TeamReedBlog.2020

I love it that Halloween has spread itself out to encompass most of the month. It was always sad to me that you spent so much time on a costume as a kid or for your kid for a one-time use. And in Indiana, so often, the costume was covered up by a winter coat and you had to dodge ice and snow on the way to snag a tiny chocolate bar. I have long complained about having to visit the miserly George Croft, who my parents made us visit because he and my dad were friendly political enemies. In lieu of candy, he would cackle as he gave us Republican candidate literature, buttons and fans and tell us to give them to Dad. Sometimes he'd throw in a penny for a trouble. A penny! Seriously. Man, I hated that guy. Fast-forward to Halloween parties well in advance of the 31st, mall events and parties everywhere. I got to go to the Indianapolis ZooBoo with Annie, Elayna and Nathan last week and it was super fun. The only inch of the place I didn't go was the snake house - ick - but they covere

Our street and neighborhood has been infested with oversized skeletons, spiders and their webs, even a coven of witches. It's super fun, and a reflection of the spirit of this neighborhood. (See what I did there? :) ) Jeff flinches every time I look out into our yard with a thoughtful expression. We've (I've) decorated, but with Alison a grown-up girl living away, it's less Halloween and more fall-ish. In part because I'm lazy and don't want to have to rush out to de-Halloween as soon as it's over. Fall is a welcome season despite its proximity to winter, whose only virtue is you can decorate for  Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. Yes, I'm a stickler. Christmas does burst out here, but only the day after Thanksgiving. This year, it'll be a bit after that as we'll be in Orlando for that holiday.  Our social calendar is rapidly filling up with fun with friends, annual must-do events like the Broad Ripple Kiwanis Pumpkin Smash and the Ronald Mc

I've often lauded our small neighborhood for its charm, friendliness and proximity to a bunch of fun and necessary things. I have a love-hate relationship with the trees which are great until they dump their spent leaves knee-deep in the yard if I don't keep up with them. We also have a great and low-key neighborhood association, whose twin focus on snow removal and fun activities, makes it the best neighborhood association in the city, if not the world. Lat Thursday night, for example, they brought The Chauffeurs , an instrumental, jazz-funk band, and food trucks to our tiny park. The Captain and I used to be regulars at these monthly summer events, but softball and other things crowded it out. This week, though, we took a bottle of wine, a couple chairs and a credit card and settled in. What struck me most was how many kids were there. Tall kids. Short kids. Kids who climbed on rocks. They were everywhere, and I realized that I'm not one of those parents anymore who bring

I was working at the Indiana Department of Environmental Management when I first learned that a birthday could be more than a day-long event. Dana Reed Wise (no relation) was a beautiful, smart and fun woman who never had a nail unmanicured, a facial blemish or a dress-down day. So when she announced it was her birthday week, I took it in stride as a Dana thing. She was fabulous day in and day out. She was, it turns out, also a trend-setter because everywhere you look now it's someone's birthday week or month. Growing up, birthdays were remarked upon but not celebrated with a bounce-house, balloons and a theme. The them was you were one year older and still the annoying sibling to six other kids in a house with one bedroom. There was cake, for sure. And maybe a party, but when you have six siblings, it's kind of a party crowd every day. I'm not complaining, more explaining that the idea of stretching your birthday beyond the actual day of your birth was not something I

 As per tradition when Captain Reed is calling the shots, we ate our way around the Indiana State Fair last week. It's not the same since Cindy and David gave up their trailer where the best lemonade shakeups and sausage were dispensed, but it's still a good time.  And you can tell yourself that you're sweating and hoofing off the poundage you're consuming as you walk the 250 acres stocked with all the animals, crafts, rides, food and beverage, sights and sounds you'll ever need. We add to that the fact that we generally share one item from each stand, so clearly, we're saving calories from the get-go. People claim there's nothing better than the Dairy Barn, but I still mourn the departure of a trailer just down the way from there that I can only remember as a white little rectangle with  "Home-Made Ice Cream" in red letters. They had a hand-dipped chocolate drumstick there that probably had 10,000 calories in it but was so good. It disappeared one

At a time when I thought I would have slowed down, it seems life has just sped up lately. My guess is that yours has, as well, and you didn't even notice that I haven't posted in a while. Let's catch up: Ali was home for a nanosecond in May. We were simply a food and shelter resource but the few moments we got in between her friends was tremendous. Jeff went back to Dark Lord Day for a weekend, which meant cereal and take-out for me for dinner! I had a mammogram, colonoscopy and dental check, completing my head-to-toe medical treatment for the year (I hope.) Also learned just how little our new healthcare plan covers. Is it bad to be annoyed that you have to spend a lot of money to learn you're not sick? I should be happy to know, right? Honestly, between my sister Diane's experience and the idea of my own retirement, I was getting paranoid about some lurking medical condition. So I'm back to happy at the expensive news. We spend a work-related weekend in Chicag