By the time we got to the end of October I was done with it. The Halloween decals on the windows, the witches and skulls…it seemed to go on forever, like it should have been over by now. The skeleton couple on the mantel, I remembered the day we got them and I was getting sick. How summer still had its sway over us then…but walking to the bus I realized today it’s gone for good: the shades of loss through the distance.
We drove across the Scottish Highlands from Arbroath, the first day the sun came out, and made the landscape gold past the old cemeteries and towns. By the time we got to Inverness it was getting dark near 4, we checked in to our place and I went out for groceries…and followed the sound of bagpipes in the town center, and came back to make soup.
We took the kids trick-or-treating the next day but it just wasn’t the same, how could it be? We came home with empty bags and stopped at a McDonald’s, hoping for some lesson we could take away from it. And the next day, we drove to the Loch Ness and a walk to some waterfalls, and it was all sun on a Sunday, November 1, with the whole month ahead of us to just be in Scotland, to see all that we could see.
I took the bus to work today and stood for a while waiting for it, the first one of the day. And remarked when I got home how quickly it went, the day! How we click the days off like that and march headstrong to the end. How it will come sooner than we expect it to, though we deny its existence…but in the end, it will deny us our own.
Bill Pearse 
Here, on the other side (of the IDL, not life/death), it is early afternoon on the 31st. New pagan year begins tomorrow. Hope it’s a good one for you, Bill.
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Ah good. Thanks Bruce, you are a good luck charm on my screen. Thanks for reappearing. Like the IDL ref. That’s good. Not life/death. I’m toasting bread crumbs for soup topping. Bye for now.
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funny how the days slip by us at times and we don’t even notice until it’s over
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Listening to too much Cure.
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Right, true that. Kind of messes with your mind (and hair).
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Wax on, wane off. This is another excellent one, maybe that Scottish magic for distillation. And killer last sentence.
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Just read an excellent article on the Washington Post, “how death disappeared from Halloween.” True, kind of unfortunate too…perhaps a larger phenomenon and not good IMO. Happy Halloween my friend! Bill
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I was just walking the dogs and passed by some fake tombstones in a yard, fake names on them (I hope) with dates, too. My imagination went to my yard, and potential ideas for next year, fake tombstones that say something like “here will lie you before you know it” or “future home of us all” or some such. I won’t do it, of course, that’s just where my brain went, without my permission. Agreed about the last sentence, that’s a keeper.
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Nice, Walt. Happy Halloween. I love this holiday! Hope yours is fool-hardy and fun, as it should be. And don’t run out! Bill
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We celebrated Thanksgiving while in London one year. What a bust. My mother-in-law brought a turkey home from the butcher and when she unwrapped it, it still had some hairs on it. She wrapped it back up, marched back to the butcher shop and demand it be cleaned properly. The old bitch. Can you imagine what they thought of this loudmouth, spoiled American?
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We celebrated Thanksgiving in a small town in Scotland, they really get into game birds that time of year. Roasted potatoes in duck fat…yum…but that image with the hairs and feathers, no thanks! SanitiZe me
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“By the time we got to the end of October I was done with it.” Boy, do I hear that. It’s been a grind, and I don’t even have a real job. November’s activities should wane with the season (famous last words…)
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It’s so weird, reading your autumnal pieces and being here, where it’s still almost 80 degrees every day and you know fall is coming just by the light. We were hiking in Truckee in shirtsleeves the other day! I know what’s coming, but you’re like the advance guard reporting what to expect …
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Hiking in Truckee sounds just fab. Yes, it’s now everything you imagine about the Northwest right now, starting in earnest tonight…oh to the wind storms and rising rivers.
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