Just in from a long walk with Beckett through the boneyard and back. Since he's been a bit under the weather this past week, we took it very slowly, but he paid his usual assiduous attention to every leaf, blade of grass, tree, curb, gate, wall, and gravestone. So it took a bit of time. It's an exquisite Halloween afternoon—I'm not sure if it's the fact that the rain finally stopped, or just the joy of the day, but families were out together glorying in the perfect autumnal weather. I was unaccountably moved by the number of children in Halloween costumes, obviously going to or from Halloween parties just for them. I was likewise moved by the number of parents who were throwing mini-Halloween parties in the park for their kids, obviously determined to give them Halloween memories of childhood that will hopefully last at least as long as mine have. There is likewise a truly lovely post-pandemic sense of the world returning to normal. It was very different last year, as I noted in my journal on that day. But the best part of it is the absence of tense defiance of the virus that was present earlier this year—shrill and sharp as a dentist drill. No, today it was all smooth and warm and genuinely joyful, with the light as orange and yellow as candy corn, and the anticipation of Halloween night growing by the second.