Might As Well Let Them Know Who We Are...

 Before I left for my weekend gig, I spotted the un-carved pumpkin and wondered what I could transform it into before I had to go.

What to carve...?

For years we've amassed a large library of carve-able patterns...so many good ones to choose from. I could have picked one of those impressive pictures, but I went another direction. I decided to let everyone in the neighborhood know who we were.

Let's go back to one year ago. We were new to the neighborhood. We knew no one, and no one knew us. We set up a candy cannon to practice social distancing and to hopefully bring a little fun to the whole "trick-or-treat" experience. It was, in a word, a success.

Fast forward to this year, I still feel like we're unknown. We have met more people than we knew last year, but it's still weird living in a neighborhood where we still don't know a majority of those who live around us. Hopefully, this year's pumpkin will help.

I love Halloween and I'm sad that it's almost over, but at least we're letting everyone know who we are...

And who is launching candy at their children from from atop the driveway.

Waving "High"...To Strangers

 Waving to the neighbors...a common tradition, I believe, in most places. I know we did it where we used to live. It didn't happen all that much because we lived at the end of a cul-de-sac and not many drove by. But even when it happened, when our neighbors took a drive down our street, we'd wave.

And they waved back.

We moved last fall, and have not spent a lot of time outside until this spring. We are currently putting in a sprinkling system and we are finding ourselves outside more and more, especially in the front yard. Last week and this week, we've been out front digging holes, checking sprinklers, and planting trees. We've also seen numerous cars driving by our house. And when they do, we wave to them.

And they wave back.

The difference is, for most of the drivers in those cars, trucks, four-wheelers, and motorcycles, we don't now the people. They're strangers. Thanks to covid, we haven't been able to get out and meet many of our neighbors. We hope to get to know the people who have been driving by and waving sometime soon. But for now, we'll continue waving to those who drive by.

And--I'm sure--they'll continue waving back.