You know, I used to have a calendar on this site, but the plugin didn’t last through updates and I simply moved everything over into my personal calendar and now just pop in with stuff that you need to be observing.
Such as, the Orionids meteor shower is going on right now, but is peaking around the 21st and 22nd, with the 1st quarter moon setting at midnight right when the viewing is supposed to be improving and the meteors increasing in number. So they say, anyway – we all know my luck with such matters. One of these days…
And naturally, you recall that All Hallow’s Read is coming up, right at the end of the month (coincidental with some other holiday that I can’t bring to mind right now.) The ‘official’ rules are, you give out a scary book for Halloween (oh, yeah, that one,) which is fine, but we end up giving out any books that seem to fit the age range, especially since we have some fairly young kids that come around here. You can do this instead of candy, if you prefer this and have that health-conscious vibe going on (or ate all of the candy ahead of time,) or you can do this in addition to the candy, which is what we do. I would not suggest pressing the candy within the books, though.
We’ve been celebrating this now for a few years, and it’s quite popular with both the kids and the parents. A little tip: many kids tend to be shy and have this expectation of a fast and mostly silent transaction – hold out bucket, get chocolate, move on. The idea of stopping and perusing the offerings takes them out of stride, so be prepared to either help them with a choice, or encourage them to pause as long as it takes, or whatever. We found when we held out a selection of books, the kids would usually just take the nearest, so encouraging them to make a choice is almost necessary at times.
As I’ve said before, The Girlfriend is in charge of procuring, because she frequents used bookstores and thrift stores with this idea in mind, so actual cost runs maybe as much as a buck a kid, but usually less. Make sure you check the choices over carefully, though. This year, I’ll also have a small selection of 3D printed knickknacks for the kids, because I’m infected.
So join in yourself and help make this aspect of the holiday a common one, while giving the kids a more progressive and useful offering that is greeted a lot more appreciably than raisins. Meanwhile, keep watching the skies – no, not for flying saucers, but for real phenomena.
I have to close this with a portion of our decorations this year. We were trying to decide what to do with the skeletons when inspiration struck (though somehow this inspiration didn’t go too far afield – I’ll leave it up to The Girlfriend next year.)
[Gimme a break – those joints don’t provide full motion…]