Which off season month hits your Halloween heart the hardest?

Now.

Once St. Patrick's Day has come and gone, the neighborhood starts greening up. Daffodils open, tulips stretch skyward and rain returns to the forecast.

Life is returning, hope is in the air, and I'm already preparing for the inevitable funeral to come. I turned Halloween Radio on two days ago. It will be a regular selection from now until November.

Soon, the air will grow heavy and hot. Monstrous mountains of cloud will sail across the landscape, sometimes dangling tongue-like tornadoes to taste the earth as they roar through the heavens. Trees will sag with greenery. Droning insects will fill the air. Newly hatched birds will take their first unsteady flights. Local children, freed from the narrow hallways of the nearby schoolhouse, will take to the sidewalks and rule the asphalt like mercenary bands in peacetime, bored and hungry for diversion.

As for me, I'll be lost in the nightmare notions and vile visions that all Hallowfiends know so well. It's the siren song of the cemetery, sounding in our skulls even as we savor the smoke from the grill, or slide our spoons through melting ice cream. Whether sweating in the proud and arrogant sun or hiding in air-conditioned shade, I'll be walking dismal, more dastardly spaces in my mind.

By the time the grass withers and pumpkins squat on porches, I'll have been mothering the macabre for many months.

Perhaps Spring has sprung, and Summer is on its way. Let the sun have its temporary zenith. I'll begrudge it nothing.
I know the bloody and baleful ending of this seasonal ballad.
Halloween is Coming.

I know this might sound REALLY weird, but I'm a rather extremely shy introvert with serious issues involving crowds of people.

Of course, that means I willingly throw a party the day before Halloween with more than 100 people coming over, and have close to a thousand over ON Halloween.

I enjoy these, really, on my terms. And while a lot of you are ready for a second Halloween the next night, I'm spent. I'm done. I need to sit back and take some time to recover. But November and December throw me into this whole firestorm of gathering after gathering of loads of people outside my control. I HATE these months. Work party, family party, Wife's work, more family, another work party just because....It takes me 10 months to recover from this dreaded fiasco to be ready to see people again.

My Feelings and routines differ a bit. I Do like having a "say" as to how many and who comes through the front door to see the house,this is VERY important, whereas a drunk sneaks in with sober people , they can ruin the whole experience I am trying to provide for my customers.
There actually was one time when I thought it was still October (like October 38th? Versus Oct. a mere 31 nights long) After opening at 7pm I was later complaining ,trying to figure out what was happening because Only 20people had come through ,and it was only 9:30, So Where is EVERYBODY?"
Then a kid said, "20 people for NOVEMBER 7th ain't to bad."
This was my life's routine:1:Wake up- get dressed- work on the house. 2:It's getting dark,time to take a shower ,put on my black clothes,see who is going to show up. 3o house tours till they stop showing up 4: Close down,go to bed...
My wife tells me I seem to get cranky during the Winter,but then I'm shoveling all the snow here and 4 blocks away at my garage. A year ago I finally gave up on the old furnace ,put in a new one and about froze to death while I was installing it ! (Not fun)
There will always be about... 10,000 things that need doing here,whether I feel like doing them or not! Much of it will always be very physical, a good thing to keep me in better shape.
I have brought this old Inn" back" a long ways in 28 years, but there is more to do than I can foresee ever getting done. I guess this challenge helps keep me going.
I assumed we might have had a house tour tonight from an afternoon conversation in the parking lot,but.. oh-well?
But I STill had to get the house ready for the tour.
I really like giving tours in this "Off-Season'. I often ask people before the tour begins if they are on a timetable-schedule? If not, I have more fun giving an extensive show here. Sometimes we will be in the first room for over an hour,an hour of storytelling,haunting, history,house-history, along with funny things,then more fun stuff,some jumps, jerks,screams.. in no predictable order. hahha!
A young man wrote a review on the Ravens Grin Facebook . He had a 2 or 3 hour tour here and loved every minute of it,and even drove 3 hours to arrive at our door,and still loved the experience (Driving for hours through cornfields over dark roads is not for some "City"people. ,but then hairy,quick creatures live alongside our roads and make mischief sometimes for the uninitiated.)