Halloween Poem, from When October Calls

GUIDE IN THE NIGHT

Glowing on the stoop

Shining from the porch

Hanging from a loop

The season’s favorite torch

Yellow, orange or white

 With candles of wax

To fill us with delight

The kiddies come with sacks

A toothy, silly grin

A smug expression seen

The roundest great pumpkin

To light our Halloween

Decorations

It’s getting close to Halloween.  One of my favorite activities this time of year is looking at decorations.  I enjoy walking in my neighborhood and seeing how they dress up their houses for the holiday.  There is one house that always has an awesome light display.  Fake cobwebs seem to be the favorite outdoor decoration.  I’ve see a few makeshift graveyards too.  Some of the houses in my neighborhood don’t need much work to look haunted.  They are ready for trick-or-treaters all year round.

Halloweening

Halloween is just one week away.  It’s time for decorations and costumes.  I was wondering what sort of outfit would work for me.  I believe like Lucy in the Peanuts cartoon; one should wear a costume that reflects the opposite of one’s true personality.  Last year I dressed up in a witch outfit for the trick-or-treaters.  This year it’s on to something different.  I found my witchy pants.  These I found at the goodwill bulk store.  Fortunately I’ve lost some weight and can fit them now.  I was about 15 pounds heavier when I bought them, five years ago.  I have a Halloween T-shirt to go with it.  Now all that I’ll need is the courage to wear them out in public.

Project Pending

I just finished the retype of my book, The Wizard’s Letter.  It was finally ready for PDF form and now it goes to my Createspace account to replace the current interior.   The book will be 310 pages long, which is shorter than the original 348 pages of the first copy.  It was a matter of spacing and reworking of text.  I’m glad to have that part done.  It’s time to market it.  It’s also time to write the third book in the series.  I decided to name the series, Beyond the Whistling Stone.  It is a reference to a mysterious stone high in the Ever Snowy Mountains that the hero visits in the late fall.  He thinks about it during his adventures, when he very far from his home.

Woman VS. Acrylics; Round One

I usually spend my Friday afternoons at the Keizer Art Association's free studio.  It’s a great space to paint in and I can work at my art without fear of spillage or permanent stains to a carpet.  Over the past two years, I have been getting reacquainted with artist’s acrylic paint.  It’s a tricky medium and I was reluctant to go back to it.  It all started with the gift of some canvas’ and what to do with them.  I chose acrylic because I’m somewhat familiar with it and it dries fast.  I stayed with it because of compliments from friends and a sale.  So I sit in the classroom of the Keizer Art Association, working away at my paintings and hoping I’ll turn out a masterpiece.

Hills

I went for a walk this morning.  That doesn’t seem like much, but this was a walk I had promised myself weeks ago.  It’s not that I haven’t been on walks, but that it was this particular one that was missing.  It’s like this; I live on the depositional side of the Willamette River.  The house I live in was built on those deposits and sits on the lower side of the bank.  Behind and above me are the hills which helped to make “the flats”.  So when I say particular walk, I mean an uphill jaunt into the hills.  I had explored the area once this summer, when the temperature allowed, but today was perfect weather for it.  Some people have called the area Salem’s Riviera because of the narrow twisting streets, some of which are still unpaved.  I found it fascinating and plan to go back despite protesting lungs and protesting knees.

Amazing maze

It’s time for pumpkin patches and corn mazes.  I went to a night corn maze last year and plan to do so this year.  The scary part wasn’t the people who jumped out of the corn as it was the utter darkness and not knowing where to go.  I actually visited the maze twice on different nights.  The first time I was trapped in a loop until I met up with other people trapped in the loop.  To make it worse, there was a person dressed up in a wolfman outfit popping out of the corn and howling at the moon (there was a full one that night).  If you’ve never been to a corn maze, I recommend going.  Most farms selling pumpkins offer the maze as an extra entertainment.