It rained all day today here.  The roads and sidewalks were covered with puddles, some of them 3 or 4 inches deep.

The kids came home from school, all excited about going trick or treating.  Dave and I were going to ask them if they'd prefer that we took them, all dressed up, to WalMart and got them a giant size bag of candy each....but after seeing how their little faces lit up as they donned their costumes we decided that we'd brave the rain and the cold and take them trick or treating.

I took a couple of percocet before we left, trying to head my pain off before it really set in (I'll start using the fentanyl patches tomorrow), put on my Columbia jacket, hiking boots and a hat, and off we went.

I was both delighted and disgusted with what we saw on the streets of our neighborhood. 

I was delighted to see little LITTLE kids dressed up - one little dude who was about 2 or so was all dressed up as a yellow duckie, and he was just adorable.  There was another little boy who was Buzz Lightyear, and a little girl who was a fairy, complete with wings, wand and a tiara.   The cutest thing I saw, though, was a chubby little baby in a lobster outfit.  All of the kids were behaving themselves - there wasn't any rowdiness or fighting, and they were all saying 'please' and 'thank you' without having to be prompted by their parents.

I was disgusted because of the behaviour of some parents.  I know that it was raining, and I know that some people perhaps couldn't walk far for whatever reason.....but there were parents who were dropping their kids off at each individual door, almost knocking people over in the process.  One guy in a van came close to clipping me with his wing mirror so that he could let his kids outclose to the sidewalk.  I guess I'm old school in my thinking that trick or treating is done on foot, regardless of the weather.  If you DO decide to drive, drop your kids off at the end of one street, make them walk from house to house, THEN drive them to the next street.  All this door-to-door chauffering was silly.  And, it was dangerous.  People just showed no common sense.  I mean, it's Halloween night.  It's dark.  There are TONS of little kids around, all excited about getting candy....and maybe not paying as much attention as they should to cars and road safety.  It would be appropriate for drivers to do the speed limit, wouldn't you think?  I would too...but there were some people who were doing waaaay more than the 20mph speed limit through housing.  That's just stupid, IMO.

Anyway, after about an hour and a half, just as my back was starting to get my attention despite the percocet I had on board, Jake said that his feet were starting to hurt and that he wanted to go home.  So, we headed home and wrung out our jackets in the kitchen (yeah, we were THAT wet), and the kids decided to weigh their bags of candy.  They knew they had a lot; much more than last year, but they wanted to see just HOW much they had.

Each kid weighed their bag on the bathroom scales....they got slightly over 8lbs.  EACH.  I think that's the motherload of Halloween confectionary for us; they've NEVER got that much before.

So, I have 3 kids sitting on the living room floor, inspecting their stashes for open bags (their parent's paranoia has rubbed off on them) and a dog who keep sneaking up on them and running off with Mary Janes and taffy.  They're happy, I'm happy, Dave's happy.  He said something reallly nice to me earlier - he said that I was being a trooper, and that he was impressed with me.  It may not seem like much, but it was really quite meaningful to me.

All in all, a good time was had by all this All Hallow's Eve.  Despite the rain.