I Believe It Was Our Most Horrible Yet

What a strange Halloween season it was.

Obviously, the pandemic has put a damper on everything. I really struggle with the people who don't take this seriously, who believe conspiracy theories more than they believe experts. The anti-maskers are some of the dumbest people on the planet, and the anti-maskers who are jerks about it are purely evil. I really believe that.

But being in grad school has also impacted the season, because I always have homework looming over me. I didn't do all the Halloween things I might have wanted to. Oh well. I guess I should be happy about all the things I did do over the course of the season.

This past spring, my family planted a garden that turned out to be more successful than we have ever had. We planted more plants, and last year we installed a deer fence to keep the deer from eating everything. And we had seven pumpkins grow! We were able to use them for our jack-o'-lanterns, and there was one for each of us. But my family carved them without me, because my dad goes to bed early but I have a late class.

Mine is on the left.

Last week, my dad and our neighbors moved the deer fence, because our neighbors decided they wanted to keep deer out of their yard too, so it was a collaborative effort. Within a few days of moving the fence, the deer already broke through it! It's been fixed now, and there are plastic chairs to discourage the deer, so hopefully they stay out.

There were two pumpkins that we didn't carve, and I put them on the step as decorations. And the deer ate one of them.

It otherwise wasn't a terribly exciting week. I stayed off the trails because of last week's snowstorm, so I won't bore you with the details of this week's street running (and biking one day).

For Halloween, we set up a table at the end of our driveway and put candy on it. I've been wondering if I've been making enough sacrifices in my life to help stop this virus, and that was one way we sacrificed. I did see a couple of trick-or-treaters go past, but I don't know if any others did. Our street was deserted. Most of our neighbors had their lights off. I just thought it was tragic that in so many ways, it was a perfect Halloween: warm, full moon, Saturday—but the perfection was wasted. 

A depressing picture for a depressing Halloween

Throughout Halloween day, I made progress on my research paper for my US West class and made tomato zucchini cobbler and apple oatmeal cookies. I watched various Halloween shows with and without my family throughout the day: The Nightmare before Christmas, the combination Halloween/Election Day episode of That Girl, The Flintstones Meet Rockula and Frankenstone, and "Catspaw," the Halloween episode of Star Trek(!). Then last night I had a dream that I met the Monkees, and I asked them why their monster-themed episodes didn't originally air at Halloween.

I have a lot of things to get done over the next few weeks for school. I am really looking forward to December, when I will get a break from homework always nagging me.

***

It is now the Thanksgiving season, which means pumpkinundation roundup continues! Here's what I had during the final week of Halloween season.

Pumpkin Spice RXBars are a strange little chewy protein bar. The pumpkin spice is fine, I guess. 6/10.

Blacksmith Ice Cream is a cute little ice cream shop in Bountiful, and Blacksmith Ice Cream Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream was the first flavor I ever had from them last year. I wasn't impressed last year. This year was better, but it's still not one of their stronger flavors. 7/10.

The Blacksmith Ice Cream Caramel Apple Ice Cream has a nice apple flavor with caramel running through. A lot of Blacksmith's ice cream has kind of an elastic texture to it. 7/10.

Nature's Path Organic Pumpkin Pie Toaster Pastries are like an upscale version of Pop-Tarts, except they're not better than Pop-Tarts. They're drier. But they're still good. 8/10.

The Maverik Pumpkin Spice Donut is a nice cake donut, but it doesn't really taste like pumpkin. 7/10.

Noosa Pumpkin Yoghurt is often regarded as the best pumpkin yogurt. I'm not a big fan of Greek yogurt (or Greek food in general), and I don't think Noosa is that much better than others. It's still sour. 5/10.

I've said that Chip is my favorite cookie place, with Goodly as a close second. But I don't know, Goodly might tie for first place. This Goodly Pumpkin Spookerdoodle Cookie has a comforting flavor, and the interior is perfectly moist. But I don't get much of a snickerdoodle vibe. This might not be as good as some of Goodly's other flavors, but it's still fantastic. 8/10.

Lisa's Passion for Popcorn is a local company that sells their product in some gas stations, and this summer they opened a store in Trolley Square. That's rough. Not only is it a pandemic, but Trolley Square businesses struggle to stay open as it is. So to support them, I got this Lisa's Passion for Popcorn Caramel Apple Popcorn. I'm happy to say it's better than the red, white, and blue one they have in the summer (which is the only other one I've had). There's caramel popcorn mixed with apple-flavored popcorn. It's tasty, and my family had no problem finishing off this bag. 7/10.

Oikos Pumpkin Spice Greek Yogurt is similarly sour to Noosa, but you don't have to mix in the pumpkin. 5/10.

Café Zupas Pumpkin Chorizo Soup has a bit of a kick to it. Last year, I learned that you have to eat it warm. So this year, I ate it warm, and it was just fine. But it didn't blow my socks off or anything. 7/10.

Café Zupas Pumpkin Spice Crême Brulée doesn't taste very pumpkiny to me. It has a lot of caramel on top. I'm not a big fan of custardy desserts. 6/10.

Lisa's Passion for Popcorn Pumpkin Spice Popcorn isn't as good as the caramel apple flavor. A lot of pumpkin spice products have an overwhelming artificial flavor. This one isn't overwhelming, fortunately. 6/10.

Nestle Toll House Pumpkin Spice Baking Truffles are strange things. They're little blocks of artificially spicy white creme. I wouldn't call them "filled" at all. 6/10.

I put them in my apple oatmeal cookies, and they had a rather benign influence. 7/10 for the cookie.