Bad Enough to Cancel Halloween

Things are so bad around here that they actually cancelled Halloween.

Yep…too many dark neighborhoods, fallen trees and downed power lines that it was just too scary—bad scary—to let the Trick or Treaters loose on the streets.

However, the upside is we get to consume about 40 pounds of candy ourselves this year.

Of course there were a couple of stragglers that didn’t quite get the message, so it was kind of sad to see them walking away disappointed; in some cases tails literally dragging between their legs.

But—more upside—I was able to catch most of the rotten eggs they pelted at me.

Actually it’s kind of hard to sit here trying to make funny about any of this; not when you have so many friends and family members sitting in the dark— and now cold—waiting for repair trucks to come around and restore power.

Especially since, in some cases, this is the third or fourth “No Laffs in the Dark” situation they’ve encountered over the last 4 years or so.

And those are the lucky ones, because they actually do still have a home to restore power to; unlike a lot of folks in the vicinity who don’t…or have any idea what condition their homes are in right now.

From a very micro-cosmic standpoint, Z and I got lucky this time...though we know what it's like to spend endless days in the dark from the last couple of go rounds.

But this time, the power held, the windows held…even our nerves held as we listened to branches creak and snap as they fell into my front yard all night.

And now that yet another “Storm of  the Century” has come and gone, I have to wonder…does this really mean we’re not going to have a bigger, messier, more havoc rousing storm than this one over the next 88 years?

Because I’m getting a little sick of them.

And, as I said, so is my poor tree in the front yard that’s starting to look a little sparse on top.

Which hurts because, I don’t believe they’ve developed a Rogaine for Silver Maples…yet.

But if losing a few more branches on an old tree…albeit a favorite old tree, or sitting in the dark for a few days …or weeks…is the worst thing that happens to us, again micro-cosmically speaking…21^st century, notwithstanding…then I would have to say, I’ll take it.

But, unfortunately, I’m sure we’ll have quite a few more “Storms of the Century” to contend with in the coming years…maybe even this year, because that’s just the way it seems to go these days.

I guess the thing is…this particular century is relatively young, as centuries go.

So when you think about it, the first little rain storm we had after midnight on January 1, 2000, would have had to have been classified as “The Storm of the Century” too. 

So now every bad storm that supersedes the last one gets the honor.

But I have a feeling this one is going to be the DiMaggio of SOTCs for a while.

At least I hope so.

Still, as the storms descend…the people rise…always have….always will.

And faster than we can imagine, now, in the dreariest of nows, this will hopefully soon be—for all of us—just another heartening story to tell of hometown neighbors friends and family, coming together to put it all back to rights.

And we will…because that’s what we do.

Always have…always will.

In times like these, every little act of kindness qualifies as the most heroic of gestures to all of those in need.

We help a neighbor clear his yard, offer a ride to someone struggling to walk, offer someone a can of gas for their generator, wait our turn at the intersection, return our neighbor’s storm door and slab of sidewalk that fell into our driveway…and smile…with patience and an understanding that we’re all in this together.

Always have been…always will be

With or without Halloween.

But still….

Halloween?

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