Halloween

Cuando se habla de Halloween o Día de las Brujas se piensa en disfraces, maquillaje, fiesta, dulces y niños; pero la tradición indica que su celebración no siempre fue festiva y alegre, y que los ritos que se practicaban durante la noche tenían un carácter purificador y religioso.

Happy Halloween everybody. Hope you're having fun trick-or-treating, partying or whatever it is you crazy kids get to do when you don't have to do lesson plans and work samples.

Right on schedule, I walked outside to the first frost of the year. Yep, October's over and winter is upon us now. There was the most fantastic fog blanketing the Willamette this morning. Riding the bus over the Ross Island Bridge was strictly an act of faith, believing that anything could be waiting there on the other side of the river. Indeed the first thing to emerge out of the grey mist was a tree. How fitting that it would outshine the tall buildings of downtown Portland just this once.

I walked down to the bakery to get some more bread and saw everyone's Halloween decorations. Some people really put a lot of effort and time into it. Effort and time are things I'm decidedly lacking at the moment, so I greatly admire these traits in others.

Now I will get myself off to bed. After all, tomorrow's just another day, much like any other. But perhaps not. Once Halloween passes and October's dead, winter is truly inevitable. And that changes everything.