Our October was a busy and varied thing. By and large, I love this time of year. Things are finally, FINALLY cooling off, and we have a great big Texas non-winter to look forward to. Plus Halloween is always so much fun.
Early in the month, the kids had school photos for fall. I initially tried my best to get Maya to wear the new dress she had picked out when we were ‘back to school’ shopping. I tried to convince Ian to wear this pretty linen shirt I found that suited his tastes perfectly. Alas, neither kid was interested in what I wanted, and I wasn’t interested having a fight over something as stupid as which outfit to wear. And that’s how it came to be that Maya re-wore the octopus dress she wore last year and Ian wore the fun 70s-era shirt he wore to Lolli and Pop’s anniversary party this summer.
Ian came home from school after picture day telling me that people were roasting his drip. I can’t say that I go out of my way to keep up with young people slang, but I read widely enough that I usually know what people are talking about. Not this time. He completely pulled me up short. I couldn’t even guess what he meant. Turns out in loosely means people were making fun of his outfit. Luckily it appeared to bother him absolutely not at all, so all good there.
The kids had a three day weekend early in October. I had been planning this epic three day trip to San Antonio to see the museums and the riverwalk and do some shopping and to spend a day at Six Flags. When the reality sunk in that I had a work trip the very next week and a whole lot of kid prep for various activities ahead of me, we decided to limit the San Antonio trip to a single day at Six Flags.
That turned out to be a really lovely idea. We had a very fun day at the park, and we could get all the things done that needed doing for me to be out of town for three days. I think I’ve mentioned before that the kids have sort of hit their stride on amusement parks. Maya especially loves all the rides, and Ian is finally tall enough that he can ride pretty much everything if he so chooses. We discovered on this trip that Ian is happier with an over-the-shoulder type restraint on roller coasters, so he sat out one of the big ones that only had a lap bar.
The one Ian sat out was called Iron Rattler. I rode on it years and years ago when it was just the Rattler and even before my back was well and truly horked, I had already vowed never to ride it again. It legit hurt my neck and back, so fearsome was its bumping and jerking. Sean told me it had been completely reworked and was allegedly a much smoother ride now, but I elected to hang with Ian while Sean and Maya field tested it. They tell me it was a pretty smooth ride, so if we ever go again, maybe I’ll give it a try.
We got to try out some really neat ones though. The most interesting may have been one called Dr. Diabolical’s Cliffhanger. This one is unique because it has a greater than 90-degree drop! The ride vehicle has three rows of seven passengers. At the top of the big hill, the front-row riders are treated to a stomach-churning view as they pause, dangling over the edge, just on the cusp of dropping. Sean, with his aversion to heights, refused to sit in the front row. Maya and I thought about it, but the line to sit up front was considerably longer. It was a cool coaster. My only complaint is that it was so, so short.
We had good food karma that day too. We started with lunch at a place called Ray’s Drive Inn, because I couldn’t remember if I had ever tried San Antonio’s famous puffy tacos and this looked like a good place to get those while still having plenty of choices to suit the kids. The people there were really nice, plus on our way in, we got to meet one of the cats they take care of. Bonus: I think we all enjoyed our food!
After the park, we ate at a place called La Gloria in the Pearl District of San Antonio. I could have lingered here. We were seated outdoors, the weather was just about perfect, and the food was outstanding. My mole was among the best I’ve ever eaten, and Sean’s pastor tacos seemed to be making him happy. I don’t remember what Maya ordered, but I know she almost single-handedly took out a bowl of guacamole. Ian, who often struggles to find anything he likes, asked if he could order a hot dog. You should have seen that kid’s face light up when the lady taking care of us asked if it was ok if the hot dog was wrapped in bacon. Emphatically, yes!
I spent several days the following week in Tampa on a work trip. I had been looking forward to Texas cooling off for so long, and then Tampa was a sweltering mess. Humidity aside (and I mean c’mon, it’s Florida), the trip was a good one, but I was glad to be back home.
That very next weekend was the big annular eclipse. An annular eclipse is not a total eclipse. It occurs when the moon is further from the earth and so at best it will appear as a black disc in front of the bright disc of the sun, resulting in the “ring of fire” effect, if one is in the right geographic position. In Austin, we weren’t quite in the right spot, however, we did experience about 90% obscuration, and we had a sunny, cloudless sky, so we could observe the eclipse as it progressed.
For us, it was enough that the sky was noticeably darkening. This was especially obvious when we were in the house. It seemed like things felt cooler, though I wonder how much of this was mental. We had eclipse glasses at the ready, but we also took out a colander to let the sun shine through it and show us dozens of tiny eclipse shapes. You could see it in the shadows through the tree leaves as well.
I tried to take photos with my phone with the eclipse glasses pressed over the lens, and it kinda worked. Sean had software on his phone that allowed him to fine tune exposure settings a bit more, and so this worked better for him. Maybe when the total eclipse occurs in 2024, we’ll spring for better gear.
The kids, especially Maya, were super into it. We started a little early and would check the sky about every 15-20 minutes. She’d then rush in to make notes about her observations. She pasted in photos too, once Sean got them to her. To my knowledge, this information gathering served no purpose other than to suit her own interests, so hooray!
The very next day, Maya had her first big piano recital since starting with her latest piano teacher. You could tell that poor kid was nervous. She had never met any of the other kids performing, so it was almost a complete unknown to her. Maya knew her songs cold, but I think nerves got the better of her. There was one point where she got tripped up, and I literally held my breath for the few seconds it took her to recover. But recover she did, and finished her performance strong! We are very proud of her.
Ian and I rushed straight from Maya’s recital to Ian’s cub scout meeting. One – he earned his “Bobcat” badge. As a new cub scout, this is sort of the initial rank he earns just by learning things like the scout oath, scout handshake, and some safety information. As a third grader, he’s in the “Bear” den, so that’s the badge he’ll work through the year to achieve. Two – he got to carve a pumpkin at the meeting. They had a giant truckload of pumpkins; each scout in the pack was able to carve one. Plus, they got to learn all about pumpkin seeds and how delicious they could be.
We went home with Ian’s carved pumpkin and a plastic bag full of seeds to clean and roast later on. Ian was so excited about those seeds, he single-handedly cleaned the pulp from them. We dried them, seasoned them, and roasted them right away …….. and he loved them! Dude even took them to school for snack the next day.
Ever since last year’s trunk or treat at the kids’ elementary school, they’ve been scheming to have us participate. It would be Maya’s last year in elementary school, so we agreed: this year we’d decorate the car and be one of the trunk or treat stops.
The kids also always have a fall carnival at school – Dolphinfest – to help raise money for the PTA. This year, it was decided that trunk or treat would be dropped and that Dolphinfest would become Boo Fest. Maya and Ian were initially disappointed, but they rallied pretty quickly and seemed to enjoy the Boo Fest. It was held on a Friday night and for the first time ever, Sean and I just kinda hung out and let the kids run. Both kids, oddly, had friends who were dressed like bananas. What are the odds?
The next day, Ian had a small concert with his guitar teacher Chris and a fellow student. It was to be held at a small farmers market in Chris’s neighborhood. As events go, it was delightfully low key, and everyone performed really well. Ian’s guitar was mic-ed for the event, so the sound was quite clear even though we were outdoors and there was at least some amount of ambient noise.
Speaking of concerts, a couple days later, we were supposed to have gone to see Aerosmith, but they broke Steven Tyler. We hear the show may be rescheduled in 2024. Guess we’ll see.
Ian had been learning knife safety as part of cub scouts. Maya, since she was interested, was learning with him. I think she found it soothing to be able to carve pieces of wood. She would often sit outside in the backyard whittling at sticks for half an hour, even a full hour at at time.
Maya enjoyed this activity so much that Sean went ahead and got her a pocket knife as well. He ordered the kids some decent little chunks of wood as well since our backyard sticks vary widely in size and quality. Maya was happily whittling away one day, and I think she either lost focus or got startled and managed to cut into her hand a bit. It could have been much worse, but it did look like it might be deep enough to require stitches. Sean hauled her into the children’s ER, where they quickly cleaned it, numbed it, and closed it up with a combination of steri-strips and glue. She’s still on the mend, and I think is already counting down the time till she can start carving again, hopefully with a renewed respect for the business end of a knife.
We haven’t had Anna watch the kids in quite a while (we really need to get out more), but we did manage to have her over to dinner so we could continue our little tradition of having her draw the kids’ jack-o-lantern pictures. Ian chose a curly lizard. Maya chose a cat wearing a tie. Once it was closer to halloween, I eviscerated the pumpkins, saving the seeds so each kid could roast their own uniquely-seasoned batch.
Ian was supposed to have his big cub scout camp out the last weekend in October. It’s a family affair, so all four of us would be going. Sean and I took training to be able to attend the over-night event. We filled out paperwork. We at least started to gather supplies (we are pretty well-stocked on the camping front, so not much would be needed). And then bone-dry, exceptional drought Texas finally got some decent rain. It rained off and on all week, though it was supposed to have cleared by the weekend. Unfortunately that wasn’t to be, and the trip was postponed a couple weeks. Maya and Ian both like camping, so they were a little miffed that they weren’t getting to go.
Grammy and Grandpa sent the kids gift cards for Halloween. They love getting mail and they love shopping online, so they were both pretty excited. Plus, both kids were in some degree of sniffly, coughing sick, and had just had a camping trip canceled, so it was a pleasant turn in a not-so-pleasant few days.
For Halloween, Ian and Maya chose to be a brother-sister pair from a manga they have both read called Demon Slayer. Ian was Tanjiro and Maya was Nezuko, and oh thank goodness both of these could be procured via Amazon. Their costumes had many layers and much fussing – Ian’s had a face tattoo, Maya’s had a wig – but the kids LOVED them. They seemed very happy with the end result. Maya went trick or treating with a friend of hers (who was also a Demon Slayer character), I took Ian around our neighborhood, and Sean hung out at our house, manning the candy dish. We had almost no trick-or-treaters this year, and so between those leftovers and the kids’ haul, we are awash in more sugary goodness than two middle-aged office types really need access to.
I didn’t even mention the little things like friend birthday parties, fun trips to the asian grocery store, all the fun Halloween decorations. I put Sean in charge of decorating the house, so we didn’t really have any decorations to speak of, but some of our neighborhood folks go crazy. It’s been fun and festive around here. And just like every year, from Halloween on, our life goes full-tilt and doesn’t stop till the new year.
