weekend bits

[cellio]

Today's Halloween, so I've been assuming that costumed children (and some non-costumed non-children, based on past years) would show up on our porch seeking sugary tribute. I saw nothing in the newspaper about scheduled hours for this, so I applied the power of Google. I wonder whether this means that the web really is pervasive, or if people who have kids (or otherwise care) have alternative sources of information. Silly me; I just naturally assumed that this was one of the jobs of a local newspaper.

I did buy some sugary tribute; we'll see how many people show up before we leave for dinner with friends. We didn't get a lot of people last year or the year before; it's possible we have a a reputation as the house that hands out weird stuff due to Dani handing out comic books for a few years in the past. On the other hand, we might just live on a low-payoff street; the houses are more spread out than a few blocks over and I'm not sure how many neighbors participate.

This afternoon we visited with my parents (and sister and one of her kids, though said kid preferred the computer's company to ours). My parents are taking the death of their dog (about a month ago) pretty hard. Thor was a 14-year-old golden retriever; they'd had him since he was 2.

They had him cremated, and my mother showed us the urn that contains his ashes. I'll have to look that one up in Miss Manners. I mean, what's the proper response? "It's a pretty urn"? "I'm so sorry" (but I said that already)? Silence? (Oh, and a wise move: they seal the urn, so accidents that don't involve breakage are harmless.)

I knew that dogs could be trained to do a lot, but I was surprised to read about the assistance animal that called 911, barked persistently into the receiver until the folks on the other end reacted, and then unlocked the front door for the ambulance crew when his owner fell.

We had a visitor Shabbat afternoon, and the three of us played games for a few hours. Aha -- that's a good way to spend (part of) long Shabbat afternoons! (I can't just read all day -- I get headaches from eyestrain.) Of course, with the change of seasons and now the time change, long Shabbat afternoons are going to be much less long for a while. But I must remember this come summer and try to arrange for it on a regular basis. Besides, I like having company and I have friends who like to play games, so what's not to like in this plan?

Friday night at services someone was wearing a Kerry/Edwards button -- transliterated into Hebrew. Some words should just not be transliterated into Hebrew. "Edwards" is one of them. Boy did that look funny.

Comments

Re: Oh, lest I forget

[jonbaker.livejournal.com]

When I was a kid, all the kids in my parents' building (66 apts) would gather in someone's apartment, start at the top (16th floor) and work down as a group. That way, everyone was safe - we were just in our own building.

When we lived in Park Slope, the parents were so paranoid that there was almost no residential trick-or-treating. Around dusk, the commercial street (7th Avenue) would flood with a sea of cuteness, as the little ones trick-or-treated the stores. We bought sugary tribute once or twice, but wound up eating it ourselves, since no kids came by.

Re: Oh, lest I forget

[cellio]

I grew up in suburbs, and we were only allowed to go a couple blocks in each direction. (Most of my classmates were allowed to roam farther, but my parents were over-protective.) One of my parents accompanied us when we were younger, but I think by the time I was about 8 or 9 they weren't doing that any more.

I remember arguing the limited range with my parents by pointing out that they had bought much more candy to give out than my sister and I were bringing in, so clearly our expectations were out of whack -- we should be able to go to every house that would be sending kids to us, net balance 0. They didn't buy it, but they commended me on the ingenuity of the argument. I thought it was obvious, not ingenious, myself. :-)