The first trick or treaters showed up at 00:50 UTC (5:50 PM Pacific). That is 3 minutes later than last year.
The peak 20 minute period was 01:20 to 01:40 UTC (6:20 to 6:40 PM Pacific) with 29 people. Last year the peak was a full 40 minutes later in the evening, with 41 people.
The last trick or treater left at 03:35 UTC (7:35 PM Pacific). This was a full hour and two minutes earlier than the last trick or treater last year! (But it was later than two years ago.)
We had a total of 125 visitors, down from 143 in each of the two previous years. No idea why the numbers were down so much. We had better weather this year!
I, of course, produced a histogram of the visits:
Besides the earlier and lower peak time, you can see a couple of prominent. secondary peaks later in the evening. It is interesting just how different the distributions have been in the three years I have done this.
Now, as an extra bonus, the timelapse that includes us setting up the decorations, which for once this year we did enough ahead of time that it was on the previous day’s timelapse.
We spent most of the evening thinking the trick or treat volume had been much less than last year. But we were WRONG. As it turns out, when I counted on the timelapse, we had 143 visitors last year, and… exactly 143 visitors this year too. How they were distributed through the night was a little different though, and made it SEEM like fewer people. Now, Amy points out that this year we had more repeat visitors, people coming back for seconds or thirds, but I figure if they come twice, they count twice. (And I counted the same way last year.) So whatever. As far I’m concerned, we had 143 both years. :-)
The timelapse includes us setting up, all the trick or treating, and then the dragon flapping its wings for a bit until it started to rain, water got into the power strip we were using, the breaker tripped, and the dragon deflated. Good stuff!
Anyway some stats:
This year the first trick or treaters showed up at 0:47 UTC (5:47 PM Pacific)… that is 14 minutes earlier than last year.
The peak 20 minute period was 02:00 UTC to 02:20 UTC (7:00 PM to 7:20 PM Pacific) with 41 people. Last year the peak was 20 minutes earlier with 35 people.
The last trick or treaters came at 4:37 UTC (9:37 PM Pacific)… An hour and 27 minutes later than the last person last year.
And a histogram comparing 2017 and 2018:
I think the perception of there being fewer people this year was because we had more people before it got dark, and last year we had an hour long plateau where it stayed continuously very busy, where this year we had a sharper peak, and then a more rapid drop off, so it started feeling slow again earlier in the evening with a long tail with more people arriving even after we’d wrapped things up and gone inside, leaving our table with candy for the stragglers.
Anyway, we had fun. It was our first year with dragons in the driveway. Only one is visible in the timelapse. Here they are both:
Taken just south of Everett, WA on Christmas 2017 (UTC). Snow falls, then mostly melts away again. My timelapses are normally at a dynamically changing pace depending on how much change is happening in this picture, but I readjusted this one to keep a pace of approximately 1 hour every 5 seconds, so 2 minutes for the full 24 hours.
Yeah, second timelapse in a week, but we just had the first snow of the season. And the AbulCam was still pointed at the driveway and caught all of the snow falling… then rapidly melting again. It also caught me, Brandy, and Alex leaving for a trip to the east coast. So we missed the snow! Anyway… enjoy!
I took the last week off from work for the purpose of working on a variety of personal projects.
The above is the timelapse from my home office webcam for my last real day of vacation. Hit play to start it. I’m currently experimenting with a fisheye lens so you can see the whole room, although with a bit of distortion. But this way you can see what Alex, Roscoe, and if you don’t blink Amy too, are doing in the room, rather than just seeing a closer view of me at my desk. :-)
It has been a good week. I got a few things done, although of course not as much as I would have liked. I made a decision early in the week not to worry too much about it, and also use the time to just take it slow and relax a bit. So I didn’t push myself. I’m still a bit under the weather and tired… and I’ll probably end up trying to finish a few more things over the weekend even though that is harder when Alex isn’t in school. So I’m not sure I’ll head back to work fully relaxed and rejuvenated, but it was still good to take the week. I should use my vacation and personal days a bit more than I do. I always end up leaving those on the table because I don’t use them.
It is easier to see Amy decorating than any trick or treaters, although you can see them if you pay attention. And for some reason it went slowly on some parts with no visible action the next day, but hey, timelapse!
12 hours of timelapse total crunched into 3:45. There is a bit of me cleaning before the construction starts, and a bit of me recording my podcast after construction is done.
Actual construction from about 1:30 to 3:00 on the video.
Roscoe and Brandy help a little bit too.
This is of course a snippet of the kind of thing always available on the AbulCam.
The timelapse above is from my home office yesterday. Since I was working from home due to snow, you actually get to see me in my office some. The excitement of my crazy gesticulating during conference calls! The thrills of Alex coming to fetch me and climbing all over me before getting me to carry him back downstairs. The views of my midsection as I pace back and forth in front of the camera. All very exciting stuff!
This is all to note that I made some updates to the AbulCam lately. There is now sometimes sound if I don’t have it muted. Also, the way the timelapses are made will slow down even more when there is lots of motion, and speed up more when there is not, leading to more interesting timelapses. At least I think so. I’ve also matched the sizes of the live shot and the previous day’s timelapse. They are a little smaller, but that means they will load faster and stream better. I’ve also emoved some old clunky bits that didn’t work any more. Finally, at least for the moment, the portable wireless webcam I moved from place to place has died… a non-waterproof camera doesn’t like being left outside in the rain… even if it does generate some nice movies before dying… so the picture is going to be from the webcam on my desktop in my home office for awhile. But that means more me! Well, at least a little. Reality is I’m not in my office anywhere near as much as I would like and sometimes whole days go by without me dropping in at all. But hey, new and better timelapses!
