Unhappy Halloween

I can now report that the people of Buffalo are a bunch of dirty liars.

I have had to consistently lower my expectations here, and I tell you, I’m utterly fed up.

Besides the obvious problems of having no Cheerwine or Barbeque, the “White Halloween” I’d been promised has been postponed—indefinitely.

This move up North was all about the weather (and somewhat for family…). I fully expected it to snow at the end of August. Everything seems to be getting pushed back further into the season, and the talk around here is about an extended Indian Summer.

Oh, everyone here is absolutely thrilled, but I am miserable. Gloom, despair, agony, depression—where is my snow? There was a teaser a couple of weeks ago, when we had sleet mixed with the rain and my hourly check-ups with the Weather Channel progressed to every other minute. I was waiting for headlines such as: “Early Blizzard Cripples Buffalo,” or “Schools Out Already for Biggest Snowstorm in Decades.”

Instead, I sit here wondering how, at this latitude, can Halloween possibly be a 65-degree nightmare of a day? We even had to run the air conditioning last night to cool things off!

I’m guessing that this means no “White Thanksgiving,” “White Christmas,” or “White Valentine’s Day.” I’m setting my new sights on St. Patrick’s Day, and crossing my fingers and my toes.

Of course, everyone here thinks I’m nuts. “Enjoy the warm weather,” they say, “Winter here lasts six to eight months.” Well, that’s just fine with me. I’ve never been much for the heat and now that I live closer to the Arctic Circle, “warm” and “hot” are two words I could care less about.

Happy Halloween, indeed.

A Halloween moon on the eve of Halloween. Everyone is partying down south tonight, and Liz and I are wishing we were there. We'll have the trick or treaters tomorrow though. If you live in the Buffalo area and are reading this, putting on a performance of some kind when you come to the door will virtually guarantee you a piece of chocolate. (No Mimes, though...) Bland and stoic children will get a stick of old gum only. Be creative! Don't just stand there! We're ready to be entertained! (Singing the Monster Mash would be a definite plus!) 

The Crayfish Saga Continues...

Technically, the crayfish saga is over. The crayfish have gone home with the kids, the traumatic Science project is over, and all was becoming right again with the world...until Liz decided to dress as a crayfish for Halloween. (See Picture) In an effort to both prolong her personal "crustacean" stress, and to make the children laugh, she has decided that attaching antennae and swimmerettes to her body would be a good idea.

Personally, I can't stop laughing. As a human, my wife is brilliant and wonderful, but as a crayfish, she is simply magnificent. If there were beauty pageants for humans dressed as crayfish, she would certainly have Bert Parks singing, "Here she comes, Mrs. Crus-ta-a-cean."

Mrs. "Crayfish"er 

There was a lunar eclipse tonight...the last one until 2007! It was kind of cloudy, but I still managed to get one decent shot... 

My dad came to visit tonight, and I'm posting this picture to prove to the rest of the family that he was, in fact, wearing his sling the way he was supposed to from the recent surgery he had. 

A Skunk On Fire...

I'm really not quite sure how to describe the smell. It started out as a cloying nuisance, and quickly turned into what I can only describe as someone's rear end on fire. We think the cat startled a skunk, but judging from the smell, I think he startled several dozen.

Being asthmatic, I've always enjoyed the special commune I have with the atmosphere, and when that atmosphere is compromised in any way, the doorstep of death is not too far behind. For instance, on a normal day, I may need a puff or two of the inhaler to get through the day...no big deal. However, with the skunk, so far, I've needed nine, and still am thinking that the hospital could be in my near future.

I don't think I've ever smelled anything as bad, the hairs inside my nose were singed and I think I'm eyebrowless. All I can think of is how this nasty stench could come from one small creature. I can tell you for sure that were I a panther, or bear, or some animal that might catch and eat live meat, I sure as heck would stay away from the black and white fiend that has maintained a near continuous assault on my senses for the last hour.

Not much going on...

Liz and I were out this morning in East Aurora, where she teaches. We took the dogs to a park, where they practiced their barking skills. We then took them to Burger King for Chicken Nuggets. We got a few nice pictures... East Aurora is a neat little town, very similar to downtown Concord.

Hope all of you are well! Take care...
-Mike

A river in East Aurora, NY, where Liz teaches. 

More fall pictures from Western New York! 

The Family in Disneyworld...

Adam and Laura took the kids to Disneyworld with the grandparents again this year. Corbin especially seems to be hamming it up, with Jacob running a close second. Hopefully Liz and I will be able to go next year. I've adding some of my favorite pictures to the weblog here, but you can see them all by going to:

Disney Pictures Website

Adam uploaded all of his pictures, and my Dad's, so that the trip was very well documented. Only an obsessive-compulsive camera buff could have taken more pictures! (But I didn't go this year!)

Disney Picture #1: It seems Sally Jessy Raphael had a son. 

Disney Picture #2: Jacob in sepia...a very cool picture. This was one of my favorites, besides #1. 

Disney Picture #3: I'm not sure there are words to describe this scene. It looks as though the National Lampoon franchise is filming a "Halloween Vacation" film. Randy Quaid and Chevy Chase are probably waiting in the van. 

Disney Picture #4: Why is it that the grandchildren are encouraged to do the things for which their parents were punished? 

Disney Picture #5: Corbin honors the almighty french fry, his favorite food, in an Iwo Jima-esque tribute. 

Disney Picture #6: Mother ponders child, child ponders dangerous roller coaster. 

Weather Channel Link...

I thought I would include a link to the Weather Channel online here. If you scroll down the page, you'll see my "autumn" picture. You can click on it to see it bigger.

Weather Channel Online:

http://www.weather.com/

Have a great weekend! I'll post more on Saturday!

The rest of the family needs to get on the ball! My mother made CNN last month, I made the Weather Channel today, and I fully expect to see my brother and sister on MSNBC or 60 Minutes sometime soon! 

My license came today...and this is the picture. It could look worse, I guess. 

This tree is outside Barb and Doug's house. It seems to be very photogenic. 

The "Fall" front of the house of Brumpton. 

More autumn color... 

A Little Winter Weather...

It's been raining here since Thursday, with temperatures hovering between the mid-30's to the mid-40's. Skies have been gray, everything's damp, and the mood here is generally melancholy...until the sleeting started.

Sleet changed my mood dramatically, and caused me to start getting up every five minutes to watch for it to collect on the ground. It also caused an increase in the amount of time I watched the Weather Channel on TV, or logged on to the Weatherchannel.com website. (Every ten minutes as opposed to my normal hourly check-in...as if the weather could take a turn for the worst at any given second.)

The sleet simply mixed with the rain, though, and even though wet flurries were a possibility in the forecast, I never saw them.

This little taste of Winter, though, has bolstered my hopes for having a White Halloween, something I've never before experienced.

Liz and I went to see author/commentator David Sedaris tonight at the University of Buffalo. We almost wet our pants laughing at his stories, and took this picture right beside the sign that said "no cameras." If you haven't read his books, go to Amazon.com and get a couple of them. They're hilarious! 

More of David Sedaris performing. 

Friday Night Thoughts...

I saw a license plate today that read: THKUDALE or "Thank You Dale." At first, I didn't know what it said, but when I looked over the rest of the car and saw not just one "#3" sticker, but 4, one of which had angel wings, I knew I was looking at a lost soul. Little did the woman know that someone from Kannapolis was right behind her. At the next light, when I pulled up next to her, she had short little pigtails on the side of her head, and had to be about 45-50 years old. Under her rearview mirror was another #3, dangling. I wanted to ask her what she was thanking Dale Earnhardt for, but between the hair, the mirror ornament, and a significant portion of the car's ceiling hanging down in the back seat--billowing in the wind, I didn't think she would be much of a conversationilist.

I guess you can never truly get away from it.

On a side note: I rarely drink caffeine anymore. Without bothering to check the caffeine content, I've been drinking A LOT of the diet Cheerwine that my brother Adam sent up here. I thought the heart palpitations were a bit odd, but coupled with getting up every morning at 3:00 AM, ready for the day, I figured something was up. Diet Cheerwine is FULL of caffeine, but oh, is it good. I've not had any today, and am going to try to sleep through the night.

Other than that, not much is going on...except for the very backwoods stylings of some of our more zealous neighbors, and their Halloween decorating habits. I can't wait to see what Christmas is going to bring!

I'm thinking that redneck should no longer be just a southern term. There seem to be quite a few people here who would qualify. 

You might be a New Yorker if...you decorate more for Halloween than you do for Christmas. 

Yard Pumpkin and Frankenstein. 

A tad excessive? 

Today, classes across Western New York participated in an opportunity to break the Guinnes World Record of simultaneous reading. The current record is 155,568. I'm not sure we hit the record, but we had way over 100,000 students in the area reading the Shel Silverstein Poem "Hug O' War." The reading was lead by a local radio personality at 9:30 this morning. This is a picture of one of my students reading along with the radio. 

Here are Liz's kids feeding their crayfish with toothpicks. Also, an update: the one who had his eyes painted over last week is still alive...but he's highly ticked off at the "humans."