10/31/05 It’s been gorgeous fall weather here. A great time of year to have a birthday! (I think.) We went on a family canoe outing yesterday. I took the canoe for a quick solo photo-spin after our paddle. Lovely! This canoe has been hanging in Grampa Craig’s rafters for decades. I finally borrowed it and scrubbed the thick grunge off it and we went out in it. It was his dad’s, maybe from the ’20s. What a pretty thing! Man, it just radiates. Hand-crafted glory, there. I’d really like to put it thru its paces more. They say the wood’n’canvas canoe is the sweetest of all. I wouldn’t be surprised. But I need to take it out without the kiddies. What a neat paint pattern it has, too. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s sitting in our front yard by the jack’o’lanterns now. Not a prettier sight around. We’re trying to get out as much every day while the weather holds. Whups—it’s cloudy and breezy now. Fingers crossed! Any second, the splendor could be past. Then we get the next cool 4-seasons treat: fresh wide-open views. It’s all good up north, eh?
PS: I’m almost a Halloween baby, so I have to say that I had just the best birthday week. First, I’m kookoo for leaf color. But the action itself went on and on. Family canoe outing. A gloriously big country-bike loop the next day. 3 costume parties. And dinners galore. Crazy fun.
OK, most of the costume action for my friends and I was more like disguise action. I don’t know why, but I think it’s fun to do fake-out costumes. Friends and I went out for a little R&R on the quiet Sunday evening dressed as: organic farmer, veteran record producer, tossle-haired youth. The wigs are good ones. And we weren’t hamming it up. So people we encountered just looked at us a little longer. A friend came to find us and asked a waiter where the guys in wigs were and he said Huh? We did the same thing for an official costume party on the big night. It was fun for me to mess with people’s heads. Also, I didn’t get off scot-free (that’s probably an ethnic slur, isn’t it—PC anyone?): I kept seeing people who made me wonder if they were in costume or looked like that normally. A punk girl. A college kid in a backwards baseball hat who seemed to have a gray thatch under the hat. A weatherwoman—or just a lady in a suit out having drinks after work? A good party would be to have amped-up disguises, basically. Nightclubbing is always matter of costumes and disguises anyway. Maybe it’s just easier to break the ice on Halloween. Maybe it’s because the ladies are properly attired for a change? Or, maybe it’s just that I’m nutty and can get away with it then? At any rate, it seemed like a good long birthday party to me and I was glad everyone attended.
