Halloween, Come and Gone

Our neighbors – previously known as “the Scando kids,” now known as the Americans from San Diego – really got into the pumpkin carving, which was cute. They’re old enough to have memories of having done it “at home,” and were determined to do Halloween right, despite the fact that no one else on our whole crescent had pumpkins out. I realized that we needed something to put the pumpkins in perspective, hence the picture of the little old man washing windows. Yes – those windows, again (T’s still shocked to have witnessed this).

There’s been a sort of placeholder-pumpkin stuck to the windows for a few weeks, now: a drawing of a pumpkin (“baby art,” says our neighbor). But, as Halloween approached, we saw first one, then finally four pumpkins, placed out on the window ledge. Last night was their finale, with all four grinning pumpkins lit up with candles.

T. hoped they wouldn’t fall on anyone, and since it started pouring down torrents at about four this morning, we know for sure the candles are out. *Sigh* The fun’s over.

(Digital photography just doesn’t capture the look of the lit pumpkins, because the camera tries to adjust to the lighting. In this case, the lights are typical of what they use here in Scotland, which is a low-pressure sodium light, designed to combat the low fog. The only weird thing for us is that they’re …orange. They start out darker than the pumpkins, sort of a moody red, eventually warming up to become the jack-o-lantern orange. It’s just another Glasgow thing, hard to imagine if you’re not here.)

As for the rest of the West End at least, well, there was revelry up until 3:45 this morning when it started to do more than sprinkle. Though many Scottish friends tell us that Halloween is “an American holiday,” we saw quite a few costumes, and possibly in honor of the holiday, people had more clothes on. They were draped in gowns, or stuffed into super-hero costumes, or wearing glitter and sparklies … but were, all in all, covered up more thoroughly than we’ve ever seen them! Some even wore jackets!

Still no trick-or-treaters. That particular brand of “gimme” is definitely a singularly American tradition…!

Today is a day for T. to read, and for me to be working on my surveys. Figuring out how to ask the questions, so that I can get the right answers, is easier than it sounds. If our internet were a bit better behaved (we’re fighting with BT again), it might go more smoothly, but we’re seeing page timeouts about 50% of the time. They’ve escalated the problem (which is business speak means shuffled the complaint forms off to a supervisor’s desk?), to someone who said that there was no problem. This is par for the course, apparently. Perhaps we should finally just give up and switch ISP’s. Hmm.

Happy Rainy Deluge Sunday, everybody.