Halloween Week

It's been a quiet week. After arriving in dramatic fashion a month ago, autumn has resumed its typical California subtlety. Mild temperatures, some sprinkles interspersed with periods of warm, dry winds--not quite as hot and gusty as the fire-fueling winds farther south.

On Monday, I went out in search of fall leaves. This being California, the colors were as subtle as the weather. Spencer came with me. He's lived in the country his whole life, but his take on nature is a little different than mine. "This would be a great place to go hunting or fishing!" he kept saying. I had to keep reminding him that we were in a wildlife sanctuary.

On Halloween, Ginger took the kids to our friends the Hines' house. They live in a neighborhood, where kids can actually walk from door to door. I stayed home and handed out candy to the 20 or so children who came trick-or-treating to our door. When I answered the door, many of them greeted me by name. "Hi, Pastor Danny!" I placed the M&Ms and bags of pretzels in their bags, waving, not knowing who it was that greeted me behind masks of power rangers and monsters.

Perhaps the biggest news of the week is the announcement that one of the Sacramento TV stations is considering featuring the East Nicolaus Spartans as their "game of the week," along with five other high school football games. The game of the week is determined by online voting, and the kids have been voting all week, since the TV station's website allows for unlimited multiple votes. Out of over 100,000 votes, East Nicolaus is in the lead by a mere 120. The voting ends at 9:00 Pacific time tonight. The suspense is unbelievable. As one of the high school kids said to me the other day, "this is the biggest thing that's ever happened at our school."