Nevermore - or at least not for a while

I just got off the phone with a friend of mine -  a father of four who just walked in the door after taking his kids trick or treating. “It was mobbed out there,” he said. “Kids everywhere.” I asked what his kids’ costumes were, and he went down the list. When he told me that his youngest was Spider-Man, I was instantly transported back to East Eden Road in Hamburg, going door to door, asking for candy, and freezing because I didn’t want to wear a jacket and cover up my Spider-Man costume. The mask’s cheap, stretchy string was biting into my ears, and it felt like breaking the rules - to be out having such a good time on a school night. Halloween always seemed to fall on a school night. The holiday was such a big deal when I was young – the dressing up and the candy. My God, the candy. Now, I'm grown up, and the street Linda and I live on is too rural for trick or treaters. So, Halloween has become something of a non-holiday for us. We’ll watch Charlie Brown or The Shining, but there’s no excitement about October 31^st’s arrival. That’s about to change, and I find that exciting. Tonight will be the last Halloween without a little costume and a bag of candy in our house.

19 days until baby.