Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Happy Halloween!

Am I the only person that looks at that statement, Happy Halloween, and thinks: isn't that sort of an oxymoron?  Shouldn't it be Scary Halloween to you!  or Frightful Halloween!  or just what it used to be Hallowed Evening, just by itself...  How about, because of the spirits being close, Safe Halloween!

We (Gideon, his dad, aunt and myself) had a happy evening of trick or treating.  We went to a part of town where the street actually gets blocked off for all the people to be able to safely walk.  There is a house in town that hands out ice cream (Link) there every year. We got there just after they ran out.  Gideon took it like a champ though and didn't let that bring him down.  We recognized a few of the people who had been out Friday night for the Halloween Howl-Jack Sparrow, dinosaurs, some princesses and the Suffragette are a few that come to mind.  Gideon also had 2 other kindergarten kids from his class say hello.

My happy part of the night was on the walk home, singing the Ants Go Marching song to motivate the tired boy to walk the rest of the way home.   The candy was sorted and I was given the non chocolate candy that has food coloring.  He is such a generous little man.  He shared with us all without needing to be prompted. 

My daughter's interpretation of Mummy pizza for dinner.

Vampire ready to go!

Still some pretty foliage,



A moon to howl to. 

Spooky. 

Random 

These people had nature help out with the decorations.
Note the tree that has fallen on the house.
They made the best of it and hung someone from a branch.


It's the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man!!
 .
I absolutely LOVE this house.


Jack Skeltington.



Lolly pop house.

Ravens... these people were perhaps Poe fans.



 The scariest decoration.


 Almost home.

Monday, October 30, 2017

The 30th of October--Lots of pictures

The storm last night knocked out power in many places, including the town I work in the school at.  They canceled school.  Unfortunately (?) I didn't get a phone call informing me of this.  So I got there, obviously noting the lack of electricity in town, and found a mostly empty parking lot.  The nice man in a school maintenance truck came over to my parked car (I was texting) to let me know that the school was closed.  He thought I might be a student.  No doubt my older car is more like a students.  Anyhow, school was canceled. I headed toward my other job until I realized that I needed gas to get there and no power in town meant no gas.  Rather than head to my destination I went to the closest town that I knew there would be gas with enough stations that hopefully power too.  That direction was east, towards the ocean.

Once the car was fueled I headed for the beach.  The wind was blowing strong and the waves crashed and seagulls huddled--seemingly to not blow away.  It was about 62 degrees outside and the water temp was supposed to be around 61.  I didn't dip my toes in.  I even kept my shoes on.  After taking way too many pictures and walking most of the length of Hampton Beach I rested (charged my phone a bit and looked at Facebook) and then headed up to North Hampton Beach where I walked a bit on the sidewalk and then back to my car.  The North Beach is much more rock than sand and the waves were almost up to the retaining wall in most places. 

Eventually the pull to get my job done at a reasonable time won out and I went to work.  In the evening a relative, the family and I went to the movies and saw Spirited Away, the subtitled version.  Gideon went to.  He has seen the movie before so was able to follow along even when he wasn't able to read as fast as the subtitles went.  When it ended he got up and danced at the front of the theatre while the credits rolled. 

It was a good day.  Exercise and fresh air topped off with family time.  I heard briefly from a friend as well which is always nice.  Other than work and a little bit of health insurance frustration the day was a blast (literally, that wind!).  The beach and movie time stand out as today happy things.  :)   Not getting a phone call about no school today turned into a very happy day.

















34 sec.








 1 min 12 sec. 



 59 sec.





I said, "It's just a little windy."





Sunday, October 29, 2017

October 29th--Sunday

First off I would like to apologize for yesterday's rather down post.  I try not to do that, but obviously didn't try hard enough.  Gideon woke up in a good mood today and was pretty much back to his normal self.

Today I had a different type of down day.  A rainy Sunday that I could have spent working and decided not to.  I did dishes, laundry, chatted with the family, organized my room a bit, read school emails and training websites, spent too much time on Facebook, took a nap and spent enough time researching about hacks for the headboard of my new bed that I could have made it in the same amount of time.  The reasons I am looking for hacks are because I really don't want to attach it to the wall and I kind of wanted to use it as a foot board instead of a headboard and it would need to be free standing for that to happen.  Online I found that some people had luck with adding legs and others that just didn't attach it to the wall and have not had any issues.  Here is a link to the Brimnes headboard.  The best hack was to buy 2 and attach them to each other.  I think that will make my room too small, but I may measure and consider that more.

Around 7:30 PM I checked my lack of steps on my Fitbit for the day and had around 1700.  The rain seemed to be at a lull so I got dressed (yes, I also spent the day in my pj's) and went for a walk.  It was just sprinkling and the winds were mostly not too strong.  I tried doing some jogging but there was the occasional slippery spot so I chose to just walk.  There were a couple of almost slips that had I been jogging at the time I am not sure would have ended so nice.  The walk was lovely and rejuvenating.  Less than an hour after getting home it is pouring again.  I didn't end up with my daily goal of 10,000 steps, but 6800 is way better 1700. 

The walk was lovely but my happy for today is that Gideon woke up happy.  He went straight to look for his parents, but that is fine.  He slept through the night and had a good day.  Now if we can keep that nasty food coloring away from him. 


Pictures from tonight's walk.
The State Capitol Building.

 I see a face-the eyes are the windows.

I guess I should have stopped longer when taking this ghoul picture.