Trick or Treat?

Last night was Trick or Treat night in our neighborhood. It was filled with shrieks and screams as children ran, frenzied, through the streets in their annual quest to collect as much candy as possible in the two hours allotted them.

Dressing up to scare the children has been practiced by the oldest Atkins Boy for a long time but he hasn't been as inspired since moving South. The time he dressed up as a dragon and rose up from behind the breezeway while children ran screaming down the driveway is just a memory. So is the time one little girl burst into tears and fell off the same breezeway when confronted with a red devil with blue horns and a skull belt buckle. Her mother was not amused. Those were the days!

Inspiration struck again last night. As the magic hour arrived, Mr. Atkins unexpectedly decided to dredge up an old wig he had saved. Who would have known he still had that? Without the weeks of planning that used to go into his costumes, he was forced to make do with the wig and a black tablecloth held together with a cat pin belonging to his wife.

Crouching down to waist level, he opened the door slowly and growled out in a very low voice, "Helloooo," giving a wide smile displaying the gap where the crown he had lost earlier in the day used to be. A trip to the dentist is first on the agenda tomorrow but why waste a good opportunity?

His effort did add to the excitement on our street. No one screamed or fell off our porch but one little girl finally squeaked out, "You SCARED me!" The funniest comment of all was from another little girl who said, "You're wearing a mask…….aren't you?" She was really scared when she found out he wasn't.

Carl has always enjoyed being part of the excitement Halloween brings to small children. It's fun to see their costumes – especially those made by Mom. The one we'll remember from this year was a boy wearing the top half of a banana costume who felt moved to announce, "I'm a banana," while his little sister stood there, smirking, and remarked, "A very sick banana!" We suspect he had to ditch the bottom half in order to keep up with her.

There was no such thing as Trick or Treat night when we were growing up. Favorite activities of teenage boys in West Virginia included soaping windows, egging the homes of people like their least favorite teacher or the mayor, and turning over outhouses. The best part was bragging about it the next day. Our youth group once had a Halloween party that included a scavenger hunt. Visiting the cemetery, looking for a child's gravestone that had a lamb on it, and having to copy the inscription in the dark brought suitable chills.

We've come a long way from the time when most people believed this was the night when the veil between the spirit world and our world was lifted, allowing unhappy spirits to come through and take revenge.

Trick? Or Treat?

Life Gets In The Way Sometimes

The last couple of months have been quite a trial at the Atkins home, leaving no time for luxuries like writing blog updates.

Without going into lots of personal detail, suffice it to say that the senior Atkins Boy has had lots of CT scans, MRIs, ultrasounds, X-rays, and blood tests along with a short try-out of crutches and a wheelchair. Definitely not fun for any of us.

The good news is that new medications are helping. Carl is on his feet once again although not quite up to assuming his usual duties of shopping for groceries, mowing the back yard, and taking books back to the library.

And within the past week Georgia has had what we're calling our hundred-year rain. After four years of severe drought, it seems that we're now making up for it in less than a week. Fourteen to twenty inches of rain simply cannot be absorbed when it arrives within the space of two or three days. Guess what. When rain has nowhere else to go, it comes into your home.

The middle Atkins Boy has been vacuuming water out of his lower level den for the past four days. After blowing out our old shop vac, Scott discovered that the modern replacements are WAY more efficient at sucking up water. Thank you, Lowe's. The jury is still out concerning whether or not the wall-to-wall carpet can be saved. There's nothing to do but vacuum water right now even though Star and Teddy kind of miss their personal indoor wading pool. The senior Atkins household merely had a leak beside the chimney that allowed water to soak into an upstairs guest room ceiling.

We are fortunate, indeed, as many people have floods where no floods have ever gone before. This part of Georgia isn't used to floods. Many families have lost everything and some have lost their lives. The two pictures above show people kayaking through a neighborhood in Lilburn as well as one of the overturned school buses at Greg's old alma mater – the Parkview school cluster (compliments of the Gwinnett Daily Post).

Considering everything, the Atkins family can invoke our version of the saying: Thank God for BIG favors (but please don't let it rain any more for a week or two).

Catching Up

A big chunk of summer has gone past with very few blogs from Lilburn. Suffice it to say that life gets in the way sometimes.

After experiencing a birthday, a tooth extraction, and a painful back problem this month, the senior Atkins boy is finally beginning to feel a little more human. I've chosen to photograph only one these events. As you can see, he is the only one concentrating on his dessert.

One benefit of not feeling well at the Atkins home is that your loving spouse indulges you. This takes many forms. In our house it means special menus on demand (applies only to the male members of the family). This recently led to one of our summer favorites – Fried Green Tomato Sandwiches.

One of the best Fried Green Tomato Sandwiches we've ever eaten is served at the Tamarack rest stop along the turnpike in West Virginia. This is way more than a rest stop. It features gifts from West Virginia's best artists and craftsmen along with a restaurant run by the same people who produce the meals at the 5-star Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs. If you're ever on the West Virginia turnpike, stop at Tamarack. Order the Fried Green Tomato Sandwich.

Here is the Atkins family chef's attempt to reproduce this stellar summer staple:

FRIED GREEN TOMATO SANDWICHES

Make the sauce:
Melt 2 tbsp. butter. Add about 1 tbsp. flour and stir for about 1 minute. Add about 1 cup milk and a little salt. Cook and stir until thickened. Drop in pieces of American cheese and stir until melted. The amount of cheese depends upon how cheesy you want the sauce to be. Try about four slices, torn in pieces.

Prepare the tomatoes:
Slice green tomatoes at least ¼ inch thick. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and a little sugar. Let sit about 10 minutes. Dip tomato slices in milk; then in flour; then in beaten egg; then in bread crumbs. Fry in either olive oil or butter - about 3 minutes on each side on medium heat. Tomatoes should be slightly soft on the inside and crunchy on the outside.

Make the sandwiches:
Split good rolls in half (we like Kaiser rolls) and spread with mayonnaise (we like Hellmans). Add the green tomato slices and as much sauce as you like. If you want to be really decadent, add a few bacon slices (fried crisp of course).