Happy [day after] Halloween!

November 1, 2005! Where did this year fly to? I can't believe it's already November. Geeeez! We had a much smaller crowd here than I thought we would last night. I mean we have so many kids in our neighborhood that I was expecting non-stop doorbell activity....and I can be a bit of a party-pooper about Halloween sometimes. (Almost a Grinch). But while Mike was downstairs riding the rollers and watching "The Road to Paris", Sydney and I were upstairs greeting the trick-or-treaters at the door.

"Are you getting lots of people at the door?", Molly Archbold asked when she came by with her crew. "Not really" I said. She then told me something I was suspecting already as the night progressed. "All these kids around here generally go over to the Westwood area or where my Minnesota Mom & Dad live to get their goods" Ah Ha! I remember last year when we were here visiting, there were double or more kids at the door at the home of our Mom and Dad's. (My neighborhood just went up a notch in it's value!) Here's another weird thing...the kids get driven from door to door now while they trick or treat. Amazing...even with high gas prices. I don't remember EVER getting driven trick or treating when I was growing up...(Thank G_d!)o

Anyway...it always takes me a day or so to feel like "I'm home" after we get back from a race weekend. Now I know what's missing here (besides the bicycists')...it's the married couples in their 30's/40's who don't have kids. In the bike racing community, even those that do have kids make time to ride and race---and there are alot more folks who are our age, in married relationships without kids. This isn't an opinionated statement really (like one way is better than another), but more an observation. Oh do I love the the Twin Cities areas though. It's like urban with ALOT less people. Best of both worlds!

While we were gone last weekend, Minnesota Dad mulched and fertilized our lawn and got off all the leaves and brought over a Polaris machine for when the snow flies. They (Mom helped!) worked hard and Mike and I were wondering why the yard looked so good. Then when we woke up the next morning the lawn was completely covered in leaves again. Sigh. I'm not used to needing so many tools to deal with weather and yards (can you say townhome?), and so I'm too often quick with the "do we really need this?" All the Minnesotans look at me with empathy, understanding (sorta) my complaints and letting me know with great patience, "Yes, Joni, you need this stuff...unless you plan on breaking your back shoveling....or having leaves in your gutter....or you name it". I guess I'll know what they mean soon, huh?

But not this week. 60's and 70's but with 25 MPH winds. The weather G_d's are being kind I suppose...perhaps I should let them know that 40-50's with NO wind is better than 60's and 70's with wind, huh? That might be pushing my luck though. Anyway---Happy [day after] Halloween!