So perhaps you’ve heard tell of the freak October snowstorm (“They’re called Noreasters,” our fourth-grade neighbor informed me) that caught us all by surprise last week. We got under a foot of snow, but it was heavy and wet enough, and the trees still leafy enough, that the ensuing damage knocked out power lines and blocked roadways. Halloween, for us, was postponed.

A week off from school, with no power or heat; that’s a lot of crafts and board games. We were lucky to have great neighbors and friends who rallied. Our culdesac bonded over one woman’s stovetop coffee percolator, one family’s gas-powered generator, and shared use of a chainsaw. A caravan of cherry picker trucks on the freeway, coming from Philly and even Ohio to come to our aid: a moving reminder of the way crises can bring out our best, most generous instincts.

Happy Halloween to you and yours. Our festivities are fully documented in the album ^[1].

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