Some random thoughts for the first day of Standard Time (no more driving to work in the dark! Yay!):

Could people PLEASE stop using the phrase "drink the Kool-Aid" to describe when someone swallows a group's beliefs wholesale? I was a kid of about 10 when the Jim Jones tragedy occured, and I remember being very scared by the whole thing (one of the first horrible news stories my parents didn't manage to protect me from). And I still shudder when someone uses that phrase. And I think it's disrespectful to those who died. I mean, 20-some years from now, is there going to be some kind of slangy crack about "being in the Towers" used to describe people who have monumental bad luck? Ugh.

Kids are interesting. Our trick-or-treat was last night. Some of the children said "thank you" without being prompted (very cute: two little boys, brothers probably, chorusing "Thank you, ma'am!" in unison. A little girl, whose eyes got big when I gave her a 3 Musketeers bar, thanked me and then ran down the sidewalk yelling "Mamma! Look! I got my favorite!" as she held up the snack-sized bar). Others said nothing, and in fact eyed the candy bowl as if to say "why not more?" (for the record, I gave one or two snack-sized bars, plus a couple other pieces of small wrapped candy, to each kid). One kid, I think, even took advantage of my dropping a candy bar and having to pick it up to thrust his bag in my face again and get a second helping. It bothers me to see children apparently being brought up not to show gratitude. (Then again, it could be that they're simply too excited to think of such things).

More and more, it seems that parents drive their kids. My street was like a bumper-car rally for a couple hours last night. And then some person, who was NOT paying attention, came roaring down the street in his sports car. Fortunately, he did not hit anyone. It made me angry, though - you see small children, you see parked cars, doesn't that tell you to slow down, at least to the speed limit?

And on the other hand - very few of the costumes were safety-conscious. No reflectors. All black. (Many of the little girls were in pastels, and some of them had glow-stick necklaces, which I think is both cute and a good idea). Lots of running, even to cross the street.

I can get a new mailbox Monday or Tuesday. I had held off, making sure there weren't going to be any more "tricks" on my mailbox.

I got the binding on the lap-quilt for my brother and sister-in-law. Handsewed it down between trick-or-treaters last night. I've also got the Booga Bag for my sister-in-law nearly done - I'm working on the handles right now. I'll just have to wait until I have a load of jeans to wash in order to felt it. (I have towels to wash but I kind of think that would be a bad idea - lint migration). I'm also almost done with my friend D.'s scarf. I've decided that this afternoon after church I'm going to read and work on completing some simple gifts.