Halloween seemd to get off to a late start around here. It was well past 6:30 when the first munchkins showed up at the door. Or was it 7:30. I got confused because, industrious soul that I am, I reset all the clocks late in the afternoon and then spent the rest of the day trying to figure out what time it really was. We had a respectable turn out, probably as many as 30 or 35. We group of three made a return visit and I think it was by accident. After I mentioned the fact to them, I heard one call out “Mom” in that three-to-five syllable rendition that teenagers employ when their parents have done something to embarrass them. Another youngster, perhaps three or four years old, was prompted by his mother to say “Thank you.” Hearing the familiar phrase, he immediately looked up and said, “You’re welcome!”
The community had held a Halloween extravaganza at one of the local malls the previous night, and the costumes were very impressive. We went to dinner at the Mexican restaurant and sat facing the window as the diorama unfolded before us. There were jugglers and other entertainers working the packed crowd. The juggler was standing atop a 3′ diameter ball as he did his tricks. At one point we saw a youngster take a stab at the ball with his light saber, which was fortunately too blunt to do any damage and he was corralled by his mother before he could dislodge the juggler.
We watched The Proposal with Sandra Bullock. It was goofy, light entertainment of the sort we tend to enjoy. Not zany or madcap goofy, just mildly goofy. I thought there were going to be a lot more Canadian jokes, but Bullock’s character’s nationality was only mentioned a couple of times and was never the object of humor. I was disappointed. Despite that lapse in judgment, we enjoyed the film, which had fun performances from Betty White, Mary Steenburgen, Craig T. Nelson and a guy who played the stripper in the local club, the operator of the electronics shop and the minister for the wedding.
I watched the first four or five innings of the ball game last night. Actually, I flipped back and forth between that and Oceans Eleven, but I gave up on both. I was also reading at the same time while handling the trick-or-treaters at the door. Malcolm Fox is the protagonist of Ian Rankin’s new novel, The Complaints. Rankin made several conscious decisions to distance Fox from Inspector Rebus. Fox works for Internal Affairs, which Rebus would never have done. Fox doesn’t drink (any more). He isn’t a music aficionado. He’s younger than Rankin’s other series character. And yet, after a point, it becomes hard not to project Rebus onto Fox. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I suspect it’s not what Rankin was striving for.
Yesterday I finished the first pass at Chapter Two of the novel in progress but I plan to expand upon it today. One of the advantages of the end of daylight savings time is that we got up early and have some extra time to work today. I’ve already written the first draft of a 1000-1500 word story that will be posted here tomorrow as part of a LJ-community “event.” So, stay tuned for a number of works of short fiction throughout our corner of the blogosphere.
