Halloween '09...

Well, I'm back after several days of being out of commission. The aches and pains of age can be quite debilitating at times, and I've been going through one of those times. Arthritis pain and insomnia are not good ingredients for a recipe to clear thought processes...if I had made an entry on here, there would definitely have been coherency issues.

Yesterday, as we all know, was Halloween. I love All Hallows. My favorite holiday, by far. After some last ditch holiday preparations, I was as prepared as I was prepared to get. (Say that five times really fast...) Friday was one in a line of several days where I ended up crashing for some sleep during the day (the kind where you're drifting in and out...far from restful), and then was up all night. It's an interesting sensation being exhausted and wide awake at the same time. Anyhoo, it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 4:00am when I finally decided to bite the bullet and carve the pumpkin I had purchased days before. I hadn't carved it prior because my right hand wasn't being very 'handy'...pain and stiffness from my RA. Halloween day had arrived, and I refused to let the day pass without having a carved pumpkin in the house. Bound and determined, I was. After a hot shower to pep me up a little, I spread out my newspapers and surgical implements (knife and spoon) on the kitchen table, made a hot pot o' java, tuned the nearby television to a scary movie (in this particular case, I use the term 'scary' very loosely...'Ghost Ship' starring Gabriel Burn and Juliana Margulies), and sketched my rough design on the orange flesh of the pumpkin. So...I'm righthanded. When it came time for me to cut a lid...lets just say the range of movement in my fingers was limited causing my grip to weaken, and causing the creation of my Jack O'Lantern to be a lengthy and painful process. I did get through it, and I'm happier with the outcome than I thought I'd be. The face isn't as involved as I usually do, but it's relatively clean and uniform for a gimpy hand (if I do say so myself). The sun was coming out by the time I finished, but there was a pretty thick mist hanging over the water out back. Snapped a few pictures. Perfect for a Halloween morning.

The day continued in the usual sleepless haze I had experienced for the better part of the week. I did get in one of my unrestful slumbers of a few hours. Wasn't sure what the situation was going to be for 'Trick or Treats'. Had some candy I had picked up a week or so ago, but wasn't sure if it would go very far. Had to get some stuff at Kroger, so I picked up a bag of Nestle's Crunch. Better to be prepared. Didn't want to run out of candy. Well, we didn't run out. We didn't have any Trick or Treaters...(sigh)...bummer. Had Dirty Rice and garlic bread for dinner (Glenn helped since I had my hand usage problem. The pumpkin had really done me in.) Then I pieced myself together as best I could and we headed up to the local watering hole, "The Islander", to see what festivities were going on up there. A part of me wanted to stay home, but it was good to get out. It was Halloween, dammit!


The parking lot wasn't as full as I thought it would be. There were a number of people in 'The Islander', but nothing close to what I'd predicted. We were there a couple of hours or so. Got to see some friends, so that was nice. We know the owner, Rudy, the bartenders, and others who work there. Plus there were several of the regulars there. I took quite a few pictures (the better of them above). Saturday is a regular karaoke night, so there was quite a bit of caterwauling going on. Nam, a regular and a really good pool player, fancies himself to be a fine singer. If he's in there and there's a karaoke machine about, he's going to sing. Oh, and I need to mention that Nam is from Vietnam, has quite a thick accent, and not a very fluent usage knowledge of our language. "Unchained Melody" is his main standard (nothing more special than to hear his rendition of the lyrics..."Oh, my love, my darling, I hunger for your touch, love you long long time"). He's so bad that he's great. People cat call and clap whenever he gets up there. It's a real hoot. However, last night he went with the other tune on his two song set list..."Imagine". That Nam...quite a character, and a really nice guy.

Since I've been having arthritis issues lately, I wasn't in any condition to shoot pool. Usually when Glenn and I venture forth to "The Islander", we spend the time shooting stick. I was very glad to see Nam arrive, as well as other regular pool players. The tables weren't too busy, so Glenn was able to get in a number of games. I was just enjoying being out of the house, and spent the time chatting with those I knew or watching people play pool. Jason Voorhees shot a few racks, and I must say he didn't do too badly. Was kind of surprised that he'd put his knife down though...

The ratio of civilian attire to costumes was about 50/50. Didn't have on my usual vampire attire this year. Was just glad that I was able to make myself look presentable. Jason was hanging out with a chick in a Pirate Wench's outfit; there were witches, other pirates, a viking, 'Death, and two Sham-wows running around; the Karaoke guy was dressed up in a doctor's outfit and had his face painted like Gene Simmons (took me two seconds to figure out he was supposed to be Dr. Love); Aaron, the bartender was a Pirate; "Bar" Lisa (another bartender...Glenn calls her that, so people will know which Lisa he's talking about) was a fairy; Brett (guy who works in the kitchen) was a toilet...he told me it was because "He's full of shit" (ha, ha...cough, cough); and the other girl working (who I guess is new) was wearing a Sarah Palin outfit...I kind of thought Palin was very 'last year', but then she has been in the press a lot lately... The best entrance came when Richard (another regular) showed up. I was sitting at the table watching a pool game, when I heard the sound of a chainsaw rip into the room. I turned around to see a werewolf masked guy waving a smoking chainsaw around in the open doorway, chains and severed body parts draped around his shoulders. Brilliant! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a good picture of that. Richard later told me that his son is involved in one of the local charity haunted houses, and it was he that helped Richard get ready for the night. Was really great! Glad I hadn't missed it. The karaoke guy hosted a few games, the first of which I didn't get a clear explanation of. It involved couples and a plunger. Just that info conjured disturbing images, and I didn't care enough to look further. The game after that involved couples and toilet paper. One person wrapped the other one up like a mummy in a specified amount of time. I must say that none of them seemed to have the whole 'wrapping things in toilet paper' method down. Guess they hadn't ever participated in that age old Halloween tradition of T.P.-ing someone's yard....I uhmmmmm...I plead the fifth...

So that's about the extent of my Halloween for 2009. It was kind of low-key, but fun was had. I will say that for the first time since quitting smoking, I had a slight craving, but I didn't succumb. Today marks smoke free day 22. I'm pretty happy about that. It's been easier than I anticipated.