Some years, fall creeps up on me. Sure, I notice the signs, but I ignore them as long as I can. Mostly it’s a combination of general optimism and intense dread of winter that produces my head-in-the-sand attitude. But there comes a time when it simply can’t be ignored. Late October is that time.
That color, not on a peach, those open pine cones, yup, fall.
Halloween in my neighborhood is almost competitive sport. For a while, it centered on the jack o’lantern as an art form. Apparently special tools for carving pumpkins, along with patterns were sold … somewhere. But recently, it’s been yard decorations. And I’m not talking pumpkin and skull lights on the bushes here. I’m talking crashed witches
Nice boots for a witch.
and improperly cared for graves. 
Or maybe even graves that have been robbed.
Guy in the hoodie: sinister. Has he been reading Titus Andronicus?
Ghouls and ghoulies also abound, as does spider webbing, the kind that would drive a serious housekeeper batty.
Imagine passing these guys on your way to the candy!
There seems to be general mayhem some places, with people falling from windows and lying on bushes.
Can anything good come of this?
And then there’s the arachnid from your nightmares. That is one big spider and could possibly be responsible for all the spider webbing strung around.
No big wood spider, this.
As my Uncle Lewis used to say, “That thing gives me the heebie jeebies.”
Happy Halloween!
arlingwords 