Here are some random observations about Halloween:

I always enjoyed Halloween when I was a kid. Then, for about 15 years it left my consciousness as I grew up and joined the real world.

Now it's back in my head. Why? Because I have a two year old, and because I live in a neighbourhood with hundreds of children.

Here are some observations about Halloween:

* I've run out of candy 2 years in a row. Too many kids. I shut the lights off, but they still knock on the door. So I run upstairs and hide, and try to be really quiet.

* I want to give only one candy. One gum ball or one chocolate bar, but Cindy says I should give two or three candies. I guess I'm cheap.

* Those mini chocolate bars that come out around Halloween are even smaller nowadays. They're more like mini-mini bars. Seriously, now they're the size of your knuckle. The wrapping weighs more than the chocolate.

* A truck crashed into the porch of a house two streets over from ours, knocking the supporting beam down. There's yellow crime-scene tape over the house. But if you just glance, it looks like all the other houses with yellow crime-scene tape decorated for Halloween.

* There's two types of Halloween decorations: Cute (smiling pumpkins, cartoony monsters) and scary (bloody masks, knives slitting throats). I prefer the scary stuff. Mostly in my neighbourhood it's the cute stuff.

* I think grown adults who dress up for Halloween are kind of weird. I don't mean putting on a witch's hat. That's fine. I mean those adults who go way overboard with a full-blown costume.

* In my last job I started on Halloween day. Half the office was dressed up on my first day of work. They walked me around the office to introduce me to everyone. The next day people weren't dressed up anymore, and they all looked unfamiliar.