Jack-O-Lanterns and the Warm Cities

This year, like all f the recent years, we've purchased and carved pumpkins for the Halloween time:

This year we did it at a Halloween party. In the past Corrie would buy the cool paper overlays that you tape onto the pumpkin, and then trace out, and then carve out. This year, I was abandoned at the tarp with instructions (do Batman! do Godzilla!), and I did the best I could. I carved a pretty basic Jack-o-lantern (seen above and below on the left), and then I carved a Batman ('89) logo on one of them (as per the request).

Upon returning to check my work, I was told, No, do Godzilla. I handed a marker over and proceeded to carve out the (duckbilled...?) Godzilla that was there, opposite the Bat-symbol, seen below:

One other Halloween decorations I loved seeing everyday was this, visible right as the elevator doors opened on our floor.

It puts the lotion in the basket!

When we were kids, my brother and I, and out friends, in Sacramento, it was chilly! It was Fall in Sac, and it was basically cold-ish. Pumpkins would chill on the stoop for a while, preserved by the, eh, basically refrigerator-like air outside.

But now, once you pierce the pumpkin, you start the quick deterioration of said pumpkin. It will last only a few days before essentially liquifying on the counter/table. In the lotion/basket pic above, you can see at least one of their pumpkins, and it has been drawn and painted upon (both were---the other isn't quite visible). This helps them last longer.

I guess each year I'm surprised by how fast the pumpkins die, rot, liquify...quite horrifying, really, but that checks out due to the season, right?