Tales of Halloween Ends & Webber International University Football

Since I last wrote, there isn’t too much to write about; I haven’t gone to too many new places or had too many worthwhile experiences unless people want to hear me about getting food from Hardee’s for the first time in a few years so instead I’ll mention a few things on this day that I’ll always have fond memories of-due to childhood and those chilly nights spend trick or treating in the neighborhood. Sigh… yet I know no one wants to hear me act melancholy either so instead, what I saw two weekends ago.

That was when I saw Halloween Ends. Already by that time I heard all the bad buzz and how mad it made most people, although some others did love it. Me, my reaction was more “meh”. Of course this movie would have been better as the middle of a trilogy rather than its conclusion and there still were some dumb moments, it was not a film I loathed. Heck knows there are some actual horrible movies in that franchise.

Two days ago I saw what is likely the only live college football experience this year; as I’ve done in the past it was local lower division football. I went to the campus of Webber International University to see them play against the Virginia University of Lynchburg. I’ve seen Webber before but just recently they opened a small stadium on campus; while it doesn’t have much in the way of seats and those are portable bleachers, at least their games aren’t in random municipal and high school stadiums in the area. VUL, meanwhile, isn’t in any division of the NCAA or NAIA (Webber’s the latter) and instead are something else but their games still count in the standings. VUL hasn’t won any games this season yet all their opponents were much better so the outcome of this was in doubt for me beforehand.

Turns out, it was competitive at first but the Webber Warriors pulled away and ended up defeating the Virginia University of Lynchburg Dragons 38-20; yes, afterwards I heard someone utter the phrase “slaying the dragon”. It was a nice quaint experience in what looked like a nice quaint little town of Babson Park. Admittedly you’d have to drive 5 to 10 miles to do much of anything but I was glad to finally visit the campus. The concessions were either a Kona Ice snow cone truck or a group of people under a tent grilling food & selling Great Value soda.

Last night I went to a Walk-On’s Sports Bistreaux for food & drink in what may have been the first time in over a year. I’ll be back sometime in November.

Hurricane Ian, San Diego Padres, Barbarian & Irish 31

I apologize for not putting out one of these when I said I was going to then delaying it until now... but that's minor compared to Hurricane Ian and its aftermath. Thank goodness no one I know was adversely affected by the storm yet there still was flooding and damage done to the Orlando area, let alone the sheer destruction that happened around Fort Myers. I was just in that area 3 months ago so it was sobering to see how catastrophic the damage was. It's only good fortune that once again where I live did not suffer any damage of note. I was down by that and other things as of late, although I'm starting to feel more myself again.

It's just that I haven't had too much to discuss. I went to Walt Disney World once, returned to various restaurants (such as visiting an Uno's on I-Drive mainly because it wasn't busy on a Sunday afternoon; thankfully the food was fine. Another was visiting the Miller's Ale House that just recently opened in Clermont) and did some other things that aren't really worth mentioning yet they were still nice to do despite the typical terrible Florida traffic... instead I'll mention a few things. It's been fun watching sports as of late, whether it's baseball-it's fun seeing the underdogs like the Padres, Phillies & Guardians win big games-or college football in Tennessee defeating Alabama. The NFL, let's not discuss that or how the Chicago Bears are as bad as they've always been for years now.

I did go to Oviedo a few days ago; mainly, it was to use the toll roads while the tolls were still suspended-it wasn't until yesterday that they were reinstated and I'm unsure why they weren't collected for so long after Ian hit. The main place I visited there was a restaurant I only heard of the day before I went there: Irish 31. It's a nice Irish-themed sports bar which has a nice ambiance and good food; I wish it was closer by so future visits won't be more than once in a blue moon. The one movie I'll mention I went and saw theatrically was Barbarian; I heard good things online so the journey was made one night and my knowledge of what it was beforehand was quite minimal. It started off good, but then devolved to utter nonsense and became worse the longer it went on and it revealed what The Big Bad was; what a letdown it was overall. It was bizarre, but not in a fun way like last fall's Malignant was.

This time, I will be back sometime around Halloween and there are a few things on the agenda; real soon I'll be viewing Halloween Ends, something I've heard many bad things about yet I've watched the other two in that trilogy done solely based on the original Halloween...at least the original Halloween will always be a classic.