In honor of the older spirit of Halloween, and because I’m a grumpy old cur who hates doing what all the other people are doing, I decided to carve a rutabaga instead of a pumpkin for Halloween.

Lesson learned: it’s much easier to scoop out the guts of even a giant pumpkin than the innards of a lowly rutabaga.

But we got there in the end and the face carving itself took 25 seconds (because that part at least is super easy thanks to the rutabaga’s super soft skin).

Am I an artist or what?

I was aiming for the existential agony of Frankenstein’s monster.

I was also very glad that the 30 seconds that the candle was lit so I could take the picture did not ignite any wildfires.  But, honestly, all the blackouts because between the high winds and all the deferred maintenance, electricity wires are good at starting blazes… you just have to throw your hands in the air and ask why the hell hasn’t California buried its power lines like every other advanced nation in the world outside of Norway (etc) where frost heave makes that impossible??????