Sunday, October 31, 2004

Halloween - 6:06 PM

Tonight is Halloween, and I am alone in the house with a large black dog and an enormous kettle of chocolate candy. My wife and daughter have elected to drive to the home of friends in another neighborhood to have chili and dress in costumes and Trick-or-Treat.

I am therefore on my own, tasked with the dissemination of nineteen pounds of candy to any and every errant costumed kid that might ring my bell.

To enhance the mood of the occasion, I have illuminated a jack-o-lantern that I carved just this afternoon from a pumpkin, and have dug up John Carpenter’s soundtrack to the film Halloween which I have on vinyl. A few carefully placed candles have completed the mood I have chosen for tonight’s costumed Trick-or-Treaters.

So far, business has been slow. Nonexistent, actually, and that worries me. Though it is just after six o’clock, it has been dark for some time now, and the costumed candy hordes have yet to come. The reason I am concerned at this point is that I went a little overboard while purchasing the treats. Safeway had them on sale, and I loaded the cart with every conceivable chocolate bar - Twix, Payday, Butterfinger, Hershey’s, Nestle Crunch, Baby Ruth, and so on.

There is a lot of chocolate here.

More than I could consume in six months if the costumed rascals fail to turn out in great numbers.

I hope they come.

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