HOME STRETCH

It's countdown time to Halloween, and I'm still working on the costume.  
There have been several design changes, as well as a general scaling 
back of the whole thing -- as originally planned, the dinosaur skeleton 
costume would have been fine for a short function of some kind, but not 
for an eight-year-old walking around in it for hours.  I mean, I had a 
rib cage and skeletal legs and arms to consider.  Too much.  If Little 
Bronx had ever fallen over, he would have jacked himself up for sure, 
and the costume would have been ruined.  And with giant skeletal dino 
feet attached to his sneakers, tripping began to seem like a likely 
occurrence as the construction process went along.  I actually completed 
and attached the ribcage, and had him test it out, but it was extremely 
cumbersome.  The feet were about 75% there.  So, gone with the ribs, 
feet, legs, arms, hands, and claws.  What we have left is an articulated 
skull with moving jaw; a backbone structure with supportive frame; and a 
fully articulated skeletal tail that swishes back and forth as he walks.  
The folks behind us better not get too close!

Supposedly, this Halloween will be celebrated as an all-day festival on 
Saturday the 30th, ending at night, with a Halloween costume contest and 
a "Scary-okey" competition (and I don't know about you, but the latter 
sounds positively horrifying to me).  We'll be bringing along the camera 
so I'll be taking pics and vids of it all, which I'll post up here.  
Little Bronx has won the competition in his age group twice before, and 
would have won it last year too, if we hadn't we hadn't been late 
(actually, THEY judged it early, the lousy so-and-sos).  Frankly, I'm 
not even hoping for that kind of success this year: the prize is a 
bicycle, and Little Bronx certainly doesn't need another one.  I just 
want people to look at my son for one night, and go "Oh wow!"  A 
father's pride aside, I don't think that that's vainglorious.  And I 
don't think a memory like that is more than a lonely boy deserves.