Happy Hallowen Everyone. Here is this year’s greeting to family and friends. It is also a kind of a special anniversary because I have now been blogging for over a year. Hurrah!

When I was growing up in Minnesota, the night before Halloween was called Gate Night and was the night of mischief. I think it was called Gate Night because young people took the gates off of people’s fences and hid them in various places. I know of no one who actually did this, but in my neighborhood, it was a night where kids soaped store windows and tipped over garbage cans.

I could hardly wait to be old enough to participate in this mischief. It wasn’t parent sanctioned of course, but I have the feeling that they looked the other way on that night. At last, I reached the age of eight and along with five of my neighborhood friends set out after dinner to have a little fun. It was already dark and we soaped the window of Stanek Grocery and Kranz’s drugstore and then headed for the alley behind the nearby apartments. They were about a block or two away. The rule was that you never tipped a garbage can on your own block. After all it might be yours or a neighbors and you would be stuck cleaning up.

We approached noisily and full of adventure. Unfortunately, the police lay in wait in the alley with the lights off on their patrol car. Everyone picked up a can and I chose a large silver colored beauty filled to the top with ripe garbage, bottles, and papers.. Just as I picked it up, the lights on the patrol car flashed. There I stood guilty as hell, right in their spotlight. Petrified is hardly the word for what I felt. My legs turned to rubber, my stomach turned upside down and my arms became permanently glued to the sides of that garbage can.

I couldn’t put it down. Not for love nor life. Everyone else dropped their garbage cans and ran between buildings. Not me, hugging that silver albatross, I made a beeline straight down the center of the alley with the police car quietly following me at something less than a mile an hour. I know they were laughing, because I glanced over my shoulder and I could see these two huge faces in the patrol car window grinning. I still kept running.

The street loomed ahead and as I made a hysterical dash across it for the next alley, I still held the garbage can firmly in my arms. The police car mercifully turned right onto 36th street heading toward Harriet Avenue and disappeared into the night. Some more important call probably came in on their radio or they knew they had already scared the bejezus out of me making me powerless. I finally placed my dreadful treasure on the ground, sat down next to it, totally out of breath, and vowed never to lead a life of crime at least, until the next Gate Night.

Remember our little rat that Bob named Roo and insisted was a Kangaroo Rat? It was not. It was a common brown Norwegian rat. (See Photo)

Which really doesn’t matter. What matters is that while looking out the window at his beloved Roo, Bob observed him catching a small sparrow and hauling it off to the shed. This was appalling and made him realize that Roo was not part of the peaceful kingdom and really did have to leave.

I must say this was thrilling news and I wasted no time finding a “Have a Heart” trap. It may be kind to the animal being trapped, but little mercy for the poor consumer. I paid nearly $30.00 for the small wire box.

I brought it home and Bob baited it with peanut butter and seeds. Roo is a very bright little guy and he avoided the trip mechanism by climbing on the wire side and reaching over to eat. However, after a few days we learned to put the food behind the trip mechanism and he was caught.

Bob covered the cage with a dark towel and took Roo out for a long desert ride. A lengthy ride because a friend told us that rats are able to find their way back if closer than a two mile radiius. Not wanting to take any chances, Bob drove Roo nearly to the next town before releasing him in the wild.

My husband is such a softie. He said he felt bad about trapping Roo because he thought about all the seeds and things that Roo had stored under the floor of the shed and now he wouldn’t be prepared for winter. Well, winter isn’t that cold here and I think Roo is such a good hunter that he will do just fine out there. I do hope no one gives him a map to find his way back home and that he did not leave a family of little Roos behind.

I have just finished the album of our Dining Out experience. So if you would like to see it just click on the new album photo in the right side column. I have explanation to go with all photos and suddenly I don’t think my fingers can do much more. If you click on the first photo it will enlarge it and the comments will be at the top. Just press next to go on to the next enlarged photo etc. Hope you enjoy the album.

We are here at March Air Force Base. Bob and I drove down yesterday
and are staying in a quite elegant officers suite. We have a living room, two bedrooms (not that we need two) and a kitchenette. It is almost time to get dressed for the Dining Out and I feel a little like Cinderella getting ready for the ball.

This morning we slept in and after finishing all the coffee provided in the little kitchentte, we dressed and headed out to find someplace for breakfast. On the drive we passed this awesome airplane parked on the field. Neither of us recognized it right away. It is so impressive. I made a comment about flying it to Hawaii because we have always talked about hitching a military ride over there. At about the same moment Bob realized it was Air Force One and told me we probably would have to hitch a ride on something a little less elaborate.

We rushed back to quarters to get the camera and back to photograph the plane. However, as we got out of the car to do so, we saw the no photograph or video signs and an authoritive looking woman striding toward us with a clip board in her hands. So I quickly put the camera back in the car, smiled my most innocent smile, and we went over and looked out at the plane. Therefore the photo you see on here is an official one I found on a google search. I was not going to make that woman angry!

Air Force One is here because President Bush is at the Reagan Library today for a dedication. And now I must run and get dressed because my handsome prince and my pumpkin coach await me.