(Sunday Paper, Year V, Issue 43)

I’ve been doing a decent job of not letting myself go completely during this pandemic.

(Well, physically, I’m talking about…mentally we’ve had our moments.)

I make sure I exercise almost every day (I’ll allow myself a break from my daily push-up and sit-up regimen on the weekends…but that’s when I mostly do my running), and when we make the effort Kathy and I can keep a pretty healthy meal schedule going.

But this is the time of year when things get hard.

It’s eating season: Thanksgiving is not that far away, followed by Christmas time and more food. (It’ll be different this year, for sure, but rest assured I’ll be eating just as much.)

But before then…it’s candy.

So, so much candy.

Halloween this year is going to be different, too.

We’re not quite sure, as you read this the weekend before the holiday, how we’ll be handling trick-or-treating.

Well, trick-or-treaters, I should say. The girls have already decided they’re OK with not going around the neighborhood this year. (I can not stress enough how wonderful the girls have been throughout all of this and how flexible they've been, and how smart they’ve been. It has not only made things easy on Kathy and me, obviously, but it is really just amazing to consider their understanding of the situation pitted against how many adults are not handling it anywhere near as well.)

So this year, instead of pigging out on candy from October 31st pretty much all the way through November (and sometimes beyond), we’ve already cracked open some bags of candy and will continue eating it through Halloween and the early part of November. (In other words, I don’t think it’ll last as long, so that’s at least one positive.)

It’s just a lot of candy I’ll be eating, is all I’m saying. After spending most of the year trying to be healthy and not eating junk, this time of year that all flies out the window.

As for trick-or-treating, well, it stinks that all of this is going on when Halloween is on a Saturday.

I won’t judge - I think whatever people decide is fine. Trick-or-treating for the most part can be done socially distant enough that I don’t think it’s terribly unsafe (everything from handing out candy to just leaving something out for trick-or-treaters), but for us the best choice is to not do it. I might hand out candy if people come to the door - I’ll wear a mask and make sure everyone is far enough away from the door that it’s safe. But who even knows if anyone will be coming to the door.

If I had the organizing ability I might have tried to put together a neighborhood parade so that kids could be out in their costumes and people could leave out candy for them…but the big sticking point for me is not knowing everyone and who has kids and where does one area begin and end and I’m just afraid someone would feel excluded.

At the very least I hope everyone has a happy and safe (and healthy) Halloween. Stay tuned for a picture of this year’s jack-o-lantern carving - either as part of this week’s #EveryWeekOnWednesday or maybe just in next week’s Sunday Paper post.

Notes

*Oh, I mentioned #EveryWeekOnWednesday - you can see that if you Like the John Sucich Facebook page. And you can also follow me on Twitter for some fun content.

*The last time Halloween was on a Saturday was in 2015, and the Mets lost a game in the World Series and it was a fun night watching the game at a friend’s but it was a disappointing ending.

*Been doing some yard work the past couple of weeks (making great progress on that downed branch from a couple of weeks ago, though the final trunk is going to need a bigger saw), and I had this thought, which I hope isn’t too much of a downer: one of the things that helped me get through the spring was the yardwork. Planting grass seed, watching it grow. Tomato and cucumber plants. Now that I’m digging up all the remains and putting things away back there…I hope that doesn’t take a negative toll. There’s a big difference in bringing something to life back there and watching it all die. I hope that doesn’t make it a tough winter…but at least I have my video games, I guess.

*So as not to end on a down note: The World Series has been fun to watch, especially last night’s Game Four. I felt in those late innings that the Rays were going to come back…but I was laying in bed and having trouble keeping my eyes open. I fell asleep as the last batter of the game came to the plate…and opened my eyes to the post-game interview.