"Native American" Summer

A year ago, we expected to still be in Texas for another Halloween. Trick-or-Treating in Texas was a riot. It had a similar feel to when Jenny and I were kids. People still made haunted houses in their front yards. The neighborhood was packed with tiny Princesses and Transformers. They didn't seem to have succumbed as fully as Utah to the dreaded "Trunk-or-Treat" BS that seems to be packing our children with even more sugar without even making them walk around the block to get it.

And it was so warm...

I wandered around behind my own Tinkerbell and Snow White. They had no need to cover their costumes with winter coats and I was comfortable in shorts, Jenny in her tank top. It was a lot of fun.

The Sun-Lover in me will miss the Texas climate this year. It was a lot of fun to see people mowing lawns around their Christmas yard decorations. But I can't remember a fall in Utah that I have enjoyed as much as this one. The warm days and lack of freak October snow storms has helped me ease out of summer better than previous years. It seems like this year the leaves will actually have time to drop one by one, rather than being ripped down full branches at a time by the weight of early snowfall.

We've had a great time this fall going for relaxing walks, taking trips to the park, visiting a number of corn mazes and even playing in the woods for an afternoon, launching boats of bark and twigs into the stream.

As far as work goes; the overtime has been a little brutal. I don't know if I will be able to do back-to-back 80-hour weeks again anytime soon. But, the paychecks have opened the door for a lot of fun, a bit of catching up with year-end expenses such as new tires and car repairs, and maybe even a little savings to make plans for next summer.

Winter, we'll see you when you get here. No need to rush. Travel safe and take ALL the time you need.