Wholesome Halloween and other some such

This past Friday was weird. Under Armour had its earnings report early in the morning. During that call it was announced that UA is going to sell of MyFitnessPal to a private equity firm. The connected fitness division had a mandatory all hands meeting later that morning. Then two other meetings were called so folks would know if they were staying with Under Armour and MapMyRun, or if they were leaving with MyFitnessPal to go with the private equity firm. I’m part of the latter.

So I went for a run on the trails and came home and shot a bunch of arrows. I wasn’t really in the work mood, so pretty much took the day off short of any obligations.

After the girls were done with school, we headed out to Burger Stadium to watch the Bowie vs. Akins varsity football game.

Almost 27 years of living in Austin and had never been to a high school football game. Elise and I had always talked about because Burger Stadium is in our neck of the woods. We just never made the time to go, until this past Friday. I guess it takes having a child in high school to become part of the crowd. We had a good time. Hung out and sat with Ray and Alma and Alma’s parents. Julia performed with the color guard during half time. Got pretty chilly the second half. And it wasn’t much of a game as Bowie kind of clobbered Akins 42 – 0.

We didn’t get home until 10:30 on Friday after the game. I immediately hit the hay and got up early to go run with the Circle C Run Club. Lou wanted to run 10 miles, so I created a route for the 10 of us to run. Ana, Josh Bibb, Trent, Steph, Melissa, Rich, Thien, Frank and Lou all showed up. It was one of those runs that reminds me of why I love running. The weather, the scenery, the crisp air, being with friends, the changing of the season. It was just amazing, and it all took away from the fact that this was my first long run since August 1st. The last time I ran distance was a 12-miler on August 1. Since then I think the longest I’ve run is 7-8 miles. Anyway, had an absolute blast with the crew. I think what made it most enjoyable (along with the past weeks worth of runs leading up to this one) is just not giving a damn about pace. It’s been really fun and relaxing to just slow the hell way down and take in the scenery, take deep breaths and, on occasion, have a conversation with myself, or just make some verbal observations.

As we were running back to Torchy’s (or point of origination), Elise and Maly were driving down Escarpment to pick up Ava for lacrosse practice. The honked. We waved. Maly and the other freshman lax girls dressed up for Halloween practice.

The rest of the Halloween afternoon was spent in the front yard since the weather was so nice. I shot a bunch of arrows. Elise chatted with the neighbors. At some point Elise took Mara to shop for pants, and took Maly over to Ava’s so they could hang out and trick or treat on Ava’s street.

Halloween day drew to and end. Mara and Emma helped me gut and carve the pumpkin. Mara designed our Jack o’ Lantern this year. I seasoned and roasted the pumpkin seeds while Elise went to pick up pizza and Mara and Emma played.

After dinner and after watching the Longhorns take OSU 41 – 34 in overtime it was time to head out for trick or treating.

We went trick or treating through our immediate neighborhood streets with the Mimms, Christina and Kyla, and Hannah and her mom. Halloween was very different this year as everyone put candy either on their driveways, or on tables or some such setups on the end of their driveways or in their yards.

Mara was the old grandpa. She wore the mask that I got when I was about her age. I never thought that mask would get so much use. Maly wore that mask for Halloween one year as well. Probably when she was Mara’s age.

The kids came home with pounds of candy. I texted Maly at some point during the night just to check in. Apparently she and Elise had had a conversation earlier in the day and Maly voiced how she’s becoming aware of her childhood fading away. She was sad and missed going trick or treating. I wasn’t privy to the conversation, but my thought was that she’s as old as she wants to be. There’s nothing wrong with a 14-year-old trick or treating. She and Ava did go trick or treating though, but Maly texted me back and told me that she missed us. She was only going to be gone for the night, but it was cute that she missed us.

Overall I’d say Halloween was a success. It was a late night, but everyone had fun.

The time changed early Sunday morning. Fall back. I woke up early and couldn’t help but wanting to for a run. It was so quiet outside and I knew the temperature was perfect. So I snuck out and ran Escarpment south to 45 and back. The weather was perfect. It was 50-degrees, the time had changed and it was the day after Halloween so I felt like I had the streets to myself.

I came home, took a shower, shaved and then went back outside because the weather was just too amazing to not be outside. My suspension seat post had come in the mail, so I rode up to the mailbox to pick it up and sat on the driveway and worked on the bike for a while. After Elise and Mara got up and got going, I convinced them to go on a bike ride to Summer Moon. I’d never been there and wanted to try it. That was a nice little morning treat.

After coffee we took the long way home and made the loop through Dick Nichols park and then through the Latta Branch greenbelt.

And then we just sort of took it easy and took in the weather for the rest of the day. We watched Coco to celebrate Dia de los Muertos.

And I conked out at 9:30, not even caring about the week ahead at work! ;-)

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