Cellar Scribblings

[Jeff Wrangler]

While I have not decorated for Halloween yet (I won't be doing that until October 1st) I did pull all the decorations out of the storage I have them in, and have them sitting on the recliner in the living room.

I don't decorate per se for Halloween, but I have two ceramic jack-o-lanterns that I set out and put candles in them. I've also made a sort-of decoration out of a kids' book.

Everybody knows about the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, but when I was a kid, we somehow got me on a series of stories about a mystery-solving family with five kids called "The Happy Hollisters." 

Of course those books are long gone, but I always remembered one story with a Halloween setting. I always felt that particular story really caught the feeling of fall in the Northeast and parts of the Mid-Atlantic. A couple of years ago I found a copy of that book on eBay, so I bought it, and I set it out with the jack-o-lanterns.

I also have some silk fall flowers and colored leaves that I set out this time of year. I'll keep those out till after Thanksgiving. Then it will be time to set out the winter flowers.

[CellarDweller]

Hiya BetterMost friends!!!!

My goodness, I had some excitement here today!


You would not believe what happened here at about 2:00!!!

My apartment faces the NJ Parkway, so I always hear screeching tires.

I heard screeching tires, but this time, there is a loud crash.

I run to the window, and I can see that at the end of the exit ramp, two cars have slammed into each other.  Right at that moment, sirens are already blaring.  People in one of the cars (one of them a woman) make a break for it, and run up the road through my complex.   Turns out they were fleeing the cops and got into an accident and tried to escape on foot through the buildings.

The police come running up my complex, and they chase the runners.  They're apprehended, and suddenly one of the guys starts yelling to the police:  “be careful!  She’s pregnant!”

I was like  ‘How are you gonna be on the run from the police with a pregnant woman?’

Thankfully, the person they hit is ok, the cars are wrecked.

[CellarDweller]

I don't decorate per se for Halloween, but I have two ceramic jack-o-lanterns that I set out and put candles in them. I've also made a sort-of decoration out of a kids' book.

Everybody knows about the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, but when I was a kid, we somehow got me on a series of stories about a mystery-solving family with five kids called "The Happy Hollisters." 

Of course those books are long gone, but I always remembered one story with a Halloween setting. I always felt that particular story really caught the feeling of fall in the Northeast and parts of the Mid-Atlantic. A couple of years ago I found a copy of that book on eBay, so I bought it, and I set it out with the jack-o-lanterns.

I also have some silk fall flowers and colored leaves that I set out this time of year. I'll keep those out till after Thanksgiving. Then it will be time to set out the winter flowers.

I don't decorate the inside of the apartment, I do the windows with lights and a themed flag.   So the flag that's up today has jack-o-lanterns and ghosts on it.  In one small window is a bat in purple lights, and in the other window is a jack-o-lantern.

The lights around the main picture window are alternating halloween colors of orange, green and purple.  Orange has long been a halloween color.  Since they don't have black lightbulbs in these types of decorations, they sub with purple which are used for bats, black cats, spiders and such.  The green tends to represent Frankenstein's monster, zombies and witches.


   



When Thanksgiving comes, I take down the orange/green/purple lights, and put up a string of just orange ones, around a flag with a turkey on it, and light up turkey shapes in the windows.

[serious crayons]

Nice lights!

Thankfully, the person they hit is ok, the cars are wrecked.

The other day at work I wrote a story about a police chase in a smallish city (14,000) in northern MN. Sheriff's deputies posed on social media as an acquaintance of a guy with a number of warrants out for his arrest.  There were six or seven warrants, several of them felonies -- theft, drugs, etc. No violence except for a domestic assault, which of course is violence but can range widely in severity. One of the warrants was for "fleeing." They arranged to meet at a convenience on the edge of town.

When the guy sees the deputies, he takes off. It's about 6:30 p.m. on a Friday. The deputies chase the guy into the center of town, where he runs a stop sign and hits another car. The guy suffered non-life-threatening injuries. The other car held a 70-year-old husband and wife. They both died.

[CellarDweller]

Hiya BetterMost friends!!!!

It was an .........eventful weekend.


On Saturday I received a text to go over to my friends' home for a fire-pit pizza dinner, at 6:00.   I had to make a stop somewhere else before getting there, so I had to leave my apartment building at 5:15.

At about 4:30 I started to get ready, and I could hear shouting from a downstairs apartment, and then I could hear slamming doors.   I said a silent prayer that all would be quiet by the time I left.

So I am now ready to leave, and all is quiet downstairs.  I go downstairs, and open the door to leave the building.  I see my downstairs neighbor (let's call her "Sandy") sitting on the step  outside the building.  To better describe, when you leave the building you are on the sidewalk, but the complex in on a slight incline.  So you have to step up one step that is about 6 inches high, and continue walking up the sidewalk.  Each building in the complex has this step.  It is this step that "Sandy" was sitting on.   She is on one phone, and next to her on the sidewalk is another phone, her cigarettes, a bottle of water, and it's all spread out.  I attempted to step over it, but I apparently stepped on some ground that was not level, and my ankle twisted, and I fell hard to the sidewalk, landing on my left hand and right elbow.

I got up easily, and "Sandy" was freaked out by my fall.  Turns out that the shouting was her and a visiting family member, which turned into a physical altercation.  "Sandy" had also been drinking.

She wanted me to visit her when I got back from my friends' home.  I told her that if she was drunk when I got home, I was not coming in to her apartment.

By the time I got home, it was about 10:15, and I was starting to feel sore.  I went to her apartment door, and it was silent, no TV was playing, so I assumed she had gone to bed, and I went to my apartment.

I didn't sleep well, as I was hurting from the fall.  I took some Aleve, but still woke up sore on Sunday.  I also have a bruise by the base of my thumb on my left hand where I fell, and an abrasion on my right elbow.  I'm assuming that the soreness prevented me from having a decent sleep Saturday night.

I woke this morning (Monday) still some soreness in my right arm, but I slept much better last night.


Pizza dinner by the fire pit was nice, and it was good to catch up with friends.

Sunday was the usual laundry day, and lunch with my parents.  We ordered from a local restuarant, and dad went and picked up the food.

Today is a bank holiday, and I'm off work.

[Sason]

Glad the fall wasn't worse, Chuck.

Those things happen so  quickly and unexpectedly.

When I had a fall 5 years ago I broke my ankle, it took a year before I was fully recovered.

[serious crayons]

Glad you're mostly OK, Chuck. Falls can indeed be dangerous. I've fallen a few times and haven't suffered anything worse than a bruise or two, but it can be scary.

[CellarDweller]

Hiya BetterMost friends!!!!

Woke this morning to no ill effects of the fall on Saturday, so I'm back to normal.

Or, as normal as I can be.  LOL

Work went well today, I was able to get everything done that needed to be done, and shut down at the usual time.

Next week I am on 'staycation'.  I have things to take care of on Monday and Tuesday, but the rest of the week is free.  If the weather is good, I may go on some drives to see if I can find some cool harvest/Halloween things to take some pics of.

It poured here most of the day.  Rain finally stopped about 2:00 in the afternoon, and then then sun came out.  Now it's cloudy again, and the sun is setting.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Another staycation? Damn! 

[serious crayons]

I have about 4.5 weeks of PTO left to use this year. I can carry a couple weeks over to next year (it's usually just one but this year they doubled it because of COVID).

I took last week off because my son was visiting from Chicago (the 4.5 doesn't include that), and will try to take Thursday and Friday off because he's leaving around the end of the week.

So the rest I can take whenever. I'll plan to take at least a little off around the holidays, but because I don't have to leave town I'm inclined to give preference to people whose families are in other places.

So other than that, I don't have any specific times. One week is pretty much as good as another. Yet my editor wants me to declare my times as soon as I realistically can. How do you choose yours, Chuck?