Christine the Curmudgeon

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Apparently, according to some people, there is a law that Christine the Curmudgeon was not aware of.  Said law requires that everybody stay at home on Halloween, and hand out candy.  If you don’t, you are evil and horrible and bitter and lonely and don’t deserve to exist.

I am not making this up, some jackwads on Facebook said this to me.  Apparently, if I can’t even devote two hours of my life, once a year, to make other people’s kids happy, I am a mean, bitter loser.

Well, there are legions of other people who are just as evil and bitter as I am.  Many of them were hanging out at The Great Pumpkin Festival, at the Cambridge Brewing Company.

The event began at 4PM, and went until 1AM, with last call being at 12:30AM.  That more than covered the trick-or-treat hours, when we were supposedly required by law to be at home handing out candy.  Hmm…surprised that the cops didn’t come and raid the place, for making people break the law…LOL!

I seriously get sick of people who think that Halloween is just for kids, and we adults need to suck it up and hand out candy.  This Great Pumpkin Fest was a 21+ event, due to the fact that its primary purpose was to serve a wide range of pumpkin beers.  There was also a special menu, jut for the evening, of wonderful dishes made with pumpkin.  Pumpkin ravioli…YUMMIE!

Many people showed up in costume, which was fun, even though we didn’t dress up.  The whole place was decorated with pumpkins, corn stalks, and artificial christmas tree lights, except these were actually orange Halloween lights.  It was really nice!

Anyone who says that Halloween is just for kids, and the rest of us need to accept that, needs to put a sock in it!

Christine the Curmudgeon say…yes…and no.

My opinion about this whole Halloween thing is very well-known…I blogged about it recently HERE and HERE.  I really, truly can’t stand the whole thing, and a part of me wishes that it would be banned.  What I said about putting up a sign saying that we have the swine flu and can’t hand out candy?  I wasn’t joking.  Yes, we’re going out for the evening, to a pumpkin beer festival at the Cambridge Brewing Company.  But we’d rather not have knocking on the door AT ALL.  First of all, the little thugs will come way earlier than they are supposed to, as Halloween is on a weekend this year.  And second, we don’t like these kids.  Most of them are teen thugs who don’t bother to wear costumes.  They annoy us the other 364 days of the year, why should I hand out freebies to them on this one day?    And third, the knocking disturbs and upsets our cats.

So anyway, I was googling around for sites that talk about banning trick-or-treat.  Most of them said dumb crap, such as this article.  And this one.  I think they’re stupid, because all they do is whine about *the children*, and the hell with anyone else who chooses NOT to participate.

A third article made a lot more sense.  This is the only one I found that brought up the poor economy, and how some people can barely afford to feed themselves, never mind buying candy to hand out to other people’s kids.  Even so, the author does not advocate the banning of trick-or-treat completely.

For us, money is not the issue here.  I wouldn’t go into sticker shock if I went to stores to buy candy, and saw the prices pop up after being run through the POS systems. And, truth be told, we spend a LOT more money going out to get away from the whole thing, then we would if we’d just handed out the candy.

No.  My gripe is that we feel forced to participate in something that we don’t want to be a part of.  People say, “just turn out the lights”, but that doesn’t work for us.  For one thing, why should we be forced to sit in the dark?  For another, we have no control over the porch light, the landladies do, and they have been known to give out candy.  Why, I don’t know, but they do.  And third, even if the light IS out, the kids knock anyway.

And yes, we DO fear retaliation.  That’s part of why we go out, so that our car is not parked behind the house, where the little thugs can vandalize it over not getting a free Snickers bar from us.

But the main thing is that I resent being felt that I HAVE to participate.  The guy who wrote this article is a supreme jerk, just read the last paragraph….give out candy or else.  What a jerk!

I mean…we also choose not to put up a Christmas tree.  But you don’t see the Christmas police coming around to check.  Yeah, Christmas is heavily commercialized and *in your face*, but no one is forced to go along with it, no one is forced to spend money they don’t have, put up decorations if they don’t want to, etc.

Halloween is the ONLY holiday that is so invasive, literally.  No other holiday involves harassing people and begging, at least none that I know of!  And it’s WRONG.

What I would love would be some sort of DO NOT RING/KNOCK registry, as there is with the DO NOT CALL list.  Basically, it would be illegal to knock on someone’s door unless you have legitimate business to do so.  It’s okay if you’re the pizza delivery guy, the UPS guy, or friends coming over, stuff like that.  But trick-or-treaters, people selling stuff, and drunken jerks who lose their wallets and demand to come in and use your phone (yes, I’ve had the latter happen to me!) would be forbidden.  It would be possible to opt out of the *no trick-or-treat* thing, if you just wanted the religious nutjobs and salespeople to stay away.

Anyhoo, for those who opt-in for *no trick-or-treat*, there’d be email and snail-mail addresses to which people can complain about infractions.  If, after any given Halloween, they get a certain percentage of complaints from those on the registry, trick-or-treat is banned next year.  They can bring it back the year after that, but if they still get as many complaints, it get banned for the next TWO years.

This would kind of be self-policing, because if kids knew the consequences of annoying people who do not wish to be annoyed, they would think twice about doing so.  At least I would hope so.

But it’s never ever gonna happen.  So I guess this year, we’ll have the swine flu…until it’s time to leave for the beer festival!

Christine the Curmudgeon saw this in today’s Annie’s Mailbox column:

Dear Annie: I married “Dean” nine years ago. It was a second marriage for both of us. Soon after we wed, he said we would split all expenses 50-50. However, the house is in his name, and he will not put my name on the deed since I can’t match “his” down payment, even though I pay him rent each month.

Everything we do, I have to pay half. He and his teenage son went on a two-week vacation, and I couldn’t go because I couldn’t afford my share. Today I am really steamed because he took a group of friends out to lunch and paid for them. But when we go out, I have to pay my own way. He lavishes money on his only child and donates to civic organizations, but I get nothing. He only gives me a gift when I give him one of equal value.

We have no joint accounts. I currently have a large debt, so I am pretty strapped, but in two years that will be paid off.  I feel like a second-class citizen. I know Dean loves me — but I come after his son, his job, his employees, his computer and his civic organizations.  His bank accounts are getting fatter, and I am barely scraping by.  Is this a marriage or a lord/serf relationship? — Indentured Servant

Dear Servant: It sounds like a lopsided business arrangement. It’s certainly not our idea of a loving marriage where partners should take care of each other instead of sending them a bill for expenses. A good partnership is 50-50, but the contribution doesn’t have to be money. It can mean household chores, child care, etc. And when one partner has a higher income and fewer debts than the other, it is unfair to expect an equal financial arrangement. Dean is treating you as an inferior, and it is building resentment. Tell him the marriage is in serious trouble and you’d like to go for counseling. If he won’t go, go without him. You might also want to see an attorney.

Having everything in his name puts you in a risky position.

Dean is a prize jerk.  He makes good money, spends it on everything from expensive vacations to fitness equipment to meals out with his pals.  But he makes his wife pay RENT?

With the economy being what it is, what would happen if the wife loses her job and can’t pay this rent?  Will Dean evict her from the house, even though he can afford to pay the mortgage out of his own salary?

This is in no way a fair partnership.  Certainly Dean must support his teenage son.  Certainly it is fine to take him on vacations and spend time with him.  But this woman is his WIFE, and as such, should be treated equally.

The letter-writer should take Annie’s advice, go for counseling, and see an attorney.  I bet their advice would be the same as mine – DUMP THIS LOSER ASAP!

They certainly do NOT belong at events where someone is giving a talk.  Yet people do it anyway, and the hell with everyone else’s enjoyment!

Yesterday Christine the Curmudgeon and the Mister went to a brunch event at Old Sturbridge Village, featuring Norm Abram, of This Old House and New Yankee Workshop fame.  Following the meal, Norm gave a talk and did a Q & A session.

Well, wouldn’t you know that someone just HAD to bring a baby!  And said baby started screaming shortly after Norm began to speak.  The kid wouldn’t stop crying, and finally, the mother took it out of the room, and did not come back until the program was over.

I want to know…why do these people even bother?  I mean, tickets to this event were not cheap…$55 for OSV members, $65 for non-members.  This was not, BTW, to pay Norm Abram a fee for speaking…he is on the board of trustees of OSV, and is very generous about donating his time to benefit the museum.  This event was designed to be a fund-raiser for OSV.

But I digress.  If people are forking over their hard-earned money to hear Norm speak, and ask him questions, they should NOT have to have to hear screaming babies.  If a child is not old enough to understand the concept of being quiet, sitting still, and listening to the speaker, then they should not be at such an event.  The mother had to miss most of it due to taking the kid out…maybe she should have just stayed at home with the baby, or found a babysitter.

I’m sure that there are people out there who will get their panties in a wad over this opinion, and tell me to go and and read some colon cleanse reviews, because I’m being tight-assed here. But I think THEY are the ones who need a good colon cleanse, not me!

I’d rather not hear screaming babies in the supermarket, either.  But going grocery shopping is a NECESSITY, and some parents can’t always get or even afford a sitter.  But other things, such as going to nice restaurants, live theater, and to events such as the Norm Abram thing, are LUXURIES.  No one HAS to go to these things.  So, if you can’t find a sitter, then suck it up and stay home.  Don’t take the chance of ruining the event for others.

It could have been a lot worse, the mother could have just let the kid keep crying and not taken it out (even though I suspect that if it had gone on much longer, a museum staffer would have quietly approached them and said something).  But it was still annoying.

So Christine the Curmudgeon and the Mister came home this afternoon, only to be bombarded with loud music and other noise from the skeevy neighbors.  These people live right next door, and decided to party behind their house, which is right behind our kitchen window.

Cops here don’t do jack about noise complaints any more.  But we had a long drive home from Sturbridge, we were tired, we didn’t want to hear the crap.  But there was NOTHING we could do.

I wish we could move, but the only way we can is to be able to buy a home.  We’ve tried, but it’s not worked out for us yet.  We also can’t just rent and move to a better neighborhood…we’ve driven past nice Arlington apartments and stuff…we can afford them, but they all have the NO PETS rule in full force.

These cats had better appreciate the hell we live with daily, in order to keep them with us.  If we didn’t have them, we could have found a much nicer apartment in a much better neighborhood by now.  But the cats are our family, no way would we give them up for any reason!