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Halloween
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by Scott Gilbertson
</jrnl/2016/11/halloween>
Monday, 14 November 2016
Every Halloween I complain about how hot it is. I don't actually recall this, but my wife does and reviewing some pictures from the last four years reveal that jackets have not been worn on Halloween in recent times. Photos from 2002, however, show plenty of jackets in evidence. Something to think about. This is why the kids carved pumpkins in their underwear.
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<img src="images/2016/2016-10-27_152131_halloween.jpg" id="image-191" class="cluster picwide" />
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<img src="images/2016/2016-10-27_153405_halloween.jpg" id="image-193" class="cluster pic33" />
<img src="images/2016/2016-10-27_153154_halloween.jpg" id="image-192" class="cluster pic33 caption" />
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<img src="images/2016/2016-10-27_153423_halloween.jpg" id="image-194" class="cluster picwide" />
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I suspect this mis-memory of cold Halloweens is because I grew up in the Los Angeles area and always desperately wanted it to be cold for Halloween, but of course it never was. I finally get somewhere that it does actually get cold sometimes and I project Halloween into that world.
Unsurprisingly, for my wife anyway, it was hot on Halloween again this year.
That did not stop our peacock, mouse and shirtless-peacock-owl-creature from taking the streets by storm.
<img src="images/2016/2016-10-31_182338_halloween.jpg" id="image-197" class="picwide" />
<img src="images/2016/2016-10-31_184343_halloween.jpg" id="image-198" class="picwide" />
<img src="images/2016/2016-10-31_184351_halloween.jpg" id="image-199" class="picwide" />
<img src="images/2016/2016-10-31_191203_halloween.jpg" id="image-200" class="picwide" />
Two weeks later though it's dipping down to the mid 30s at night and I still haven't turned on the heat[^1]. Our house is so well insulated that as long as it hits 70 during the day we're fine without heat. We do some baking, make all day soups and roasts that heat the house while they cook. The way your grandmother used to.
We won't have heat in the bus so we may as well toughen up a bit while we can. And we do, until the first cloudy day that doesn't crest the 60 degree mark. I give in and call the gas company, but it's five days before they can come out. We warm up using a borrowed space heater.
Then a couple days later it's back to hot. The Salvation Army bell ringer is dripping sweating standing five feet from the air conditioned interior of Bells Grocery and I seriously consider calling the gas company to say, "forget it". Cold feels more like a novelty around here with every passing year. Sometimes I think we should revel in it, make sure we have strong memories of it. But of course we have a house to sell and not everyone thinks the way I do -- so on it goes.
[^1]: Since the only gas in our house is the heater it's cheaper to shut it down for the 9 months we don't need it then it is to pay the "base" charge and taxes for 9 months.
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