It has been threatening to storm all afternoon. I've had my ear on the ominous rumbles of thunder, and my eye on the BOM (Bureau of Meteorology) radar. Rescued the washing off the line around 1pm, just as a few drops fell, but nothing much has happened since. Not here, anyway, but a bit later on today not all the after school commitments are right here.

So far Zoe's tennis lesson has been cancelled. 10km away they obviously got more wet than where we are. Caitlin has Touch scheduled a few kms north at 5.30, then she has to go back down south to town for netball at 7.30. The Touch people are a bit crazy - they'll play in the rain, unless it's "dangerous" (ie. lightning, hail...) or the fields are too soggy. Netball? Who knows. They'll try and play till the courts get too slippery.. sometimes meaning a wasted 50km round trip.

So I'm sitting here not quite sure whether I'll be out and about or not, and not quite sure what I want. We can always do with the rain. Noone in Australia wishes rain away anymore. But it's a shame to miss one's sport. I just wish I knew.

But there's one reason I would love it if it just pelted down.

It's bloody Halloween. Today. Apparently. Which, in these parts, ie. Australia, where we do not have a tradition of doing Halloween, means that some kids run around in pathetic excuses for costumes, focusing only on the collecting of "lollies" (as we call "candy") There is no spirit of dressing up - like it is properly done in North America.

Well, that's what they do around here, anyway.

And they do it from .. about... now. ie. 4pm. Can't do the porch light off trick - because it is still light. Daylight saving has just started, so can't do the porch light thing till after 7pm, and the local riff raff don't understand that protocol anyway.

It probably sounds as if I'm a bit over the top in my 'anti'-ness. Perhaps it has something to do with the way our door got egged in our first year in this house when we were caught unawares with the trick-or-treat phenomenon. Great trick kids. NOT.

In subsequent years the walls of our house have been egged as well as part of the unsupervised "Halloween" antics of stupid kids.

So needless to say, I'm very 'anti'. If others want to do the Halloween thing, that's fine. Just, please... don't involve me. My poor deprived children are not allowed to get involved in roaming the streets begging for lollies from strangers either.

So we have a 'no Halloween' note on the door now, but in the past that has been ignored. (These unsupervised kids ? Can't read I guess - in fact some teenage boys, only a couple paying lip-service to dressing up with a couple of rubbery masks, have just knocked on the door. "Can't you read? I asked. "Didn't go to school." Duh. It makes you worry for the future of the world. Really.)

What I think would quite satisfactorily do the 'trick' this afternoon would be if the heavens opened. Might put them off scavenging for free lollies. A bit of lightning for effect. And maybe even a strike close enough to anyone carting eggs, just to scare the bloody living daylights out of them. Halloween karma, that would be.

Wouldn't you know, though, the radar is showing the heavy falls totally skirting around us. Damn. Looks like I'm on the sport run after all.

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Later: Overheard in town. 2 boys on bikes. "... and if I can't get eggs I'll bring toilet paper"

Labels: Halloween, misc