Halloween in my town is a REALLY big deal. Each year, though i don't have kids, i say i'm going to hang out on Main Street where all the little kiddie hordes go, just to enjoy the fesitvities. Our Main Street is filled with historic homes and the homeowners really go all out to decorate their homes which lend themselves so well to the season. One home in particular features a gigantic spider laying across a spider web that extends from the house and over the front yard. It's all great fun. Kids actually come from lots of surrounding towns becus people really go nuts here. They actually do fundraising for donations that will go toward buying candy which is then distributed to the homeowners on Main Street becus it is a heavy burden for some, i guess, to buy so much candy. Homeowners reported last year getting 3,000 children in a single night. That's a lot of candy.

So i fell asleep last night early, around 10 pm. I had wanted to stay up to watch Tina Fey, but i just couldn't. I was too tired to get up and take a sleeping pill, which was a mistake, cus i was up like a firecracker around 2 am, wide awake. I remember thinking how quiet it was at that hour. Usually, when i wake in the night, you hear something, whether it's the tractor trailer trucks downshifting on the Interstate, in the distance, the church bells ringing on the hour, the freight train chugging past on the line about a mile away from my house, or even coyotes howling. Last night, it was very, very quiet.

That's why i know exactly when my heat kicked on. Yes, i'm afraid i'm out of the contest. HOWEVER, i set the thermostat to 55 degrees, day and night, round the clock. I set it last night cus we were supposed to get down to freezing, statewide. And i heard it kick on at 2:05 am, and then it cycled back on and off throughout the rest of the morning as i tossed and turned.

It'll hopefully stay there, at 55, for this month and next. When we get into the bitter cold, i'll have to notch it up, but i never go above 65 degrees. I don't like to start out at that temp since i'll get accustomed to it, so i'll do it by "degrees."

I have a bad habit of writing stuff when i wake up and can't sleep, or early in the am before i'm fully conscious. I do some of my best work then (!), but the problem is that unless i turn on the light and start scribbling, i forget what I "wrote" in my head when i awake.

And that's what happened last night. Actually, i was writing this blog post, but i forgot half of what i intended to say.

I watched the best movie last night. It's called American Splendour. Have you seen it? Normally, I'm pretty stingy with my 5-star Netflix ratings. Most of the movies i say "I liked," (3 stars) or "I liked very much (4 stars). But this one was really good.

Without giving too much away, it's a story about a down and out guy living and working in Cleveland as a file clerk in a VA hospital. Not much in his life is going well. Actually, there's not much going on, period. One day, while filing away records in the "Deceased" section, he reads one file which lists "Born, 1938, Cleveland. Died, 1979, Cleveland." You know he's wondering if he's going to have that kind of seemingly meaningless existence.

He starts writing a comic strip that chronicles the minutae of his life. It's real, it's gritty, and it takes off. He lands an appearance on the David Letterman Show. He develops a following. And he ends up doing this for 20 years, although he never gets rich from it. I think it's a true story.

Anyway, if you get a chance, check it out. I loved it.

Later today, i'm going to my first Home Depot "clinic" on energy efficiency. Sure, they'll be pitching their products, but it's an hour long and i figure i'm bound to learn something i can do myself to better weatherproof my house.

I already bought 2 of their cans of insulating foam spray to use in gaps in the basement, but i read on the can how the product's intended for a one-time use cus it gunks up after 2 hours and then you can't use it. So I'll have to pull away all the insulation in the areas i intend to work in first, then do the spraying all at once. I'm looking for holes to seal up, both to eliminate drafts and air leaks as well as mouse infiltration. I hear them every night cus they must walk on the tin heat ductwork in the basement and the sound travels up thru the floor vents i have quite clearly. Yes, up 2 stories. In fact, if someone's in the basement having a conversation, you could hear that too.

I didn't do a whole heck of a lot yesterday. My mom dropped off some apples for me and we traded some other stuff and chit chatted for a while before she left. I did try a new, yet-to-be-squirrel tested relocation of a bird feeder by hanging it on my clothes line with 2 plastic soda liter bottles on either side of it. The theory being that when a squirrel tries to walk over the soda bottle, it will spin and throw him off.

I haven't seen any squirrels traverse it yet, but i foresee some possible problems, since one end of the clothesline, attached to a hook on my tool shed, is higher than the end that's tied to a tree. Meaning that the soda bottle on that side keeps sliding down until it stops and touches the bird feeder. I suspect a squirrel could simply leap from the clothesline to the feeder once he gets that close. I would need something like a big knot to keep the bottle 5 feet or so from the feeder, but it would still need to spin when the squirrel walked on it. So i'm not sure yet whether it'll work.

Oh, i did mow a good portion of the front lawn yesterday. I hadn't planned on it (was rather hoping i was done with it for the season) but yes, the grass still grew. I suppose I'll finish up the front today, then do the back tomorrow, since I'm OFF WORK Monday and Tuesday.

Still NO HEAT:
Boomeyer - Missouri
monkeymama - Northern California
debtfreeme - Northern California
mbkonef - Southeastern Pennyslvania
Ima Saver - Georgia
scfr - Texas
snoopycool - Florida
dmontngrey - Massachusetts
sevenofseven - Northern California
princessperky - Charlotte, North Carolina
Househopeful - Delaware
toyguy1963 - Ohio
Analise - northern California
Little gopher - Minnesota
Joan.of.the.Arch
canoineag - Denver
Buckeye - Ohio
Koppur - Massachusetts

Those who already turned on the heat:
Fern - Oct. 19
Creditcardfree - Oct. 15
Nancy - Oct. ??
MilehighGirl - Oct. 11
wyozozo - Wyoming - Oct. 10
Mech - Oct. 3 Massachusetts
ME2 - Oct. 3
myenglishcastle - October 1
homebody - October 1