16 Days to Go

Well, 16 more shopping days until Halloween.

And 15 more days to buy tactical weapons before Devil's Night, or Gate Night, or whatever they call it here.

This will be our first Halloween in Thompson and our first one in a long time living in a "city." This particular event has been pretty quiet on the home front for the past eight years or so. Living out in the country, we didn't get many visitors in Gimli, so it was easy enough to pack up the kids, together, and head to town for trick-or-treating.

To do that here, I suspect, would be to invite an omelette of biblical proportions to the front of our home. So I guess one of us will have to stay behind to appease egg-wielding hoard.

But what about costumes? We've talked to Sonwun about it already and his first choice was a ghost. But then that changed to a police officer, and then to a ghost-police officer.

So what are the top costume suggestions for kids this year? Sadly, nothing all that creative. After browsing around the 'net for "top costumes 2009," and, looking specifically at boys' costumes I found most of the usual stuff: Spiderman, Transformers, Peter Pan, Batman, Robin, Vampire, Wolverine, Star Wars characters, Harry Potter . . . the usual. There were a few I didn't recognize, such as "Naruto, and Naruto Kakashi," "Troy" from High School Musical and "Ash Ketchum," whoever that is.

This year, Sonwun is actually very much into picking his own costume. And as I've been sitting here doing my research, he climbed onto my lap and made his choice. He would now like to be the Transformer Bumblebee, as he believes "everyone will think I'm cool."

Sontoo is a little easier to work with, as he is still at an age where he can't voice his protest over whatever we choose. If mommy's choosing, she'll look for something that makes him look adorable. If daddy gets his way, he'll look as goofy as possible. I've already got my eye on a giant peanut costume, but he may very well end up wearing the hand-me-down skunk costume his brother wore two years ago.

But as I do some further browsing through the toddler section, I see a Kung Foo Panda outfit that has me in tears and a "Lil' Disco Toddler" costume that comes compete with a '70s 'fro and a nice light blue disco suit. I think I wore that suit to Grade 8 graduation, minus the 'fro.

Last year Sonwun was a ghost (his choice) and Sontoo wore a Santa costume. We figured on getting double usage out of it as he could look adorable on both Halloween and at Christmas. He seemed okay with it.

Anyway, as I said, just over two weeks to prepare. Must talk to the neighbours, see how much junk to buy, whether to buy candy or those mini booze bottles for the trick-or-treaters. And, being the civic-minded guy that I am, I need to find out whether I'm expected to join the armed street patrol that night, or just sit in the machine gun nest on my roof and cover the ground troops. It is, after all, our first Halloween in Thompson and I want to be a good neighbour.

Oh, and did I mention that someone broke into our van a few nights ago. They didn't steal anything, just kind of rifled through the glove compartment and left the stench of alcohol breath for us in the morning. Didn't find any cigarettes or booze, so they just moved on. I'm told by the neighbours that we were not alone that night. Apparently one of the local addicts went through a number of vehicles and even tried to open a few doors on the houses.

Van was unlocked, house was locked. Lesson learned.