This morning was the first substantial walk I got in this week. While it wasn’t a perfect Fall Day, at least the sun was shining. I was surprised there weren’t more leaves on the ground after Saturday’s blustery weather, but unfortunately the homeowners’ harvest decorations took a beating with that near-40 mph wind yesterday. I saw several scarecrows sitting askew or their poles were listing or toppled over. Mums were looking bedraggled and cornstalks were crumpling and pulling off their tethers. At least the bales of hay and big pumpkins were intact. Lots of pumpkin pie fixin’ and eatin’ going on these days. While I was still at the law firm, before Robb and I moved out on our own, every Halloween we got mini-pumpkins for each of the support staff from Eastern Market and we had a decorating contest. The partners contributed a prize for the most-unique little gourd and one of the girls took all the pumpkins to Children’s Hospital to brighten the spirits of the kids who had to be hospitalized for Halloween. I won first prize one year and my efforts took about ½ minute of time. The downtown Detroit Hudson’s building had been imploded a few days before and it was a big deal for the other downtown tenants. I bought a can of Libby’s Pumpkin Pie Filling and stuck my bare mini-pumpkin on top. I typed up a sign “Before/After The Hudson’s Implosion 10/24/98”. … as ol’ Will Shakespeare suggested: “brevity is the soul of wit” … not only was it easy to do and clever but it yielded a $50.00 cash prize.