Maybe I haven't taken my vacation during the first two weeks in August in recent years. I'll have to look back and check. Because this year, it seems that, as I was preparing to leave . . . there was nary a sign of Halloween to be found. At least not in my immediate environment. Lacklustre pumpkin growth. No store displays. No magazines. No nothin'.
And then I return from my road trip to the south. And discover that an explosion of Halloween has occurred in my absence. My pumpkin plants are flourishing. A few tiny but growing pumpkins have me feeling cautiously optimistic about this year's crop. Stores have begun trading their summer shades for hues of orange and yellow and red. And those harbingers of Halloween, Michaels and Dollarama, have begun setting out the witches and bats and spiders.
And then of course, there is my great late-summer weakness: Halloween magazines. I know they always begin to appear right around now. Yet it always seems a surprise when I see them. Like the first snowfall. And while I usually accumulate them gradually, one by one, as I encounter them, my absence during the past two weeks has allowed them to build-up. Unnoticed. And un-purchased. Leading me to venture out yesterday on a Halloween magazine shopping spree. The financial shock of buying several at once, as opposed to one at a time, was somewhat jarring. But no matter. My Chapters "Plum Points" stepped in to ease the pain. And after all, it's Halloween!
Now all we need is a drop in temperature. And the appearance of those orange and black boxes of miniature bags of chips. Then I'll be truly convinced.