Goat Sweet Goat!

October 2011

Fall is a time when folks sit around camp fires, put on their warmer clothes, break out the cider, wake early to harvest their crops, decorate pumpkins, paste fake leaves to their windows and remove the real ones, cheer for their favorite football team...oh yeah and they  dress their kid up like a goat and go door to door to receive free candy. This is hands down my favorite time of the year. Maybe that is becasue I grew up on a farm, played and coach high school football and I am an artist. Wait a second, God did it again. He took something that I loved and has forced me to share it with someone else. How pissy! If I were Braveheart leading my seasons into battle with God I would tell him, "you can take my Spring and you can take my Summer, but you will never take my Auuuutuuuumn!  Since I don't have any blue face paint or have my Scottish clan kilt handy, it is probably best that I concede to the good man upstairs and just share this great time of year...I don't have to like it...I don't have to like it at all.
       Halloween is coming up and I have to admit that we are having a bit of fun picking out the costume that best reflects Ryan's personality. Do we go with a sumo wrestler because he is constantly wrestling every toy and he is a big chub? Should we go with Mickey Mouse due to he affinity with the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cartoon?  I know! We should dress him as a Hungry Hippo since we feed him a gallon of milk, four full pigs and a bushel of bananas per meal.  Nah that might cause psychological issues later on. After just one evening of going over costumes, it was obvious: Ryan is going as a goat. It is perfect! He eats everything in sight, consumable and non-consumable items alike. All he does is chew his shoe, his food, the couch and anything that is within hands reach. Man, this will be great! ...Crap, I better settle down. It might come off to God that I am enjoying this 'sharing fall thing' and I won't be able to have my Braveheart moment.
       Every year since I was a kid I have gone to the pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin to carve. We'd eat a carmel apple, drink some cider and head home to carve a priceless work of art into the round, orange canvas. I love carving pumpkins. One year in Middle School during the Bush/Dukakis election, I carved two pumpkins, each with the candidates face.  I brought them to school and they used them for stage decor during a mock debate in the cafeteria. It was a cool day for me. Ang and I carried on this tradition over that past 20 years by heading into Tuttle Orchard and taking in the season. Then we would go home and carve away. This year we threw the Turd in the Jeep and headed out to find his first pumpkin. He had a blast. Ang and I were finally the parents we've watched from afar in the straw-bale-pyramid, going through the corn maze, playing on the giant pumpkin and participating in the carnival atmosphere. We took about a thousand pictures capturing every moment of Ryan enjoying his first pumpkin patch visit. We will go home and carve into the pumpkin his favorite....what am I doing? I am smiling while sharing my autumn and drifting further way from my epic moment against God in which I stand my ground...I even bought blue face paint.
       Through this entire month of football (go Pack go), drinking cider, picking out Ryan's goat costume, the pumpkin patch, none was more special than watching Ryan march in his first Halloween parade at school. He was a hit as the goat and looked fantastic next to his best friend, cousin and frog, Brody. It was probably Top 3 all time cutest things ever seen by human eyes, grouped with new born kittens and Emanuel Lewis. Okay, after a long month, I have to admit that I really enjoyed sharing my season with Ryan even though my cider wasn't spiked, the pumpkin had a baby theme and the bonfires only included burning wood, sans appliances or plastics.  Sharing this with Ryan has its benefits too. I was able to do a bunch of fun things for 'kids only' that before would have made me the creepy grown-up with no kids going down the Halloween slide. This brings me to my realization: I guess I will spare the lives of my battle-ready seasons and leave my kilt in the crate, for now. I will use the blue face paint for my Blue Man Group audition and ease up on God for now, unless he asks me to share Thanksgiving or Christmas.