The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight

Last year, I had the Halloween I have been dreaming about for years.  And it wasn't because I was taking my two year old out for trick-or-treating.  It was because our new neighborhood is amazing.

Have you ever seen Hocus Pocus?  Or Ernest Scared Stupid?  Or pretty much any kiddie Halloween movie or TV show?  All those neighborhoods are amazing.  Tons of kids in the streets running around in their costumes getting candy.  All the houses decorated.  Parents dressed up and heading to parties.  Everyone having a good time.  Everyone enjoying the festivities.  I've always wanted to live in a place where everyone, or almost everyone, is excited about the same thing.  A place where you can drop your kids off and you know nothing will happen to them.  Well, last night, after crossing the street to the connecting neighborhood, Gunnar and I walked into just that.

There were so many people.  Houses had lines of kids waiting for their piece of candy.  Kids were running around having fun.  You could hear screaming from the houses that went all out (I'm talking people dressed up and hanging out in their front yards) and see all the lights flashing.  I've never seen anything like it.  I wondered if our neighborhood was going to get as much foot traffic, we weren't as decorated as this block and our houses were spaced farther apart.  But they were crossing the street in small groups heading our way.  I asked if Kevin would stay behind and hand out our candy.  He did, and Gunnar and I went to do a round of trick-or-treating.

When we got back to the house, all the lights were on and there was a line heading to our door.  It's a testament to the kids' desire to get free candy, all of them were climbing the large hill to our front door.  Next year, I plan to pull out all the stops for decorating.  I want our side of the street to be just as popular as the other side. 

Cheers!

Gunnar trick-or-treats in style

The Bear Den #6

I know, I know.  I totally fell off the wagon.  My goal for this blog was always at least one post a month.  Clearly, that's not how 2016 and 2017 went.  The main cause was I just wasn't feeling it.  In November, I started having some weird vibes at work.  It dragged out over the holidays and finally, in December, the upper management told us that our company was merging with a much larger company.  Basically, we were sold to the highest bidder.  The company as we knew it was no longer going to exist.  If you've ever been through something like this, there are some common things that always happen.  First, some people will be retained, some won't.  Second, more than likely your job title, duties or boss will change.  Third, the dynamic of the company will change to that of the bigger company.

Now, I've been around for a while now.  I'm not a business person per say, but I do know how business works.  Nothing that happened during the course of this change was a surprise to me.  But that doesn't mean I liked it.  A good chunk of people were let go, one of which I was very upset to see leave.  My title and job duties did change as well as my salary, all for the better.  My boss was not retained but my new boss wasn't really a change for me.  I was one of the lucky ones.  But the environment that I liked working in has slowly been eroded away and that has taken its toll on me.  I'm dealing with it but not as well as I could be.  I guess only time will tell if I'll be able to continue with the company.  I'm trying to keep an open mind.

While all this was happening, Kevin's job was also going though a restructuring as well making him concerned about what the future held for him.  He came out of it ok, but with changes he is not pleased with.  Needless to say that the end of 2016 was a bit rough for us in the career sector.

2017 so far has just been really busy.  I bought a new car on New Years Eve and I've been trying to figure it out ever since.  Its a fancy car with the touch screen dash and a bunch of bells and whistles I'm not used to.  I can hear certain people laughing right now because most cars have these things these days.  I'm used to my Jeep that doesn't get fancy.  I'm old school like that.  I've also been traveling a lot.  Well, twice in a month, which is a lot for me.  Once for work and the other for our vacation.  I hate traveling for work but I went with a coworker I like so it wasn't terrible.  He got seafood with me one night and taught me how to eat Korean the next.  I think we represented our new company well.

Stay turned for some recaps from the end of 2016.  I hope to finally put up a Christmas post!

Cheers!