date: Sun 26 Oct 2025 08:58:10 PM PDT subj: epic Halloween weekend parade and pumpkin races ------------------------------------------------------- Oh what a weekend. Lots to do, it was a wake up with 8 hours of sleep! Thanks to my wife. She sacrificed her sleep for me to get a full night of sleep. I felt calm and able to handle life. After a couple of weeks of feeling like dying a good nights sleep does a lot. We have a ways to go before we can expect good nights sleep very often. Probably another 6 months according to a friendly chat with another parent. Oh my can we make it? We see others with twins, but those parents were younger than we are now. It always feels bad when your in the middle of hard things, the refining of a person is always painful. Not everyone makes it through, but if a person does and it wasn't too devastating, they likely will have grown in some way. I hope we grown and not shrink from this. OK to the story: ------------------ Saturday morning was a eat and go. We had to get to the groceries store to spend most of our money on not that much food for two weeks. I had to return some super crappy diapers, all this time I just bought the diapers and it was part of our groceries, each time I looked at how much food we bought and though wow, that's not much food, why is it so expensive. Now food is dang expensive, every time it gets more expensive, but while returning the diapers I learned those are very expensive. Diapers! what the heck they are that much of a thing to make but holly shitzles they are expensive. The lady at the counter for the returned asked why we are returning them. I tell her due to blowouts. :) she responded with "are they (are two children sitting in stroller across from her) allergic to them?" I respond with a definition of a blowout, "when he shitz out his but, the diaper doesn't hold it." My wife looks at me in a way I've said the wrong thing. The woman at the counter is doing her best customer service. My wife is trying to help explain it a more diplomatic way. Next to us, a couple is eyeing our babies, with smiles, as the customer service woman says the diapers cause blowouts? I nod in agreement, and say "yes yes blowouts. Whatever they changed with their new design, its causing disasters." The woman asks if I would like cash back. I say yes, and she hands me $43 bucks. That's when I look to my wife and say wow! I didn't realize they were this expensive. She looks back at me with her beautiful face with a bit of a smirk that indicates all this time you didn't know. I tell her we should just get cloth diapers. Her face changes to disagreement. I put the $43 bucks in my pocket and we make our way to get a basket to complete our shopping. We have to be back in time for the Halloween parade! Back home stress is building. I unload groceries and my tired wife does her best to take care of our fussatrons. The weather is bad and moods are darkening like wind blown clouds above our small town. Leafs hit the rain covered windows. My wife tried to coordinate with a friend about the parade. Her friend's time is a little off 5PM, but the onlines say 5:30PM. Babies are tired and our son is passing out on the play mat face down. Five-o-clock is a time he is ready to sleep. Mom has to wake him to put him in his costume. I get called into action to do a quick repair on a stroller we were given. I'm in the middle of making hard boiled eggs as a watch the clock and action, as I think I'll let these eggs boil 5 minutes, as I calculate the time it takes for me to fix the tires coming off the rims of the stroller. I assessed the damage a couple days before in case my wife wants to use the stroller. She talked about it earlier in the week, but earlier she said it wasn't going to work and we would just use our regular stroller, today there was talk about that same stroller. Sometimes I think what people talk about is there interest, and even though they have no expectation of something, doesn't mean they don't have a desire for that thing, and I think often when speaking of a physical object, it is that object that are interested in, and depending what verbs and adjectives they use, are clue to the desires and intentions they have about the subject of their speech. In this case it was the stroller, and how it may not be usable. Well I get to go check on the stroller. Luckily I've checked on it days before and thought about it for a few days as well. I had an idea what it needed and what I wanted to try and those 5 minutes of eggs cooking was up, my mind was saying if the stroller was fixable it would work better for us, therefore my discovery into if my mental simulation of work would actually equal reality was worth the time spent. I set out to fix the stroller. In the garage with the clock ticking a work on each tire. I couldn't let the air out so I had to find something to deflate the tire, by pressing the valve stem, ... a broken screw from the broken gutter that I saved so I had a reference when I get time to go to the store to find replacements, happened to be the perfect tool to deflate each tire. I deflate, push tire wall back onto the rim of each wheel, then pump up each tire, just enough to hold the weight of our children and the stroller itself. The front time filled with pine needles was a simple clean out, then slid the tire and tube so the valve was at a 90 degree angle. My bike pump wasn't the best to fill these oddly spoked rims. Their spokes work in a way the valve stem sticks out past the angle of the spokes so its difficult to get the pump head over the valve. I work frantically as time always is moving faster than it should when a deadline is approaching. My wife comes down to find me, we dispute my efforts a bit. She had already got the kids ready for the regular stroller. But this will work better, so we head back up to gather our babes out of their car seats and bring them down with us to the alternate stroller. A simple strap in and they we are off to the parade. As we walk the rain starts again. Is this the thing to do I wonder, my wife wonders, are the kids going to get cold. I push the kids on as we walk into town the wind blowing the rain at us. On we go the further we walk the more people we see. Even with the rain and wind, people are still gathering. This is great. I think let us even experience this with the weather the way it is, and try to enjoy the even as it unfolds. A car stops in front of us at and unloads a creepy Jason, holding a knife, with some kind of witches. Other interesting costumes like a box of donuts. People with their dogs in costumes pass us. We walk to the main street in town where a bulk of the crowed is. One of our friends sees us and says hello, points to where his family is. Ghouls, ghost, goblins, mushroom heads, bears, jack-o-lanterns, witches, Jasons, dinosaurs, catchup, and mustards, all sorts of fun and creative costumes walking everywhere. We are heading to the music setup at near the museum, this is where the dance party is for all the kids, and adults. One of our new friends sees us and says hello. We all meet up with his family and head to get some candy. With some candy in the stroller, and our children mesmerized by all the sights to see we stroller down the road with the crowed getting wind blown and rained on, but we are happy. We are happy to be with everyone, the people celebrating and displaying their creativity. Part way down we meet more family members. A young father with his child walking next to him holding his hand, sees me with my kids in our new used stroller. He is a brother of our friends, and he looks at the stroller and says "I have a stroller just like that. It has that exact same sticker." I just smile and say "this is probably your stroller." His sister (our friend) says I donated it to them. I laugh about it, and ask if he wants it back. He says no, and tells me he is working at motivating his child to walk more, and explains its easier without the stroller. At the edge of the dance area, in the rain and wind our friends say they've had enough and are heading home. They invite us to their event tomorrow. We say our goodbyes and continue on. We are making our way to the dance area to see the kids and adults have fun listening and dancing to music. We hang out there for awhile and watch, and just being part of the event. As we walk around a family sees our babes, and the mother confirms our babes are twins. She asks their age, after hearing 6-months she congratulates us for being out and about. She points to her daughters and says "twins, five years old now." We talk for a bit and her and her husband give us some encouragement. I ask "when do we get to sleep again?" The mother tells us about 12 months. I hear her words with hope and dread. I think there is an end to sleep deprivation, and maybe it isn't death. We are half way their. The parents tell us their children were small, born 36 months and now they are normal sized people. My wife and I like their words. Its been a long six months, and short. Time is odd when you have new babies and don't get much sleep. The family is urged to moves on by their young son, we say goodbye to them, but stay for a bit longer, enjoy the music and watch the people dance. I don't dance much, but I feel the rhythm, and sway a bit. I see one of the neighbors push his son in a decorated wagon, and for the first time I see his wife. He is an older father like me (or at least he looks that way), and his wife is younger like mine. My wife and I talk a bit and enjoy the moments. I turn again to look at the neighbor but they are gone. My intrigue fades, and I am back to spending time with my family, and enjoy the wind, rain, and spooky event. We see a lot of the crowed has left, so we start walking back down the main street to our house. Our children just happily sitting in their stroller experiencing a unique event at night in colder weather. ------------------ Next morning wife is making a great breakfast for us. Pancakes with lots of blueberries, eggs with cheese, spinach, fresh drip decaff coffee. We do our best to enjoy breakfast even though our babes like to fuss it up. Today moving fast, and its another special event day, its the annual pumpkin races. Its been a few days or more since I road my bike, so although I was dreading the rain a little I had to get out and ride. My bike does well in the rain, but once I over oiled it dirt attached to bottom bracket, and derailleur causing squeaks, so in my mind I was going to have to deal with that a few days later. The lure of the ride pulled me to mount my bike and peddle up the hills in the rain. I had to ride by the race location to see if there was any activity. I saw nothing, in the rain. Seems like its cancelled. I take a moment to text my wife, maybe no races today. .. Its a couple hours to go and round here two hours is enough for sun to appear. I continue my ride enjoying the cold and drizzle. ------------------- pumpkin races day ----------------- home in time to get ready for races at 1:30/2pm ----------------------------------------------- Although our babes are too young to make pumpkin racers, its such a blast to go to the event and see all the interesting creations. Pumpkin racers, are kinda like soapbox car racers, but instead made from pumpkins. This year there are many rules, no more anything goes. Every pumpkin must have 2 independent axles that pass through the pumpkin, and no internal frames/chassis. Last couple years there was a pumpkin with an internal chassis that beat every other racer. It was easy to tell the father built the majority of the pumpkins racer, not the child. Is winning everything? To some it is. This year lots of great pumpkins, but I remember one something like undersea something. There was Frankenstein, brains, all sorts. There were stands this year, a new ramp with a gate and a pulley to release the racers, a sound system with an announcer about the action, and the race was further down the hill. Lots of children, parents, family, and friends showed up for the race. It was a blast. My son was in the bjorne attached to me, and daughter was attached to my wife. As I watch I dream of the day my children may be old enough to enter their racer. The excitement from the children is great to watch. This year the event was a lot more organized. There was a canopy where you could take your picture in front of a billboard. We were lucky enough to have some other parents take pictures of us with our babies in front of the event billboard. There were stands to view the race from. These stands were portable on a trailer. The ramp and release gate was a lot better. The ramp slope wasn't so aggressive that pumpkin racers wouldn't go so fast they would fail early in the race. The race start and end location was moved to a better spot on the hill. Badges for race winners. A great sound setup for an announcer. A great announcer. Additional helpers for racers. It was fun to watch for sure and a great memory to have with our babies there. They'll likely not remember, but they are now part of the great pumpkin race. apple cider press 100 years old -------------------------------- After the race we went to visit friends for their 9th year tradition of making fresh apple cider, using a 100 years old cider press. We met new faces, and got to see two new twins that are only a couple months old. It was great socializing with the established folks in the area, who've been here for over 30 years. I enjoy seeing how people do things and what they have to say about their interest and memories from times past. we go home and have a good dinner, and give the babes a bath. I think in the bath, what a good day. in love with my family in love with my wife thank you for all you've given me