Wilbur and Halloween

With Grandma and Felicia, a photo by suzipaw on Flickr.

Boo!

I'm back from a great visit with Grandma and Felicia.

Niece and I rendezvous'd in Seattle, then flew east together to Spokane, picked up the rental SUV then drove west to Wilbur with enough time to spare to see Grandma before dinner on Friday evening. We dined at Boyd's place, a fairly new establishment. Not bad, though my somewhat unappetizing "view" during the meal was of a mural that mashed up scenes from WWII (battleships, the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima) and Vietnam (bandaging wounds, a likeness of the memorial statue on the Mall).

It was a bit chillier than California to say the least, so we drove for breakfast to Sandy's on Saturday then walked up to to see Grandma for a few hours before lunch. As always, it's so good to hear how she's doing and catch up on family tree news.

During lunch, Felicia and I did a little shopping at Manntiques. I picked up an iron shoe last to stopper the front gate, which of course meant I was searched at GEG on the way home. We did a quick tour of the cemetery (the trees are coming back nicely from that ice storm a couple of years ago), then headed down SR 21 for a photo op at Axtell Road. We took some arty shots of the family farm while we were there--it's slowly crumbling onto the field that once supported it.

Another few hours with Grandma, then we headed down to dinner at The Alibi. While Wilbur overall isn't thriving--the drug store and the dry goods store/gym have both closed since my last visit--The Alibi and Boyd's Place both had costume parties planned for that night. There weren't many people in The Alibi while we were there, but as they were setting up for karaoke (this amazed me, for Wilbur), more arrived and we were treated to some pretty racy get-ups. Despite urging from the barkeep to come back and croon, we turned in early.

Sunday was a brief goodbye with Grandma, then back to Spokane for the flights home. Unfortunately, due to mechanical trouble, I parted from Felicia early and missed my one and only direct flight to Santa Rosa. I got as close as Sacramento, however, and M very sweetly drove all the way over to pick me up. It was nice having a little drive time with him after a weekend away.

*****

Tonight is Halloween. I was a little worried about the dogs and small costumed people mixing, so per Felicia's suggestion, I creeped out our breezeway and set a bowl of candy at the end of it with at "take one if you dare" sign. I was just going to leave it at that, but when I overheard our neighbor scaring his own child while he was grabbing a treat, it inspired me. So I've been hanging out in the TV room with fangs and a flashlight, appearing suddenly at the window overlooking the breezeway and doing a crazy laugh here and there as children come up. I've really scared the pants off of a couple of them, it's been pretty fun. I think I've also scared Roxy a bit too, poor thing.