Temperatures were in the 90s here in central New England. And as much as that decade was a part of my youth, it’s not something I want to relive on a thermometer in September or, well, ever. I even caught a toad on our front porch. Those things should be cauldron ingredients by this time, not making the nights all summery with their croakings.
But all that weather talk to say that no way were we going to decorate the interior of the house for Halloween, like we thought we might do. And it again reminded me why I usually wait until mid-September to dive into the leaf pile. We really should be taking our starting guns from the weather and not from the socials. At least up here in the north.
However, we did make our first visit of the year to our local Spirit store. This visit was a tale of two children. Our oldest, eight years old, walking ten steps behind us at all times and terrified she might inadvertently step on one of those pressure pads on the floor that turn on the animatronic monsters, and our youngest, four years old, jumping with both feed on every pressure pad she could find and screaming with delight when werewolves and spiders jumped out at her.
I also watched a horror movie today, but it was less as part of the season and more because I’m still making my way through all the movies in Joe Bob Brigg’s The Last Drive-In on Shudder. That series of 13 hosted movies has become treadmill grist for me, which often means that no matter how much I want to watch the movie, I’ll put it off because it means exercising. Which is why I’m still making it through those 13 movies a month and a half later.
The 1971 Daughters of Darkness was the movie, in case you want specifics, a Belgian vampire-sex-arthouse movie pretty much only made bearable by Joe Bob’s interruptions. And all the nudity.
We also swung by our grocery store to stock up for the week, which was decorated for autumn, but didn’t have any products other than cider donuts and Pumpkin Spice Frosted Flakes. But I love that. It gives me an excuse to return for a scavenger hunt deeper into the season.
And that’s how we labored through this Labor Day.