trick or treating, 2016

 We went over to my parents for this:

 Getting the gang ready and trying to get a picture.

The babies ran away. The older kids were awfully wound up.  I mean, it is Halloween.

Starting at the top of the hill:

 I told her, Girlfriend!  These colors are so working for you, you look fantastic.

Later she brought me Almond Joys.  They're in my coat pocket.

Laurie's old house:

 Mary's house:

 Kathy's:

 On down the hill:

 Coming back up the next street, these festive people serve cider and sometimes sausages on the grill:

 View back down the hill on this warm, damp, foggy night:

 Gotta get over here to see that Ghostbuster guy!

And then we went back to my parents and ate pizza and went nuts a little more.

So then later, after all the squirrels have departed, arrives this picture of a guy who had a tooth hurting during pizza and then spit it into the wastebasket without realizing it was his tooth!  He told his parents as they were doing pajamas and bedtime.

So Jay and I and my parents started going through the trash looking for a 1 mm x 1 mm tooth.  We even took the end of  the bag up onto the cupboard in better light and picked through it with plastic silverware.

Nada.

We never found it.  Dan said the child not worried and he didn't even expect us to exhume all the old pizza crusts and napkins for examination.  Well, as we were all hunched over the wastebasket picking out candy wrappers and such, I started laughing that quiet chest laughing at the absurdity of it and Jay said, "Shut up," which made me laugh even more.

Darling Buddy, two of your grandparents and two of your great-grandparents could not find your tooth.  I hope the Tooth Fairy understands.  And congratulations on losing your first tooth!

Good night.   love always, Grandma and Grandpa and Everybody

closing the cabin and carving the pumpkins, 2016

 Last year we did this--bundled all the bedding, towels, and so forth into heavy bags and taped them shut.

The mice did not disturb one thing, though mice could easily chew through these, they did not.

So we did it this year again.  It's a huge pain to try and haul and store all that here and then drag it back again.   The mice have been a lot more active this fall than last year though. Some say it's a sign of a cold winter.

I don't know.

Just quit shitting in my potholders.

 We moved the appliances out and washed the floor underneath, scrubbed this place down, winterized and see you in April.

 See you in April was kind of ugh.   I walked back to where we buried Sam and stood there for a while.   My dog is not here under a pile of dirt, just her body is.  The part of her that made her Sam has gone on ahead of us.

And yet.

Every other time since August when we've left, we're coming back again in a few days.

This time we're not coming back for five months.

 This guy? Three weeks in the corner of the living room eating watermelon.

Unbelievable.

Love, Val

mummy wrap and more halloween party , 2016

 Pin the Tail on the Cat:

Love, Val