Sailing Over Teach's Grave

Hopefully I'll be able to find Frau Lobster's digital cam tomorrow and post a picture of this year's Halloween Costume. Went as a bearded lady last year, and would this year if I could have found a coconut halter and grass skirt in time to do the Polynesian thing.

When I was in the custom of shaving my head in the summer, I rotated through a series of 'bald' related costumes: Mr. Clean, Uncle Fester, Electric Chair Casualty, etc. Still have some room to run there when I get done growing my hair long. I never did Kojack, The King & I, etc.

I have a friend who's a singing pirate for a living, so I borrowed some threads from him. He's about my size, so they should fit, and by this time of year, he's sick to death of dressing as a pirate and ready for the off-season.

I did have an eerie experience picking up the clothes. The last I saw his step-daughter she was about Em's age, maybe a year or two older. Out of the corner of my eye, I think I see Frau Mayhem coming down the stairs and turn my head and do a double-take because there's a resemblance to Frau Mayhem, but this girl is maybe 17. And gorgeous.

No I don't mean that in a creepy way, just in a factual way. She'd turn heads in any mall. She ricocheted through the room in a dash so as to stay clear of the old men (ages 36 and 38). If you are 17, that probably does seem old, but as the 36 of the pair, I have to say I feel about the same as I did at 17. Slower, fatter, able to buy beer legally (much less thrilling that way), poorer (though curiously, when I was 17, my present hourly wage was enough to keep me solvent he better part of a week).

And if I was Tom Cruise, I'd probably have thrown Frau Lobster over and started chasing teen-age girls like I did at 17, though probably with less success.

I think Mayhem read my face, because he grinned a grin that seemed to say, 'You don't have long to wait.' I'd say it's a 'misery loves company' thing, but I think he sees it more along the lines of 'this too shall pass.'

But where's the edge of the cliff? When did Mayhem go from being a Bad Influence to being a middle-aged father with Bohemian tendencies, living in a split-level ranch in the burbs with his wife and three teen-aged kids? You can't be the teen wunderkind of illicit behavior and the middle-aged father at the same time, yet there seems to be no transit period.