Halloween time

 I decided that I had time today and I put up my halloween decorations.

I did the outside stuff first - the little lawn flag I've had for years

I like these because they're a relatively low-effort decoration, they're unlikely to be stolen or blow away (they're anchored, and they're cheap and also close to my door and not visible after dark) but they do add a little bit of cheer. This is a pumpkin and cardinal so I could leave it up until I put up the Christmas one.

And the haunted-house doormat I bought a month or so back. I really love this one, the little ghost is very cute:

And the wreath, which is tinselly:

The indoor decorating took a bit more - having to climb up on a stepstool (the video at the start of the color changing lights was one thing that necessitated it) but also to put up my string of spider lights, and the phases-of-the-moon garland:

And the last thing, I took the various critters (including stuffed animals like Hello Kitty and Domo-Kun but also a little duck skeleton and my iridescent unicorn skeleton) and lined them up on the piano (they have to compete with space for the family photos)

I did this because I had time, but also partly - just kind of sad arguing and Disk Horse on social media, and also I am desirous of Summoning Fall if I can (it was 97 F here yesterday, and I am tired of it, the heat makes me hurt).

Maybe it's a little early but if Hallmark and some of those channels are preparing to switch over to Christmas stuff I can do Halloween a few days before October. 

***

This was also that I just need a little cheer right now - as I said, the Disk Horse is bad, and yesterday when I went to Sherman it was stressful.

It was fine in Denison, when I went there - I hit an antique store and the quilt shop (bought a big chunk of off white as the sashing for a future quilt, and a pattern to use with either my  accumulated bee and bug fabrics or my accumulated unicorn fabrics, have not decided yet). Didn't find the card or wrapping paper I wanted for my niece's gift there (but did, eventually)

I did buy a couple old books:

The red one is a book of (allegedly) ALL of Saki's short stories (though apparently two more were discovered in 2020), and the ones of his I've read I've enjoyed. The Henry Van Dyke book I bought because it's pretty, and because I own two others from that series. I admit I've only skimmed bits of them (He was an essayist, and an ambassador, and a Presbyterian theologian, and came from an abolitionist family):

(There's another, later author named Henry Van Dyke, about whom I know less; he was an African-American writer starting in the 1960s; the Van Dyke here wrote in the early 20th century - he's well known for some of his Christmas stories)

I also finally found a good card for my niece at the natural-foods store; a Laurel Burch cat which both works for "still a kid" or "wants to seem like a Young Lady" even if the only wrapping paper I could find had puppies on it:

Anyway: the traffic was not great despite the construction being almost completely done. And the Kroger (where I did the bulk of my grocery shopping) was very loud and crowded and it smelled like wet cardboard and spoiled fish and it feels very much to me like lots of things are getting worse and worse - like there is literally not a GOOD grocery store any more within an easy drive of me; the Pruett's is nice enough but their stock is limited and the "house type brands" they carry are ones I don't particularly like. Wal-mart is usually hellish, and I had depended on Kroger for "big" shopping but the last two times I've been there it's been a bad experience, and I wonder if that's just life now - that everything is just worse because.....it just is....and we have to put up with noise and bad smells and things being out of stock and general frustration and experiences not being enjoyable any more. There were also pushy people in the store and I had someone almost push in front of me at the single manned checkout.

Then, when I drove home - a guy in a big pickup truck cut me off and apparently he had a coal-rolling attachment because once he got infront of me, a huge cloud of dark exhaust belched out of the truck's large-bore exhaust pipe (this is a thing here; people get their trucks retrofitted to "roll coal" - it is a thing to just be loud and upsetting to people and to pollute a little more. I assume in some state's it's not legal because of clean air regulations, but other states are laxer.) And yeah, it had the "F your feelings" bumper sticker.

And yes, I know: I should not let it upset me. The person showed me who he was by his actions, and I don't have to (hopefully) ever interact with him again. But it does upset me. Life is hard enough without people choosing to be randomly unpleasant to other people. Oh, I understand saying unpleasant things in the heat of anger (which I have done, and regretted later, and gone and apologized). And I can understand being awkward or uninformed and saying something that is inadvertently hurtful to a person (because you don't know their circumstances) and that's happened to me too, and I've felt awful about doing it, and gone and apologized later. But cold-bloodedly deciding to make someone's day worse because, I guess, they weren't going enough over the speed limit to suit you? Again, to me, it's just evidence that life is gradually becoming more unpleasant. (Or I notice it more, being kind of isolated and also honestly not having that many really good experiences any more)

So I have to try to make what cheer I can for myself. But it's hard, and it doesn't work as well as one might hope. (Maybe when it actually feels like fall I'll feel better, maybe when the ragweed pollen goes away I'll feel cheerier....)