That’s what we’ve been doing here – painting the fence in the back. Up and down and scrunched into corners and dabbed on the sides of the boards that make up the dreaded shadowbox fence. Of course, it is okay to drip on grass, but I have a rose-colored shirt that is mostly grey now. Well, it had a hole in it anyway.

Not that painting has kept me all that busy at all. And even the small bit of junk I’ve hauled to the place from which we’ll be loading trash on Saturday hasn’t taken that much time. Oh, I mowed, but that went fairly well also.

So what have I been doing? I’d say probably not much. The dog’s happy with that. He likes to lie in one spot and dream his dreams.

Walmart is filling up with Halloween stuff – the displays have moved into the garden area this year; previously, the garden area went directly from mowers and grass seed and fertilizer to Christmas stuff, but not this year. I think in the past couple of years, ad men have decided to push Halloween as a decorating holiday. I think they noticed that some people were hot to start getting the decorating spirit of Christmas  and would  hurry it along by purchasing lights and whatnot early. Then, of course, they didn’t buy them later – they already had them.  Since the store would have a hard time selling decorations to people who already had them, I think they calved a holiday out of the anticipation of Christmas. Purple and orange lights, coffins, tombstones, eerie music, battery lights for pumpkins, pumpkin carving kits, giant spider webs, strobe lights. I mean who doesn’t NEED a giant ghost for Halloween. And special bags for the loot – not to mention the costume? And doorbells that laugh maniacally.

I have to confess; I bought a string of bats last year with purple lights on as an outline. Each little bat had two green lights for sinister eyes.

My mother’s house has the occasionally bat visitor now and then and she chases them down with a badminton racket. Guess we’ll have to watch out if she sleeps over here this Halloween. But, then again, perhaps I have outgrown bats . . . maybe it’s the year of the zombie. Or maybe it’s : Ha, Ha to you Walmart – I’m only spending money on a pumpkin to carve and some candy to hand out.