After an October that hovered between 70 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit, Halloween saw the temperature drop down to freezing. Well, not precisely freezing, although apparently we touched it overnight after ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger dragged some plants inside. But cold enough to snow, during the afternoon and into the evening.
Nevertheless, we did get trick-or-treaters! Four groups with seven or eight in all, which is our best turn in ... not sure. I could swear that we've had a Halloween where ten people came, but this is still above the average. We've had years where nobody came, thanks to rain and snow and heavy winds.
After the trick-or-treating session we dressed up and went to the local barcade. I put on my Angel, Stitch's Girlfriend kigurumi and disappointed bunnyhugger as she wouldn't be wearing Stitch. Instead, she was going as Velveteen, the plush rabbit. This was her first chance to wear the outfit since Anthrohio, back in May; it took longer than expected to find everything and she was stressed for that.
But she looked great, when finally assembled. And we played some pinball. The first was Indiana Jones, the same table she played in her BunnyHugger fursuit years ago when she had the drunken lout photograph incident. She had a quite good game on The Beatles, coming within a whisker of a replay and not far off her usual, like, pinball-league finish. She had a worse time on The Addams Family, a game with no ball save and so very unforgiving of a player with limited vision. I was having a great game, my best in years, but had to pull away right after locking a ball, and maybe abandon my game to the passers-by. (No passers-by picked it up.)
This for the costume contest. They called up eight or so costumed volunteers at a time and did a show-of-hands to find the audience's favorite. We had a rough time getting up there because the crowd was both thick and oblivious. But we got her up, and I introduced her for the host, and she ... did not win the audience's applause, her round. Someone with a homemade dress of Lydia, Bride of Beetlejuice did. Could have been worse. First round three guys went as the Powerpuff Girls and it is hard to imagine competing against that.
The night wasn't as long as we might have liked, but we got to do the important stuff, giving out full-size candy bars and then going to play pinball when bunnyhugger couldn't half see. What more would you want?
Enjoy the fresh month with some more Gilroy Gardens from the 4th of July:
Two boats floating along, returning to the station. We're standing on the bridge to the loading station.
And over there ... the tantalizing South Country Backroads Garden which, yes, is a car ride. You can see the sign for 1950s cars pointing to the right. The key digit of the 1920s sign is obscured. But do you also see what's there on the left edge of the picture?
That's right, it's another circus tree! I called it the radio tower, but it turns out Gilroy Gardens calls it the Oil Well.
The bottom of the Oil Well is the obviously interesting thing, but there's weird stuff going on up top too.
Here's the tracks. Do you see how the 1920s and the 1950s cars work?
There it is! They go in opposite directions, the 1920s car going clockwise and the 1950s car counterclockwise. All the props you pass are decorated to make sense for the decade of your direction of travel.
Trivia: The month of November was, on the Teuton calendar as used by the Angles around AD 725 (as recorded by the Venerable Bede), known as Blotmonath. Source: Mapping Time: The Calendar and its History, EG Richards.
Currently Reading: Cuba: An American History, Ada Ferrer.
PS: What's Going On In Mary Worth? Did Saul Wynter leave Charterstone? August - October 2023 A marriage and secret-daughter plot recap!
