There goes the neighborhood ...

First, I would like to thank my good friends for a fabulous brunch-through-afternoon meeting and melding of the minds today at one of my posse's favorite haunts, Risky's Barbecue in the Stockyards Train Station.  There are some things that are worth staying awake for after having too little sleep the day before, and finishing up my night shift.  We had so much fun and laughed out loud so often, we were either the envy, or a profound annoyance to any and all sitting near us on the patio. 

Believe it or not (glad I'm documenting this for future reference, because no doubt it will later be contested by at least two parties involved), we were ALL late, but I arrived FIRST! Therefore, my five minutes of tardiness shouldn't count against me, when I beat the other two to the train station, and the other two planned the brunch. Of course, I live only a few minutes away and D.J. had to come from south of the city.

Not only were we all three late, D.J. parked in a lot on the other end of the stockyards, AND went to the wrong Risky's. Not her fault, really. There are three Risky's locations in the stockyards, and two of them are in the train station. D.J. didn't pick either of those, but opted for Risky's Steak House near the White Elephant Saloon. Wonder if that was some sort of innuendo? However, Torres and I headed her off at the pass, and we all walked back to the train station together.  The stockyards were SWAMPED today with tourists. 

Torres & D.J.  (we couldn't maintain D.J.'s attention
until the cattle drive was over.  I informed her she looked
like a tourista.

I told D.J. that we'd decided to possibly switch our spot for an up and coming meet to Cattlemen's Steakhouse.  And she informed me that the last time she was in Cattlemen's was in November of 1963, and then asked if I knew why that was significant.  Of course I did, but I'm glad she told me about it anyway.  D.J. is one of my fav resident historians of Fort Worth.  She was there in November of '63 because that's where she was when JFK was killed.  She'd met him only shortly before when he started his Fort Worth visit.

Two of the fright-night invasion.

I made it home, and ran out of conciousness around 1530.  Not long after I woke up this evening, the neighborhood was flooded with clowns, ghosts, goblins, faeries, and nearly every other fantastic creature you could imagine, but oddly ... no dragons.

I thought surely SOMONE would be out gathering goodies dressed as Impish Dragon, but alas, there was no sign of either him, or anyone dressed like him.

This kid was a sweetheart.  He's over 6' tall,
and he was deftly maneuvering himself
on a unicycle through the invasion party.

Maybe next year.  For that matter, I didn't run across any leprechauns either.  Lethal, looks like both you and Impish got dissed this year.

Right in the middle of the invasion, we heard sirens blaring through the neighborhood, and were surprised to see a fire engine pull up and park in front of our house.  Yes, they were at the wrong house.  As it turned out, three houses down, where our friend John lives, a fellow who'd been imbibing in a little too much holiday-brew, began ringing John's doorbell.  He then proceeded to pass out on his front porch.

We had a fire truck, squad cars and an ambulance suddenly crowding our street, and blaring their sirens to get the ghouls and goblins to make a path and let them through. 

I took a pic but hadn't had enough coffee yet to focus properly, so, it came out rather fuzzy. 

The ambulance was declined to transport, by the police, who took said collapsed person into cuffs, once they roused him, placed him in cuffs, and loaded him into the back of the squad car.  I'm guessing he'll be spending the rest of his Halloween sleeping it off in the pokey.

The neighborhood's gone quiet again, and I have a book review to put together, if I can manage to stay awake long enough.  Tomorrow, I'm off to Dallas Arboretum to view them pumpkin village with a friend.  (My thanks to Lethal Leprechaun for the tip.)  Between now and then, I'll practice up on my focus technique.

Keep your doors locked tonight peeps.  There a 3' ghouls and goblins about who have serious intent to swipe your candy stash!