OK, yes, it's a new year, the Halloween candy has been replaced by the St. Nicholas candy, and the costumes and Karl the Light Up Spider are tucked away in the Halloween bin, soon to be topped by the repacked Xmas bin, but I'm hoping for a pass given that 2018 turned out to be the Year of Broken Daddy (as well as the Year of Extra Shifts, and the Year of No Slow Periods at the Animal Hospital That Shall Not Be Named).
Onward to the Pumpkin Patch!
The days of going to a farm to pet bunnies and enjoy a wagon ride are long past, I'm afraid. Now the preferred way to get pumpkins is to spot giant roadside bounce house park, convince your mother to spend $15 for a 30-60 minute all-you-can bounce wristband, and once out of time, take your flushed and sweaty self over to the pumpkin tarp and pick a likely candidate.
The days of executing each kid's pumpkin vision are also Officially Over - both Brennan and Lucie carved their Jack-o-Lanterns all by themselves. Although they did generously allow me to help scoop out the pumpkin guts, and clean up the newspaper after they finished. Luckily, Lucie's plan required the retention of the guts, so I didn't have to go through the futile exercise of rinsing, salting, and baking seeds for kids who eat one, make a face, and confess that they don't really like pumpkin seeds that much.
Unfortunately, Daddy was still on the disabled list, and navigating the Trick-or-Treat chaos on crutches was not the best idea. I did drive him down to the urgent care on Cole St to get a flu shot, which is not the most Halloween-y of activities, but the staff was all in costume and he got a lollipop.
Twilight approached, and the Grim Reaper and the Zombie Cheerleader were suited up and ready to terrorize Cole Valley.
We started with a turn down Belvedere Street. As per usual, it was incredibly crowded and I spent most of my time trying to relocate various members of our group, and wondering why I was crazy enough to do it again this year. But there is always at least one person who's total commitment to their costume just about makes the whole mess worthwhile. This year, that person was this deranged individual:
Now, I didn't notice it when I took this picture from a block away. But once I walked by the person in full Creepy Pennywise the Clown get-up, never budging from the street drain, with a red balloon and a wagon with a bubble machine, I pretty much can't unsee it.
Once we reached the bottom of Belvedere, we made the healthy decision to escape and continue our trick-or-treating on the pretty and quiet streets in Parnassus Heights above the UCSF hospital. There's tons of decorations, residents desperate to unload all their candy, no crowds, and due to the nearby Sutro Forest, tons of seasonally appropriate bats swooping for bugs in the street lights. They got so much candy we had to swap the pumpkins for Target shopping bags. And when those got too heavy, it was time to head home and count our loot. But before calling it a night, let's stop and admire the jack-o-lantern handiwork:
Brennan's Zombie Pumpkin
Lucie's Barfing Pumpkin
(vomiting on a smaller pumpkin and making it cry)
And rounding up the fall - the school portraits arrived! I'm a bit perplexed as to why I buy these every year, particularly since I have a tendency get flustered by the 14 different package options and wind up with stuff I didn't mean to order. But I guess I'm a sucker for the analog experience of having actual photo prints to share or display. Maybe it will make a comeback, like vinyl records.
We closed out the Jellyfish season with an awesome pizza party at Eagle Pizzeria. Yes, it was noisy and disorganized and the pizza took a little too long despite my attempt to pre-order. But the owners were so nice, and put up with lunatic soccer kids, and have space for entire teams and their families to all eat together INSIDE, which is a rare beast in San Francisco. And we caught one more awesome fall sunset:
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