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State of the staycation
Oct. 30th, 2025 08:32 amFirst up, mystery solved on why I feel more tired than I expected: period. Booooooooo. BOOOOOOO. And not the fun, festive Halloween kind either. BOO.
I've been meaning to properly keep up with my staycation in an effort to actually make sure I do shit, but before I even started it, we had that whole tire fiasco which could not be plugged and that's been hanging overhead, all not festive like and shit. I swear, every year for Halloween, there's some car shenanigans and I do not appreciate it.
Anyway, Saturday morning after work and the initial car swap, I came home and walked over to the next parking lot over to see the pretty Halloween lights. ♥ They have an inflatible arch and spooky lights and I love it. I came home because I was not dressed for a longer walk (I literally went out in my work clothes, which did not include long sleeves because I don't wear long sleeves at work unless I'm sick or something is really weird) annnnnnnnnnnd basically ditzed around online, I think, til my brother called and gave us the bad news about the tire. He came over, swapped the cars, and went on his way. I know I stayed up later than I intended, but I don'... wait, no, I was reading We Used To Live Here and got sucked in until I forced myself to go to sleep. That night we drove around the ~fancy~ part of the neighborhood to see the lights since I figured the Saturday before Halloween was my best chance prior to the big night to see everything. We have a second giant skelly in the neighborhood! :D And the second one has dramatic lighting. Oooh, ahhh.
I think this year we might have more than even 2020 which is I think the year I remember seeing more than average because a lot of people did decorate even when they hadn't before (or since). I was a bit disappointed in myself for not doing my usual weekend before Halloween morning/afternoon walk to see if anyone had set up for a Halloween party, but I don't think anyone had one since we saw no evidence of any and we did go out just early enough that short of parties for kids, we still should've seen one or two Southern goodbyes in progress, or party debris or something, even if it was just a few extra cars or people going home.
I digress. I have to go doublecheck today/tomorrow, but I think one of my favorites has either taken the year off or given up, as the house that has always had a cemetery set up in their yard? Nope. They have something small on their porch but no display and that makes me a sad panda, especially since we lost the skelly party house a few years ago. Not sure it that was a case of them moving, since this year and last they've had happy scarecrows, but I miss the skeletons. Sigh.
Still, people clearly had some fun (someone turned their tree into a mummy, there's another house with smaller skellies climbing trees and there's a yard with eyeballs!) and I have been itching to go back and look closer.
Thing is, on Sunday we had a storm roll in after my jaunt to McDonald's to try and snag the black cat McBoo buckets (I was not successful then or later). On the one hand, it meant that the weather was nice and spooky (clouds rolling in, a strong breeze, and it was cool), when Cass and I went to visit Jess in the hospital. On the other, it meant that it started to rain and kept going for longer than the one day it was called for.
Like, Monday was a total washout, which was fine since I spent that catching up on The Chicken Sisters S2 (highly recommend). Originally the forecast called for it to roll out overnight but uh, yeah, no. That did not happen.
Tuesday I went on a shorter walk in the mist and popped in and out of the parking lots to see which sections had decorated. I only found one so far that didn't have anything I could see during the day. I'm also pretty sure they don't have anything lit up at night, but I'm willing to concede that they might. Anyway, the morning was chilly and the kind of rainy where you don't see/feel individual drops but at some point you realize all your clothes have a light sheen of damp that you can wipe off and repeat the process. Mist. I thought it was going to burn off and be a sunny day, but no, it remained cloudy and overcast and everytime I thought maybe we were just going to have a cloudy day, the rain would come back through. A very me kind of day, but not exactly inviting to go for a long walk. Mums and I hit the store to pick up our order and once more tried for the black cat McBoos and once more wound up with witches. I don't need this many witches, Universe. I would've been just as happy with any of the others I don't already have. Le sigh.
Tuesday I went down for a nap and didn't feel all that motivated to do anything, which I now realize was because I was in the perfect pre-period curl up and sleep phase.
Yesterday, Mums and I went out to procure a pumpkin. Why did I wait so late? Well, remember I'm in the south and that means if you get one too early, it'll rot, even if you keep it inside. I don't think that would've happened this year since it's been pretty cool, but we frequently have a cold snap the week before Halloween (or even the two weeks before), and then Mother Nature remembers to turn on the oven again. Also, when I last stopped into my usual store, all the pumpkins (all twelve) failed to speak to me. I can appreciate a warty pumpkin from someone else, but I am not there in my JOL journey yet. So. Pumpkin pretty easily snagged at the first place we looked, and I grabbed two other things. I looked longingly at McD's but really didn't want to chance yet another set of witches, so we headed to the technically closest Walgreens to me. Yeah, never again. I remembered it being an absolute bitch to get out of before, but this time? It was a fucking nightmare. My anxiety went so friggin high, I can't even begin to put it into words. I did manage to secure the candy I wanted, and the price wasn't terrible (well, it was, but it was still cheaper than the grocery store even before I used my rewards). But yeah, on the way there we had to stop so I could properly secure my pumpkin, and getting out of the parking lot, back to the road we needed? Fuck that noise. Stop fucking building around here, people. In a couple of years it shouldn't have gone from nightmare to nightmare on SPEED.
I went ahead and made beef stew last night as I'd been dreaming of it for the better part of a week and I think I did a pretty good job. :D
I can see the sun peeking through the backdoor, so maybe I should go change and head out on my walk before the yard people come and fuck everything up.
Oh, and fuck the trash being picked up before 5:30AM. That's just insane. Like my ass was out there at 5:38am and they'd long since been gone since I didn't hear them while rushing, trying to grab the last two bags that didn't make it out yesterday. They're not supposed to start picking up anything until 6am!
Anyway, off to poke my nose outside and see how I feel.
I've been meaning to properly keep up with my staycation in an effort to actually make sure I do shit, but before I even started it, we had that whole tire fiasco which could not be plugged and that's been hanging overhead, all not festive like and shit. I swear, every year for Halloween, there's some car shenanigans and I do not appreciate it.
Anyway, Saturday morning after work and the initial car swap, I came home and walked over to the next parking lot over to see the pretty Halloween lights. ♥ They have an inflatible arch and spooky lights and I love it. I came home because I was not dressed for a longer walk (I literally went out in my work clothes, which did not include long sleeves because I don't wear long sleeves at work unless I'm sick or something is really weird) annnnnnnnnnnd basically ditzed around online, I think, til my brother called and gave us the bad news about the tire. He came over, swapped the cars, and went on his way. I know I stayed up later than I intended, but I don'... wait, no, I was reading We Used To Live Here and got sucked in until I forced myself to go to sleep. That night we drove around the ~fancy~ part of the neighborhood to see the lights since I figured the Saturday before Halloween was my best chance prior to the big night to see everything. We have a second giant skelly in the neighborhood! :D And the second one has dramatic lighting. Oooh, ahhh.
I think this year we might have more than even 2020 which is I think the year I remember seeing more than average because a lot of people did decorate even when they hadn't before (or since). I was a bit disappointed in myself for not doing my usual weekend before Halloween morning/afternoon walk to see if anyone had set up for a Halloween party, but I don't think anyone had one since we saw no evidence of any and we did go out just early enough that short of parties for kids, we still should've seen one or two Southern goodbyes in progress, or party debris or something, even if it was just a few extra cars or people going home.
I digress. I have to go doublecheck today/tomorrow, but I think one of my favorites has either taken the year off or given up, as the house that has always had a cemetery set up in their yard? Nope. They have something small on their porch but no display and that makes me a sad panda, especially since we lost the skelly party house a few years ago. Not sure it that was a case of them moving, since this year and last they've had happy scarecrows, but I miss the skeletons. Sigh.
Still, people clearly had some fun (someone turned their tree into a mummy, there's another house with smaller skellies climbing trees and there's a yard with eyeballs!) and I have been itching to go back and look closer.
Thing is, on Sunday we had a storm roll in after my jaunt to McDonald's to try and snag the black cat McBoo buckets (I was not successful then or later). On the one hand, it meant that the weather was nice and spooky (clouds rolling in, a strong breeze, and it was cool), when Cass and I went to visit Jess in the hospital. On the other, it meant that it started to rain and kept going for longer than the one day it was called for.
Like, Monday was a total washout, which was fine since I spent that catching up on The Chicken Sisters S2 (highly recommend). Originally the forecast called for it to roll out overnight but uh, yeah, no. That did not happen.
Tuesday I went on a shorter walk in the mist and popped in and out of the parking lots to see which sections had decorated. I only found one so far that didn't have anything I could see during the day. I'm also pretty sure they don't have anything lit up at night, but I'm willing to concede that they might. Anyway, the morning was chilly and the kind of rainy where you don't see/feel individual drops but at some point you realize all your clothes have a light sheen of damp that you can wipe off and repeat the process. Mist. I thought it was going to burn off and be a sunny day, but no, it remained cloudy and overcast and everytime I thought maybe we were just going to have a cloudy day, the rain would come back through. A very me kind of day, but not exactly inviting to go for a long walk. Mums and I hit the store to pick up our order and once more tried for the black cat McBoos and once more wound up with witches. I don't need this many witches, Universe. I would've been just as happy with any of the others I don't already have. Le sigh.
Tuesday I went down for a nap and didn't feel all that motivated to do anything, which I now realize was because I was in the perfect pre-period curl up and sleep phase.
Yesterday, Mums and I went out to procure a pumpkin. Why did I wait so late? Well, remember I'm in the south and that means if you get one too early, it'll rot, even if you keep it inside. I don't think that would've happened this year since it's been pretty cool, but we frequently have a cold snap the week before Halloween (or even the two weeks before), and then Mother Nature remembers to turn on the oven again. Also, when I last stopped into my usual store, all the pumpkins (all twelve) failed to speak to me. I can appreciate a warty pumpkin from someone else, but I am not there in my JOL journey yet. So. Pumpkin pretty easily snagged at the first place we looked, and I grabbed two other things. I looked longingly at McD's but really didn't want to chance yet another set of witches, so we headed to the technically closest Walgreens to me. Yeah, never again. I remembered it being an absolute bitch to get out of before, but this time? It was a fucking nightmare. My anxiety went so friggin high, I can't even begin to put it into words. I did manage to secure the candy I wanted, and the price wasn't terrible (well, it was, but it was still cheaper than the grocery store even before I used my rewards). But yeah, on the way there we had to stop so I could properly secure my pumpkin, and getting out of the parking lot, back to the road we needed? Fuck that noise. Stop fucking building around here, people. In a couple of years it shouldn't have gone from nightmare to nightmare on SPEED.
I went ahead and made beef stew last night as I'd been dreaming of it for the better part of a week and I think I did a pretty good job. :D
I can see the sun peeking through the backdoor, so maybe I should go change and head out on my walk before the yard people come and fuck everything up.
Oh, and fuck the trash being picked up before 5:30AM. That's just insane. Like my ass was out there at 5:38am and they'd long since been gone since I didn't hear them while rushing, trying to grab the last two bags that didn't make it out yesterday. They're not supposed to start picking up anything until 6am!
Anyway, off to poke my nose outside and see how I feel.