HIT: To the arrival of Halloween. For children, today is a day some wait all year for, the chance to wear a cool costume and trick-and-treat for candy and other sweets.

Halloween can create some great memories for adults and their children, but the potential for tragedy exists if people don't take the proper precautions for walking around after dark. We encourage adults to keep a close eye on their little goblins tonight so that everyone can have a fun - and safe - Halloween.

MISS: To the first blast of winter weather in the region this week. You would like to think we could at least get past Halloween before we started seeing the white stuff. Some areas only got flurries but some got substantial accumulations of snow.

Fortunately, the forecast calls for warmer temperatures and no precipitation for the next few days, allowing the early snow to melt.

Winter will be here soon enough.

HIT: To the final days of the 2008 campaign. If it seems like Barack Obama and John McCain have been running for years, they have. The campaigning started in 2006. But, at long last, the finish line is in sight.

Local races picked up after Labor Day, and now it seems like every other commercial on television is a political one, but we only have a few more days until the campaigning ends and the voting begins.

HIT: To the annual antique appraisal fair held at Cayuga Community College last Sunday. Patterned after a television show on PBS, folks can bring in their antiques for appraisers to examine and get an idea of what they're worth.

Some may have dreams of finding a Ming vase in their attic or owning a valuable artifact without knowing its worth. But for some people who attended the fair, sentimental value was more important than financial, and that's a refreshing thing to see.