With Halloween on a Sunday this year, I’m home during the beginning of prime time “trick or treat” visitors.

As it’s still broad daylight outside, leaving the porchlight off isn’t really a visible sign that “we’re not at home, no candy here.” So I barricaded the front porch with 2 plastic chairs, and on the walkway leading up to the porch, one plastic chair tightly wedged between the lilac bushes, and another chair in front of that at the beginning of the walkway from the driveway. I just didn’t want to hear the doorbell all afternoon and evening, and also didn’t want them wasting their time coming up to the front door.

So far, 2 groups of the little darlings have pushed their way past the chairs (I can hear the scraping and their high-pitched little voices), but they figure it out at the door and don’t ring the doorbell. Still, we’ve got the indoor lights off, the curtains drawn… how much more of a hint do you need, kids?

Since they were being so… persistent, I went back out, turned the chairs back-to-front so they didn’t appear so inexplicably inviting, and made my barricades a little more secure. If they’re breached, I’ll have to go back out with a mop handle to jam between the chairs and the bushes, and maybe some other random crap from the garage.

A co-worker is proud of the fact that her neighborhood is the kind where kids are brought in by the mini-vanfull in order to get the most candy loot; she proudly mentioned that she has to buy bags and bags and bags of candy, because she gets hundreds of trick-or-treaters. That could be fun, and if I were a real nine-year-old (instead of one only in my head) I’d be heading for her neighborhood tonight too.

Actually, Elk Grove Village residents seem to really be into decorating for the Halloween boos and ghouls – I keep spotting houses that my inner nine-year-old recognizes as prime candy-bagging spots. My own suburb is kind of lame in the way of decorations – maybe because we don’t have the majestic trees (yet) that EGV boasts. It’s just not spooky enough here without big trees, maybe.

Still, it doesn’t stop the candy zombies from trying to break down my barricades. Maybe I’d better get out the supersoakers and start hollering “Say hello to mah leetle friend!”