• Cyburbia is a friendly big tent, where we share our experiences and thoughts about urban planning practice, the built environment, planning adjacent topics, and anything else that comes to mind. No ads, no spam, and it's free. It's easy to join!

RTDNTOTO šŸ» Random Thoughts Deserving No Thread Of Their Own 20 (2025)

WSU MUP Student said:
As long as the kids aren't greedy I have no qualms about anybody coming to my door either, no matter where they live... I don't even care if you've got a costume on or not! My only stipulation is that if you are a teen, you must actually say, "Trick or treat!"
Click to expand...

You have to say the words! Don't just stand there holding your bag open. Say. The. Words.
 
Iā€™m wondering if ā€œSince we just got a new couch, blinds, and chairs for our house, I donā€™t need anything for our anniversaryā€ is wife-speak for ā€œYou better get me something good for our 20th anniversary.ā€ SInce that's coming up Wednesday, I guess I should spend my lunch hour today shopping. (We are doing our official celebration on the 10th and 11th, though.)
 
Planit said:
You have to say the words! Don't just stand there holding your bag open. Say. The. Words.
Click to expand...
Wifey and I were working at Fernley City Hall, where thousands of kids came through the "Haunted Hallway."

We heard quite a few "smell my feet" variations . . . not sure why kids think that's funny.

Jim
 
1762192082595.png
 
michaelskis said:
Wow, dude! I love the number stats but it makes me wonder if you used a clicker or just kept tally marks on a clipboard. Have you thought about using AI and a security camera for the count?
Click to expand...

I do have a few more points of information in my spreadsheet... maybe I should feed it into AI (Claude is pretty good with data and spreadsheets IME).

I don't have a clicker but have thought about getting one. We never get that many kids so it's easy to just make tally marks on a pad of paper, but I think it would be funny to stand there by the door with a clicker. There is a street in our 'hood one block over that is a nice little half-mile loop. Even though they have no sidewalks they get a lot of kids over there because there is very little vehicle traffic. Most of the little kids in our neighborhood go over there so they can run around and go crazy (the older kids usually go to the neighborhoods like the ones our older daughter went to since there are sidewalks and parties).

jumbach said:
I love this!

Do you keep track of the top costumes each year, too?
Click to expand...

I tried keeping track of costumes the first few years but I got bogged down trying to categorize things. These days I do still make a note if I see something particularly good of if there are a ton of the same thing. Nothing stood out in either of those regards this season though when we went to the Halloween parade at the elementary on Wednesday there were a ton of KPop Demon Hunters (as expected) but also like two dozen kids of various ages in pink or blue or grey axolotl onesies. That was sort of weird... I wonder if it was just a coincidence or if there is something going on where axolotls are really cool this year or in pop culture or something?
 
WSU MUP Student said:
We had 17 trick-or-treaters on Friday evening - down a bit from the past few years (we had 22 last year and a record 35 in 2023) but up from our average of 14 since we've lived here. I bought enough full size candy bars and packs of Skittles and Sour Patch Kids that each child could have taken a big handful and I'd still have plenty left over. I do that every year though because I love to eat the candy too.

View attachment 65676

When I was getting Halloween decor out of the garage a couple weeks ago I found a bag of 250 small bouncy balls leftover from a science thing at the high school last year (they ended up with many more than they needed so our daughter brought us back one of the unopened bags we had donated). I dumped all the balls into another bowl and would hold out bowls with candy and/or the balls for kids. I didn't think the bouncy balls would be that popular but the kids seemed to love them, especially the really little kids, and they took some big handfuls.

Our oldest and her friends are all 15 and 16 and sophomores so this is probably the last year they can get away with going out for candy. She went to a friend's house in the fancy part of town to watch movies and go up and down their street where a bunch of the houses go all out with the decorations. There was a house with a food truck from a local cider mill giving out fresh cider and donuts and another house had an actual carousel and pirate carnival ride set up for people to ride on. My wife dropped our daughter off over there early, around 4:00 pm, and said it was already like a massive block party going on with kids and adults all over the place. A lot of the houses in our neighborhood, myself included, give out full size stuff... our daughter came back from there with 4 king size candy bars and a giant bag of individual bags of Skittles among her candy (she said the house giving out the bags of bags of Skittles had cartons of them next to the door and you could pick between sour, original, or gummy, but they were all Skittles so maybe they work for the company or something? Seems like an odd thing to go all out on). She and her friends walked nearly a mile on that street all the way down closer to our side of town where a house at the very end had been setting up a huge haunted house all month with all sorts of animatronic things. I had walked past this house a bunch and saw the haunted house being built out front and thought it was excessive but our daughter said it stretched all the way around into the backyard and there was even more stuff back there.

The best thing either of our kids got though was our youngest got 2 full size Coffee Crisp bars (one was hers and then her friend gave her the one he had gotten because he didn't know what it was and this 9-year-old wasn't about to try something new). Coffee Crisp is probably my favorite candy bar but a hard one to find on this side of the border. Total score!
Click to expand...
Austin Powers Nerd GIF
 
I found the "haunted house" that my daughter and her friends walked through:


Apologies for whoever set the video to an annoying 4x speed.

Edit:
Here's a better video from TicToc:

 
I finally tossed some old exercised stuff in our garage over the weekend. The people bought it from us in November 2019 and said they'd come back to get it. I gave them time, then COVID happened so I gave them more time . . . but it's now been six years. I don't have a way of getting a hold of them since they didn't give me any contact info (just the $50 payment.)

They can come get the stuff at the thrift store, and if they do come for it, I'll explain "Sorry, I donated it to St. Vincent's but here's your $50 back." I could also argue my storage of it all those years is worth more than that so it's a wash. I think we waited a reasonable amount of time, and any judge would agree.
 
I looked out the window at 6:00 AM and see that someone put up the Christmas lights on the utility poles. I may not like this colder weather, but I love Christmas lights.
 
Salmissra said:
Yep! Not the Town Next Door . . . .

It's the Town 2 doors down.

Straight shot on one highway to the street exit, then about a mile on a side street to work. Commute time is around 35 minutes, barring bad weather or accidents.
Click to expand...
About the same commute as mine, give or take, driving across Ft Worth.
 
Christmas lights went up on City Hall property yesterday. They'll have a tree lighting ceremony the week after Thanksgiving and will turn all the Christmas lights on at that time.
 
Halloween was a big hit per usual. Our candy & rings were wiped out by about 8pm.
  • we had some goodie bags for the kids we know well on a 2-block radius
  • kept my tradition of having a bunch of full-size candy bars--those go to homemade creative costumes specifically vs. store-bought (regardless of quality)... favorite of the night was a pretty great one of a robot made out of boxes that the kid had clearly made himself with no/minimal help from parents which earned him two full-size candy bars
  • light-up rings were a big hit, and we'll likely bring those back next year. Gummy eyeballs were also a big hit.
The downer was the day after Halloween. There was a bad shooting downtown that left two injured and one dead. Our downtown is showing signs of growing crime issues that isn't great, and I'm concerned our City Council and leadership lack the wherewithal to address it in a smart, effective manner instead of handwringing and talking it to death. Our police chief has yet to impress me, and the night commander is not known for her proactivity.
 
Well, the Christmas tree is up. In my moment of weakness, I said to Mrs. STTG, while at HD yesterday, to get the tree she has been coveting. And, she works so I told her to spend her hard earned money as she sees fit. Our old tree is only 3 years old. So, we had to set it up to make sure the lights work and it has 8(?) different settings and it has foot pedal to control the lights. No point in then taking it down. Lights are also up on the house. We pay for that service. I'm done climbing on a ladder and and the peak over the garage is too steep to walk on so I'm out.
 
Halloween decorations are down. We didn't do much. I just sat in the driveway handing out candy. Fall decorations are up. Christmas decorations are waiting for turkey day to be over. I do forgive those in cold climates that want to get the work done before it's to cold for it, but I'm not in that kind of weather so stop with the Christmas stuff.
 
Back
Top