This morning was sunnier and warmer than it is now at 3:30. Waiting for the firewood, I started cleaning out the gutters and RDC riveted a fallen drainpipe back into place. The wood guy pitched logs from his truckbed into the backyard, which meant no hurry to stack the wood, unlike last time when the deliverer tipped it into the alley. I left RDC to that and continued with the gutters.
I had neglected the gutters for so long--four years? maybe longer--that leaves had decayed into dirt. Also, the bit below the chimney was full of mortar dust and other detritus from the tuckpointing, which was in 2003, I think. Plus I think I had never before touched the garage's at all, and those were packed solid. It was at this point that the metaphor of impaction made its unwelcome appearance in my mind. When I shoved the hose down a bent drainpipe and watched from the roof as a clog of leaves and rot churned from the spout, I was extremely glad that this was the last gutter enema.
While on the roof with the hose, I drained the swamp cooler and rinsed out of it a season's worth of muck (air pollution, strands from the filters, melted mineral block, minor ecosystems). RDC tossed its oiled canvas cover up to me and I snugged it up tight for winter. I wonder if I can find one of those covers with a magneted perimeter to fit over the vent in the hallway. Plus I want to round up the neighbors for a bee to take out the window unit. It's not so very very heavy but it's a cube three feet on a side and awkward and directly above the gas and water intakes.
So we're winterized: wood stacked, birdseed stocked, furnace filter replaced, storms up, winter curtains and wardrobe up, hoses disconnected and coiled, and even Blake is mostly over his fall moult and should have lots of new down to keep him cozy. Right now he's shredding pages from magazines, so even though there's no snow we have a dusting of white flake to beckon in the season.
On Tuesday Dot Org had its usual Hallowe'en party. One group had a good idea and material but, I have to say, poor follow-through: they were "Heathers" but the third Dot Orger named Heather wasn't in, and two Heathers are not "Heathers"; they wore nametags with the surnames but were both dressed in black instead of red, yellow, or green; and worst, they had no Veronica. If there had been three of them, I would have been Veronica for them. Even though I wasn't wearing blue, my hair is dark, if not that dark, and about the right length, and if not Veronica's style, closer to it than their side-of-head '80s ponytails, which the Heathers didn't wear either, and most important, I know the dialogue. I admired their courage during the costume contest, though it seemed few enough people knew their concept for the audience to recognize the inadequacy of its execution.
Anyway, I fed them some lines and plot before the contest. I said that "Is this just another spoke in my menstrual cycle?" is one of my favorite movie lines ever. Then I announced, "A naked American man stole my balloons," and they asked if that line was in the movie too. "No, sorry, I was just blurting my actual favorite movie line."
Next year I am totally going to find a pasty-flesh-toned body suit and wear strategically placed, colorful (and inflated) balloons. "An American Werewolf in London" is an appropriate movie to dress up as for Hallowe'en, n'est-ce pas?
Speaking of French, RDC's favorite movie line is this exchange from "Deconstructing Harry":
Doris: You have no values. With you it's all nihilism, cynicism, sarcasm, and orgasm.
Harry Block: Hey, in France I could run for office with that slogan, and win!
I don't know how to make that into a costume. A platform with three planks so labeled, and a little French flag?
Or, and this just gets better and better, a party where you dress up as your favorite movie line and another prize of the evening besides best costume or best line is how many other people's lines or movies you are able to guess.
Hm.
A scar down each cheek, blood on the belly of a pirate shirt, and a sword. "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father prepare to die." Princess Bride.
A snake on one shoulder and a seaplane on the other and maybe the number 44 on your shirt as an anachronistic hint for those so inclined. Or several snakes and carry a pane of glass. "Aw, that's just my pet snake Reggie!" (I had to look up Reggie Jackson's team number for the Yankees.) Or "Asps! Very dangerous! You go first." Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Therefore, of course, a dog costume and perhaps a map of the 19th state."You are named after the dog?" "I've got a lot of fond memories of that dog." Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Birthday-cake numerals 5 and 0 on a crown, and snaps and Cartesian coordinates on your garment. That's a stretch, but I can't think of how to costume my actual favorite lines from that movie, which follow:
Henry II: I hope we never die.
Eleanor: So do I.
Henry II: Do you think there's any chance of it?
and
Geoffrey: I know. You know I know. I know you know I know. We know Henry knows, and Henry knows we know it. We're a knowledgeable family.
The costumed line is Henry II's: "I've snapped and plotted all my life. There's no other way to be alive, king, and fifty all at once." Lion in Winter, of course.
An ostentatious diamondish necklace and smallpox. Sing "Lydia the Tattooed Lady." Offer people use of a pogo stick and tell them about your dream. Or something.Diana Lord from Philadelphia Story. Except that this ensemble represents no single line, and the pogo stick bit is Uncle Willy's.
A flower-child type smock. Carry a milk carton with your childhood photograph on it. Ask to turn off the music. "Rock stars have kidnapped my son." Almost Famous.
Dress in black and white. Carry a jar of salsa and chips. Act it out but don't say it. Salsa shark! We're gonna need a bigger boat! Man goes into cage, cage goes into salsa. Shark's in the salsa. Our shark." Clerks
Which leads to...a camera, some yellow barrels (a Barrel of Monkeys is a nice manageable size), and perhaps under your denim jacket an optical illusion t-shirt illustrating how size is a matter of perception. Or roll one pant leg up far enough to show your scars and carry a shot glass."I need to have something in the foreground to give it some scale." Or "Okay, so we drink to our legs!" Jaws