The (Mis)Adventures of SuperNewf
November 2005

We finally finished putting together costumes, gathering up pumpkin-shaped goodie bags, and had everyone loaded in the car for our annual visit to "all the houses with the lights on". After stopping at our first house and exchanging pleasantries for candy bars, we returned to our darkened car to behold the greatest fright of the night! There, in the back of my stationwagon, loomed the figure of a newf, GLOWING IN THE DARK! I had put him in the car dressed as a Superhero, but this was not part of my costume. My oldest son (who is too big to t-or-t) is laughing his a** off, my dear daughter is standing, speechless, with her mouth wide open, and my younger son is saying, "Oh, no. Oh, no." I'm staring in horror when I turned to younger son and ask, "Where did you leave your glowstick?"
Flash back to fifteen minutes earlier. I am rushing to get the kids ready, since we are pressed for time. Two of my kids have piano lessons (a 20 minute drive one way) we have to head to at 5:45 and they would return at 7:30. So we figured, with the time change and all, that we would head out at 5 and hit a couple of houses in the neighborhood before going off to the lesson. It was just getting dark, so I gave each of the kids a glowstick to wear so they would be seen. As I was stringing them, younger son comes up, grabs his stick and goes off. "Where are you going with that? You need to get ready and brush your teeth before we go!" So off he went to finish getting his costume on as I strung the other two and handed them to my daughter and my eldest son. After gathering everyone into the car younger son says he can't find his glowstick. "Go look upstairs," I tell him, as I get out and help him look. We can't find it and it's now 5:15, so we decide to go without it. Well, we did find it, a few minutes later. It would appear my superhero found it on the sofa, carried it out discreetly as any newf would do, and when left in the car, punctured it. It would appear that when you puncture one of these glowsticks, they "explode", which is exactly what this one did. All over my car, all over my black newf. I rushed him home, dropped him off with younger son and told him to wash him, and ran the other two to piano where I called dear hubber, stuck in traffic, and told him to finish washing the dog. Fortunately, he didn't get any in his mouth (I should say, nothing in his mouth was glowing!), and they are labeled as non-toxic, and a call to the vet provided him with the most unusual halloween story he had heard. Fortunately, he knows us pretty well, and he's already seen everything (except this, of course).
No, I did not get a single picture of super newf, glowing or not, nor did I get any pictures of the rest of my trick or treaters.