Happy Halloween Update

Photo by Mom.
(Those are tombstones I made from insulating foam)


Bear and I rode over to St. Augustine to help Mom decorate for the little Halloween trick or treaters.
For decades, Mom and Dad have created a legendary spooky front yard to the delight of thousands of kids ... kids who now bring THEIR grand kids to visit and experience the dropping monkey creature and the hidden leaf blower billowing witch critter. If they brave this gauntlet of ghouls, they are rewarded with good quality candy.

It's a beautiful thing.


This year, at 82, they have finally agreed to cut back and there will be no monkey thing dropping from the pine tree as you come up the walk. Also, the witch will be static, with no leaf blower for Dad to fire up just as you get near her.

This is all good. Other, younger families down the street have stepped up and created their own spooky settings, allowing Mom and Dad to get back to the basics of enjoying the little kids and handing out candy.

With Dad's weak polio leg limiting his ability to help out, Mom and I took on the task of ONLY putting out enough ghoully goodies to set the correct ambiance.

We sorted through her vast collection of spooky yard stuff and finally decided on tombstones, winking spook eyes in the hedges, the witch and her cauldron of glowing bone soup, giant spiders and webbing across the front porch, the straw man with pumpkin head, jackolantern lights, and Marcus the carcass emerging from the ground covering ivy.

We did all this after a great breakfast at Theo's and a drive around the old city to let them sight see.
Mom doesn't drive and she limits Dad's driving to short rides to Publix, Walmart, and the doctor mostly. I always drive when I am there and we always have the same Saturday morning routine.

1. Breakfast at Theos, where they start Mom and Dad's order as soon as they walk in the door.
2. After breakfast, we turn at the winery and stop to look at the carriage horses at their home stable off of Riberia Street. Mom always makes a comment along the lines of, "Those PETA people should just mind their own business, these horses are well cared for." And she's right, we've known these horse people all our lives and the horses are well tended.
3. Post pony perusing, we creep down the tiny street to the post office where Dad used to work and we get the mail.

Normally at that point, we head home, but yesterday we rode down St. George Street, past Maria Sanchez lake, up Marine Street by the National Guard HQ where my uncle worked, and then across the "new" Bridge of Lions.

I was pretty amazed to see that the "temporary" bridge that had been installed while the very old Bridge of Lions was renovated ... was gone.

This temporary bridge was a high rise concrete structure that would be the pride of most third world countries. The last time I was home, it was standing alongside the Bridge of Lions while it was being worked on.

Now it was gone.

Mom said it went to form an artificial reef off the coast and my heart swelled at the thought of all that concrete substrate providing new habitat out there.

I love well done artificial reefs and Florida has the best program in the nation.

Okay, I have wandered some, but again, yes again, I find myself in catch-up mode.

Quick updates:

• Junior is healing I suppose as he is back at work.
• The Gators won in overtime yesterday so Mrs. FC is happy.
• Mom is healing nicely from Bear flinging her off the deck back in September ... did I tell y'all about that?
• P90X is still wonderful and I can honestly say as I complete week number 6, that I have only missed on day's workout and I plan to make that up with a double. It has become our routine now to work out before supper and Mrs. FC even carried a DVD along for her nurse conference last week.
• Datil peppers are pumping out their last gorgeous orange peppers as fall picks up down here.

After helping Mom decorate yesterday, and change lightbulbs, and plant another blueberry plant, Bear and I went to the beach.

We had an empty beach due to a high tide and the Florida-Georgia game happening at the same time.

It was heaven.

That is tomorrow's tale.