Two Halloweens (and a scary Christmas)

That's what it feels like. First the party and then Halloween night. I don't even want to think about tree season.

The party was a great success. Everybody had a good time and there were only a few minor glitches. The yard looked fab-u-lous! We certainly worked hard to get it that way.

I spent so much time on stage that at times I felt like I was watching someone's party video. I barely got to talk to anyone. The artichoke dip I made didn't get baked. That's ok because I brought it home and put it in the freezer. It was delicious last night.

The costumes were great! Stacey was some kind of hot, witchy mama. Scotty was a devil in a Hawaiian shirt, Drew was a monster thingy and Mindy was a pirate. Lordy, it was the night of the pirates! We had at least 5 of them, maybe more. Dede and David came as a suit. She was the pants and David was the jacket. Great costumes.

It took a couple days to take all the decorations down. We packed them up and took them straight to Kevin's. Since we were setting things up in his back yard this time we could leave stuff there and not worry about it getting stolen. That made things much easier.

It also meant we could take our sweet time setting it all up again. Usually we're trying to get it all done in one day. It's just too exhausting to do it that way and we never have the time to do it the way we'd like. This time we spent 3 days setting it up. It was the best display we've ever done.

Too bad we didn't have much of an audience. We were light on trick-or-treaters this year. Oh well. The people that did show up really enjoyed it. I'll post the photos later.

Another thing that was so nice about doing it in the back yard is when the evening was over we just unplugged everything and went home. Usually we take everything down that night and throw it in the van and the truck. That's a huge amount of work to do after an exhausting day. Later today we'll go over and start packing up. We're pretty wiped out. Not in much of a hurry to get over there.

A little while ago Dad called about getting ready for tree season. He's in mean-old-bastard mode. He went on and on about how he can't depend on his family to help him, how Drew and Stacey weren't there much last year (then who WERE those people?), how he thinks one of us might get mad and just not show up for work (!), and he wants to hire Dusty because she knows everything about how to run the business. I reminded him that she was taking money and paperwork home with her at the end of the day. I told him not to hire anybody until he talks to Bud and David. He said, "WHY? What does David have to say about it?" I told him that David knows what the financial situation is. Dad said HE knows what the financial situation is better than David.

So, here we go. Dad's throwing his weight around, making accusations and being a jerk. Happy November First. I really don't want to do this. Last year I swore I'd never do it again. But the land still hasn't sold and Bud is keeping the farm going so we have to have another tree season. Jim said the other day Dad was mad because they haven't planted any new seedlings. Last year he ordered a truckload of Oregon trees. Is he going to order seedlings this year? He said he needs to hire people he knows he can depend on. Yeah, like all those good people who were ripping him off?

I've said this before, I know a lot of his behavior is because of the Alzheimer's, but a lot of it is his true personality. He could be a nasty bastard before Alzheimer's ever showed up. All this just jams me right back into the worst of my childhood memories and it makes me feel sick. And trapped. Please, somebody!, buy this property so we can be finished with this.