hate to cover up good pop-art with blather, but it's been a long full holiday weekend and the words are pushing their way out my fingers even though i had to wake up special, middle of the night, to be out here. i'm inspired partly because tonight, my young son held me tight, scared hard by a costume so evil it just got to him. everyone was clearly in costume; yes, he could handle that, the whole party was in costume, and that was ok, to some degree, but when this death-monster (pumpkin-face, the other judge called him; he won second prize)-that was it. the incarnation of evil.

we'd also been jumped just as we set off trick-or-treating, the night before; the neighbors, who have a house full of girls who had apparently dressid up the dog several times, unwittingly let the dog bolt out the door when they answered it, and when the little guy was trick-or-treating. he's right down at the dog's level, and the little yip-yip dog had a lot of repressed feelings, i guess, and though there was no biting (fortunately) it was one of those moments that will stick with him a lot, like the gorilla incident of last halloween which he talked about for almost a year, and certainly every time we drove past murdale (almost every day).

i mention this to say that, although it may seem like i dropped out of the world to be stunned at the gorgeous weather, the fact that the area seemed to be at its peak this weekend in terms of color, that it seemed to be a convergence of stunning fall leaf-color-peak and otherworldly-holiday-celebration; actually i was very much in the thick of it, doing the trick-or-treat thing with the boys around the neighborhood, spending much of the day on an elaborate cardboard costume (i was a stick of butter- my wife was an ear of corn, so the pressure was on to match)...and, my costume was good enough to deserve winning this year, though as i mentioned, i was a judge, so it was a labor of love. a lot of stress, loading a huge cardboard stick of butter into a van, along with two costumed boys, light sabers, body-part cake, etc. and the leaves make that loud crackle just about wherever one goes.

it was well documented, both the butter, and the other stuff, along with the pumpkins at cesl; much of this will end up on facebook i'm sure, if it hasn't already. the fact is, the whole dress-up thing is big in a town like this, even if you make a point not to get caught up in it, and have lots better to do. it'll getcha. as a judge, i had to look carefully at costumes from all angles, how original, how much sacrifice went into making them, etc., and i was in a good position to notice such things. but then i'd also had that moment with the mime- who, fortunately i had not photographed, a moment which sticks with me, also, like a gorilla moment. it could be just that shock and dismay were grease-colored into his totally black-white face, but he was there at the here statue, deep in thought, totally black-and-white, on a day when the season's colors were at their full stunning best. and he suspected perhaps that i'd taken his picture, though i hadn't; i'd in fact run out of pictures, and had no intention to catch people, was even unprepared for the possibility. so in a sense, the world sits and balances precariously- between one's deepest fears, and the pant legs of one's dad; between the world of stunning live color, and the black and white of pure silence; between the rich candies of neighborhood tidings, and the messy cleanup of litter in the park, when it's all over; between the deep sleep brought on by fresh air, running around, & pine needles in a crisp fall day; and the sleeplessness, however temporary, from the memory of an innocent young fella, run up against his pwn fears, disturbed, though not forever, by the very concept of dressing up as the evil side of oneself...the wax just barely covered my elaborate red-and-blue lettering on yellow land-O-lakes butta, but showed up well, apparently, in the photos. made some smores in the back with the little guy and some other folks, during the party, and in the coals of the little stove, a good little fire was going; lots of stars above too, even in the center of the city, where halloween traffic was intense and where, if one looks, good costumes can be seen everywhere. reminds me, that & the gorilla post, that bonfire night's on its way. a wild holiday weekend, and it's not even over. if it's true that bonfire night corresponds with election day, which it does in some method or another, than it will truly be, clear out the brush, burn out the ghouls, out with the old, kick up the embers but don't let the marshmallow catch on fire. like halloween candles and a butta costume; this is not how i wanted the evening to turn out. but it didn't; i'm here; it's night; all is well, and we go steadily into another beautiful holiday, weekend day. more later.