Halloween - Singing a wee song, getting nuts and tangerines

Where we live they're celebrating Halloween tonight. Yep. Today is the 30th of October and kids will be oot and aboot, dressed up, looking for candy. Don't ask me why we rarely celebrate Halloween on the actual day. I do know that tomorrow it's supposed to rain, so, regardless, tonight should be better overall. 

It's fun looking at the decorations people have.

Now, that's a BIG spider! It doesn't look real, fortunately.

This front yard is covered with skeletons and gory-looking objects. I was scared just walking by in broad daylight!

I wonder what happened to Stupid and I'm with Stupid?  Ha ha.

These are more of the scary things in the front yard. You wonder who placed all these odd things. And why.

When I was growing up in Scotland we didn't have decorations for Halloween. Nope. In fact, we didn't even get candy when we went to the neighbours' houses. We usually were give nuts, tangerines, and maybe a sixpenny bit. Yay!  We certainly did  NOT yell out, "Trick or Treat". We knocked on the door and asked if there was anything for Halloween. The people would invite us in and, guess what we had to do? We had to sing a wee song, recite a poem, or even do a wee dance. Then were give our loot and off we'd go pleased and fair chuffed with our pile of goodies. 

I love accurate approximations. Ha ha.

The following is one of several articles of mine which were published at Powder Room Graffiti, an online magazine. It is now known as In the Powder Room. Unfortunately, the new owners appear to have deleted or lost the original articles. So glad, I have copies! The articles were to be short and precise. It was a good challenge writing them, as a well as a useful learning experience.


Nothing to it by Sandra Staas (Mon Aug 02, 2010)

I'm an approximate type of person. I believe in approximations of numbers, of not being accurately accurate. Numbers bother me.

I'll never get a job as a carpenter nor a bank cashier, that's for sure. I wouldn't hire me. Imagine a client asking for their bank account balance. I'd be answering, ‘Well, more or less, $2,500. Sort of, that is, give or take a few dollars, I think.' I'd be cutting wood after measuring it using my fingers and get a rough idea of how long the piece should be. If you cut it big enough then you can always trim it, that's my philosophy. How much has to be trimmed? Just a teeny wee bit, that's all.

People sometimes ask me for my recipes. I tell them, some butter, some sugar, flour, eggs, milk. They have their pens ready, their little notebook open as they await the accurate measurements. Out of luck! I haven't a clue how much butter or sugar or flour or milk. Now, eggs I can manage. It's usually one. Hmm. Sometimes it's two, could be three. Maybe it depends on how much milk I use. How much milk do I use? Now we're going in circles. As long as it tastes good, that's what counts. No pun intended.

Occasionally I have to fill out forms. Those boring ones that include a question about how much you weigh. Who the hell's business is it how much I weigh? On a good day I can weigh not so much. On a bad day I can look like Winnie the Pooh. If my clothes are tight then I know it's time to cut back on the fabulously farty fresh fruit diet of red wine and chocolate strawberries. I don't need to weigh myself. And I'm quite happy with being approximately at an acceptable weight.

I've seen people measure the distance between the flowers they're planting. Are they mad? They're down on their hands and knees, tape measure held taut as they carefully measure the exact length between each plant. They're the ones who probably know precisely how much gas they still have in their car, and what the exact time of day it is, down to the second.

I've never grasped the concept of what zero means either, and therefore I've also never grasped what 1,000,000 means. So many zeros! But if zero means nothing, how can placing a one in front of so many of them make it a great big number? I totally do not understand.

And if figuring out what zero is all about isn't bad enough, what about negative numbers? What numbskull thought them up? Does anyone really know what a negative number means? Something tells me that that silly little zero is involved yet again. Two-faced wimp. Happy and sad at the same time. Causer of untold misery to the masses who strive to be positive. Nobody wants to be negative. Not even a number.

Yes indeed, down with accuracy. Live life dangerously without inhibitions of statistics or those pesky preposterous zeros that are just too difficult to comprehend. Long live approximations. Revitalize your life with more or lesses.

There's nothing to it.

Signs that things are looking better?

I wrote a post a few years ago about the nearby village.  It's a really cute village, complete with large, expensive Victorian homes. I often wonder who lives in these gigantic homes. I think many times it's just a couple. Why they need so much space is a mystery. Even if their children are still living at home, the houses are still far too big. Some are as big as hotels!  

Anyhow, even the wealthy are not immune to the waxing and waning of the stock market. I guess. For a while there were lots of For Sale signs all over the village. Shopkeepers were bailing out, and even residents were moving away. Taxes are indeed high in this oh so special village and the cost of renting a store is exorbitant as well. 

Nowadays, there are some new entrepreneurs who have taken up shop in the stores that went out of business.  

Out walking the other day I noticed lots of interesting signs. Guess shopkeepers are just dying to get customers? No matter, I did like the funny little fellow in the photo above.

I wonder who this Fred is?  Do you know anyone called Fred? I wonder why everyone needs a Fred? 

Ha ha. At first I thought the price for all the items was $20. Wonder how many items are actually $20? 

Not too sure what the celebration is about, but I like the sign. Hope lots of people turned up.

Some truck is coming to the bookshop? Wonder if that's the same date as the celebration for the place above?

I should have signed up! We ladies must stick together.

This is a happy sign. I wonder if the balloons come already blown up? I don't mind blowing up a balloon, but I get scared if I burst it!  I really do.

Gollee. That's a HUGE cupcake!

I guess things are looking better in the nearby village. There are businesses in what were once empty stores. Not sure how many paying customers they get, however. The places that are always busy are the usual Starbucks and Bruegger's Bagels. People go there after browsing around the stores. The sidewalks are always busy as mothers stroll by with their children, as Middle School students run along yelling loudly. There are also lots of people out and about walking their dogs. Then, there are people like me who walk about taking photos and wonder about how the Village has changed.