It was a dark and stormy night. . . . . . . . quite a change from the weather we have had for the past few weeks. Fall had been rolling in gradually, giving us a stretch of sunny, warm & beautiful days that you hoped would go on for a while longer. The leaves on the trees had been turning gorgeous shades of yellow, gold, red and orange for a few weeks now, but hanging onto the trees as long as they could.
The weather guru’s on all the local stations had been predicting inclement weather would be rolling in by the end of the week, but nobody really believed it would happen. After all, how often did the weather folks get the forecast right? I think we had all been hoping the good weather would last a while longer. . . . but it was not meant to be.
Halloween morning dawned bright and clear, with a bit of a crisp feeling in the air. The neighborhood kids were excited about Halloween finally being here, and had dressed up in the most ghoulish costumes to head off to school to torment each other. I had decided that this might be a good day to play hooky from the Data Center and get in 9 holes of golf while the weather lasted. I coerced my neighbor to head to the links with me (really, coerce is a strong word, as most of my golf friends will drop anything for the chance to head to the links and swing the sticks at the little white ball).
As the day progressed, so did the encroaching storm. It started off about noon with a bit of a breeze. The leaves started to swirl a bit on the golf course, but it did not stop us from continuing our game. We both completed our round a few strokes under par (hey, this is my story and if I want to fudge the truth and say I am capable of playing a round under par, so be it).
By the time I arrived home, feeling as if I could beat the pink socks off of Paula Creamer at the next US Open, the wind had picked up, leaves were flying off the trees into the gutters, and the rain drops were beginning to fall. I walked up the stairs to my home office, logged into my computer, and I did a quick check of the Data Center to make sure it was still operating in my absence, and all looked well. I patted myself on the back for being able to leave the Data Center for a day without it falling apart.
I was looking forward to settling into an evening of hot cocoa, a really good glass of Cabernet, a warm fire, and passing out candy to all the neighborhood ghouls.
The evening progressed perfectly. Much candy was passed out, to kids in very creative costumes, except for little Susie down the road, whose mom decided it was perfectly OK to dress her 4 year-old daughter in a french maid costume. C’mon now parents. . . . . put on the common sense hat.
The evening was winding down, the fire was crackling, I heard thunder rumbling in the distance and getter nearer with each passing clap, and I was getting ready to settle into my comfy chair with my remote and view a bit of Gray’s Anatomy. Isn’t the DVR just the best invention ever? Just as I had gotten settled, the doorbell rang one last time. Weird, I thought. It should have been time for all the neighborhood kids to be home, dumping their candy sacks on the living room floor and assessing their candy haul.
Thinking it was one last group of teenage kids trying to get a bit more candy, I got up out of my chair, walked to the front door, slowly twisted the knob and opened the door, ready for the chorus of “Trick of Treat”.
Instead. . . . . . . .
To be continued.