I can finally breathe a sigh of relief, because the Halloween decorations are up. Sunday, I put up the ghost, the graveyard, and even the witch. I completed the witch’s broom using a gnarled old stick and some twig-scrub-stuff I bought from Wal Mart. The finished thing looks really good, too bad she’s not flying around the yard. I did, however, put her up and focus a green spotlight on her, which is timed to come on at the same time the ghost and her blacklight do. All in all, I ended up being really impressed with the results – the complete display looks awesome. If the small green floodlight on the ghost ends up looking good, I’m going to add a couple to the corners of the graveyard – and get some chilled, ground-hugging fog drifting through. Should be really cool. I’m just glad it’s up, and, although I’d’ve liked to have had it up earlier, I at least feel a little better having finally done it. I am disappointed I didn’t work on the backyard at all… too many projects.
Friday evening after work, I decided to do some picking up in the garage. Since the driveway’s been blocked with pallets full of pavers for months now – I’ve just been letting things pile up all over the place. Nearing the end of the pavers, I thought it would be a good time to clean up for the eventual return of the cars. So, I found myself working in the garage with the door open as the sun was going down.
As I worked I noticed two girls walking down the street, each with a handful of newspapers. Knowing I was about to be solicited, I kept working as one of the girls broke off and walked up the driveway towards me. “Good evening sir, ” she said. “Evenin’, what can I do for you?” I asked. Turns out she was hawking some free-trail of the local newspaper, and she already had 49 subscriptions. What’s more, if I would just be her 50th subscriber, I’d be directly responsible for her hitting her quota and winning a trip to Disneyland. Now, let’s talk about this girl: I figure she’s about 15 or 16 years old, how much motivation is a trip to Disneyland to today’s youth? Anyway, I told her I thought she was lying about the 49 out of 50 thing – telling her I bet they taught her to say that to everyone. I wasn’t mean really, just joking with her. She stuck around trying to convince me for what must’ve been 5min as I continued to clean. At some point, I said something like, “If you really wanna go to Disneyland, you better hit the street and get that 50th subscriber – because it’s not gonna happen hanging out in my garage.” She laughed, thanked me for me time, and turned to leave.
As she was leaving, dejected, she walked down the driveway and over the spot where I had a big pile of decomposed granite for the back porch last week. The DG is all gone, but I haven’t had the chance yet to sweep up the crumbs. While my back was turned, she slipped on the small loose stones and, as her feet flew out in front of her, she fell right on her ass. I turned when I heard the noise and saw her sitting on the ground, her friend had re-joined her and was helping her up as I asked, “Are you OK?” She turned to me, red-in-the-face, and said she was. As the two walked away, I started imagining the letter I’d be getting in the mail in a week. Sued by a 15 year-old girl for negligence, I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
I’m outta here, g’night.
Also written on this day...
- halloween dashed - 2010
- now it's now - 2006
- kicking - 2005