Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover: each year since 2008 I’ve kept statistics on the number of trick-or-treaters brave enough to approach our doorstep during the Halloween celebration of neighborhood unity and beneficent snack donation. I began tracking our numbers partly for future candy inventory purposes and partly out of curiosity, so now it’s a tradition for me. Like many bloggers there’s a stats junkie in me that thrives on taking head counts, no matter how discouraging the results.

Previous years’ Halloween candy-receiver totals were as follows:

2008: 51
2009: 105
2010: 112
2011: 74
2012: 58
2013: 36
2014: 25
2015: 39
2016: 23
2017: 59

This year’s results:

First TOTer arrival time: 5:58 p.m.
Final TOTer departure time: 7:26 p.m.
Total number of trick-or-treaters for 2018: 38
Gain/loss from Halloween 2017: 35.6%

We expected far worse results. The local meteorologists have been panicking for days about the rains they foretold, warning everyone to prepare for the night itself to be ruined. Some neighborhoods bought into it and rescheduled their trick-or-treating for the wrong nights. Quitters like them are not helping the slow decline of trick-or-treat civilization.

To be fair, the forecasts weren’t far off. I think it began raining, or at least sprinkling with emphasis, around 7:30. We didn’t hear a thing, so it couldn’t have been that bad outside. Nonetheless, the damage was done and soon our family shall die from leftover candy overdose. I hope you’re all happy. I’m sure my son is.

MCC extends an extra-special salute to those stalwart winners who understood the true meaning of Halloween and weren’t afraid of fresh air. The cosplayers whose raiment I could discern registered as follows:

Deadpool
Batman
Joker
Jason Voorhees
Ghostface
Minnie Mouse
Marshall the dalmatian puppy from PAW Patrol
bee
bunny
belly dancer
witch
knight
Navy Seal
tiny striped prisoner
2 Gryffindor students
3 Spider-Men (including one black costume)
4 skeletons
zombie queen
flying unicorn
solved Rubik’s Cube
V for Vendetta in sweats

For kicks I wore that same Doctor Who shirt I keep bringing to too many of our comic-con photo ops. It’s the closest thing I have to a costume. Whatever works, y’know?

Bonus candy was awarded to the following kids:

The preteen who asked me if I read graphic novels. Yes. Yes, I do.

The other preteen who volunteered that his older sister is a Whovian.

The third-grader who said, “I like your dog!” Per annual protocol, poor Lucky was confined away from the door but barking his head off at every new intruder he heard. I guess his anxious barking sounded more charming this year?

Any neighborhood kids who’ve been to this house multiple times over the years and haven’t complained about my using some of the same yard decorations over and over again. Because if you do it enough times and reward them for their participation, then it’s not tired repetition: it’s tradition.