Sunday
The night before Halloween we had 9 inches of rainfall, punctuated by sharp lightening strikes and booming thunder. There was significant flash flooding and by the time I got up at 4:30AM, thousands of Austin residents were evacuating, or without power, or undergoing water rescues. Horses, cattle, goats and dogs and cats were missing and their owners were frantic. A pregnant lady went into labor while trapped in her house on lower Spicewood Springs Road and it took Emergency Responders 7 hours to rescue her and get her to Seton Hospital! Onion Creek, Brushy Creek, Bull Creek and Lady Bird Lake flooded. The Wall Street Journal helpfully told the world that Austin was under water, which caused my sister to send me frantic inquiries as to whether or not we were safe. I sent her a reply email but she never got it because their email is on the fritz, so we exchanged text messages. Thursday at 6:30AM, despite misgivings by Claire, Larry and myself, I left the house to drive the 35 minute trek to SMC-W. Traffic was bad and the roads were wet (still raining) but I made it. I had breakfast, opened the shop and had the two registers open, census justified and was working on identifying the new patient flower recipients when Kim called to see if I had made it in. She was vastly relieved that I was on duty! I finished my shift and drove home, feeling absolutely lousy. I took a nap and woke up at 4:30PM, feeling worse. I carved a very simple jack-o-lantern ( which Larry, with his usual lack of tact, said was the worst job I had ever done) and put it on the blue and white porcelain garden seat which I moved to the foyer from the living room. I already had the Halloween candy (which the hypercritical Larry bitched was way too much) in my large stainless steel bread bowl, nesting on one of my cushioned antique heirloom mahogany chairs in the foyer. Fighting nausea, as dusk fell, I lit the votive candle inside Pepe and we were ready. We put dinner in the oven and began a Midsomer Murder episode and I answered the doorbell and dispensed candy to the 16 trick-or-treaters who came to call. At the end of the evening, I snuffed the candle, put everything back in it's place, did dishes, filled and started the dishwasher and went to bed. Halloween was over for another year.