So here we are, nearly in to October, the Autumnal Equinox has occurred, we should all be enjoying fall and getting ready for Halloween … and yet, we’re still dealing with temperatures in the 90s.
Honestly, I figured by this time, we would have been able to shut off the air conditioning at home and have that precious one- to two-month gap in the year where you don’t need the A/C or the heater on and you can catch up on the bill. I guess there’s still a little hope, we could cool off significantly in October but not freeze, that might give us a little reprieve on the power costs.
My dad reported in recently on the upstate New York fall weather, they had some warm temperatures and are a little bit below normal on rainfall for this time of year. The leaves, he said, are not their usual vibrant colors yet … more just drying out. The reds, oranges and yellows will likely still show up, just a little delayed. And typically, even a ‘down’ year for them, leaf-wise, is still a brighter palette than we get here.
Otherwise, my daughter is incredibly excited for Halloween this year. She mentioned it recently, since October 31 falls on a Thursday, I will be able to go trick-or-treating with them. The last two years, Halloween has fallen on one of our main deadline days, it was on a Monday in 2022 and a Tuesday in 2023. This year was a leap year, so we jump ahead to Thursday for Halloween. This will be my granddaughter’s third Halloween and the first I can share. As happy as my daughter is about that – fall is her favorite time of year; Halloween a favorite holiday – my granddaughter already has our costume choices lined up for us.
As I detailed in a prior column, we enjoyed a family trip this summer to San Diego where Lorelei got to meet her Sesame Street heroes. Not surprisingly, she has decided on a Sesame Street theme for Halloween. She has determined that her mom, my daughter Ally, will be Abby Cadabby; her dad, my son-in-law Judd, will be Elmo. Lorelei has chosen to be Rosita and I get to be Telly.
OK, for those of you who don’t know, Telly is about seven feet tall. Nowhere near my height. I would need two-foot stilts to pull off being Telly. My son-in-law wouldn’t even need six-inch heels.
He, however, has told Lorelei that he prefers to be Oscar the Grouch. Apparently, Oscar’s favorite word is “Scram!” and Judd likes to say that; plus, he can be grouchy the whole time we are trick or treating and he would just be in character. Come to think of it, Lorelei is quite fond of saying “Go away” if she is doing something she doesn’t want anyone to observe and that’s one of Oscar’s favorite sayings, too.
Ally doesn’t mind being Abby; she’s a cute little character. It’s interesting that Lorelei chose to be Rosita; she is a bilingual Sesame Street character and I have been working on counting to 10 in Spanish with Lorelei when I babysit. She particularly likes saying ‘ocho’ – the number eight.
And while at first I wondered about her ‘casting’ of Ally and Judd as Abby and Elmo, it finally started to make sense the more I thought about it. Elmo and Abby are Lorelei’s two favorite characters. I guess if you are going to assign characters to your parents, it might as well be the ones you love the most.
Maybe we’ll see you out there trick or treating in a few weeks. If I can figure out how to walk on stilts.
Marg Jackson is editor of The Oakdale Leader, The Escalon Times and The Riverbank News. She may be reached at mjackson@oakdaleleader.com or by calling 209-847-3021.
