Peanut needed new shoes. As any parent will attest, buying shoes for your kids is something you always feel like you just did.
"Didn't I just buy you a new pair of shoes?"
"Those were sneakers dad."
And so they were. What she wanted yesterday was replacements for her L.L. Bean slip on shoes so we headed on over to The Mall. Outside the Scouts were selling popcorn while inside the shoe department was hopping. Anthony, our sales clerk, had beads of sweat on his forehead as he worked to handle the onslaught of customers. When he asked if there was anything else we needed today my eyes drifted to the snow boots.
Last season I waited too long to buy her snow boots and it was only after running all around town that I snagged one of the last remaining pairs at Nordstrom.
She's already grown out of those so I went ahead and picked up snow boots yesterday too.
"We sold out of snow boots by December last year," Anthony told me. I know, I know.
Of course buying snow boots this early pretty much guarantees that we won't have much snow this year. When we got home my neighbor was putting the final touches of his Halloween decor. Peter goes all out with his spooky vignettes and each year is an original production. The theme this year is zombies.
When I spoke with Peter he was trying to figure out what to do with the coffin he built for last years display.
Later on I went down to the Wine Bin in Ellicott City to replenish my wine supply. As I pulled into the parking lot I noticed that the movie screen was still attached to the side of the store. I thought the Saturday night movie nights were over now that the fall weather has arrived so I asked Dave Carney, the store owner, what was up.
"We're doing a movie on the Saturday night before Halloween," he told me. On Saturday October 30th at 6:30 PM they will be showing Ghostbusters in the parking lot. "Then we'll do one more for Midnight Madness on December 3rd. I've rented ten California heaters and stand up tables." They will also be selling a warm spiced cider. He realizes that it will probably be too cold for people to stay for a whole movie so that nights feature film will be an old holiday favorite, "It's a Wonderful Life." It's a movie that most folks have seen at least once so if they arrive or leave in the middle of the film it's no big deal.