next to the styrofoam gravestones. But no trick-or-treaters.

Usually, the parents with small kids in tow start knocking a little after 5 p.m. Then the bigger kids with parents in tow arrive. Then a stream of kids that don't need parental chaperones. But this year the first trick-or-treater knocked at 6:45 (this does not include our next door neighbor Woody, who makes his obligatory costume display before he heads off to whatever party he's attending this year.

So here we sit, drinks in hand, scary music playing, too much candy in the cauldron, waiting for trick-or-treaters.