This morning as I was reading the paper, I glanced at the bottom of the front page and saw the weather forecast. Two numbers in particular caught my eye - 39° for a high Monday and 74° for a high Thursday. Sounds crazy, doesn't it? That is Iowa in the fall! It makes it kind of hard to figure out what to wear from what day to the next - heck, from one hour to the next.
In Des Moines, Halloween is different than other places for two reasons. One, the kids go trick-or-treating on the night before Halloween - we call it "Beggar's Night". Not sure why, but rumor has it that they did it so the adults could party on Halloween itself. Two, the kids are required to tell a joke for their candy. I love this - when I've lived other places it seemed so boring just to hand out the candy. Plus, it is so adorable to see the little ones try their jokes out on us. The all-time favorite is, "what do you get when you put a car in the oven? A hot rod!"
Since our weather is so crazy, I can remember Halloweens when it snowed, rained, was 75°, you name it!
Today is a windy day. Not just windy - WINDY! This has been going on since I got up this morning - big gusts where I can feel the house rattle, it sounds like a bulldozer coming through the house. I look outside to see all the patio chairs flying around. Makes me want to go to a movie so I can't hear it. Seems like we always have at least one of these at this time of year - the leaves in your yard go into your neighbors yard, and vice versa. If you're lucky, all yours went away.
Whoops, I just heard a big crash outside - better go investigate.
Update: the big crash was the grill - how often does YOUR grill fall over, with a big propane tank attached? And our metal gazebo with 120 pounds of sand attached - destroyed. Yes, we have a windy backyard.