Join Waukesha resident Brien Lee and his blog, Sir Fido, as they explore the city and report on the interesting things they find.
After five days of chasing the buck I finally have time to chase the blog. I love weekends.
We were some of the hoods in the hood wearing hoods (it was cold) on Halloween Tuesday. I went with my youngest son, 14, and hope this wasn't my last year. As he went to help satisfy his daily sucrose requirement, I went to spend quality time with him and to see what was going on. Trick-or-treating is one of the few remaining legitimate excuses to get out and meet your neighbors and, since I wasn't running for office, decided to rap on doors this way.
The scariest part of my son's costume was his size. He went as a football player and looked the part. Young kids answered the door at a lot of homes expecting to see someone at eye level and finding they had to look up, way up. My son is bigger than me and of most of the parents that came to the doors. Now that's scary.
But we had a wonderful time. We saw some great decorations, especially my neighbors' on Easy Street who erected a fog-filled spooky tent-like enclosure, and an overboard display on Cherrywood which attracted candy gatherers from many blocks around with a roof mounted twirling spotlight. It looked pretty surreal in the foggy trees of their front graveyard.
It's also nice to see the creativity people put into pumpkin carving. I hope the practice doesn't disappear with the popularity and convenience of plastic pumpkins, which we're seeing more of. We didn't carve our pumpkins until four days after Halloween. Better late...
The strangest thing I saw all night? Fred Flintstone buying wood at the gas station. Think about it. A caveman buying bagged wood by the bundle. I always thought grocery stores and gas stations selling wood a bundle at a time was strange but wait until we see them offering it kiln dried with each piece vacuum sealed. Don't forget the warning label!
