Another Member joins the Old-As-Dirt-Club

Ed had a milestone birthday this past Saturday - he turned 50. Ha ha, ok, so it was only 40, but he looks good...for 50.

Alright, enough kidding around. Anyway; Sue had asked us (the crew) to get Ed out of the house for a few hours on Saturday afternoon so that she could set up and also have folks come by and surprise Ed when we brought him back. The plan was to have us show up unannounced at his house, tell him to get his ass on his bike and come out for a birthday ride. Everyone was on board, the weather was looking like it would cooperate, things look good!

Then Saturday morning arrived and the weather forecast changed; cold and showers in the afternoon. Bleah. Then, Sue mentioned that Eddie had commented about dropping his bike off at the dealership for some work, that morning. Egads, we can't force him to go on a ride if he doesn't even have his bike! To make things harder, Ed was working on a side job and we couldn't really figure out what he was going to do - would he have his bike or not?

The confusion was piling up so Sue made the (smart) exectutive decision to just go ahead and tell Ed about the party. This way, not only would he be there when we arrived, but his bike would be there, too. The departure time arrived and we swung over and grabbed Ed for a few hours to get him out of Sue's way and also to share some pavement - it was the first time all of us had ridden together this year; Flex, Zig, Brother Bill, Mike and myself. Oh, and Ed, or course.

We kept the route simple and local - after all, this was just a diversion for a few hours, nothing more. A few of us peeled off early to retrieve 4-wheeled vehicles for the late night that lay ahead of us, finally meeting back up and settling in for the par-tay. And what a par-tay! We whiled the night away with good friends, a bit of fire on the deck, and more good memories.

And that was Saturday - and a fine Saturday at that.

Welcome to your 40's, Ed. Good luck. LOL

Russell's Road

I keep a running list of odds and ends that I'd like to blog about at some point and, having a few minutes this afternoon (and wanting to blog something quickly to wrap up the week), I thought I'd give that list a glance. I happened upon one item which I should have mentioned long ago, but what the hell, the person that this is about will still get a kick out of it (do they have internet access in the afterlife?).

Our dear departed brother; Russell Arey. He's the one 'responsible' for us Massholes and those "damn New Yorkers" meeting each other and becoming such great friends. This same Russ Arey loved his Harley's over the years, and loved the trips and memories he made along the way. So it was more than fitting that he mount one of those novelty street signs on his driveway which read; "Harley Road" (he'd tried his damndest to find one that said "Bullshit Boulevard" but had no luck).

As I understand the story, shortly after he posted this sign at the end of his driveway - a rather lengthy driveway at that - who should come along but the folks that were mapping out all the highways and roadways for the on-line mapping community. Did he happen to converse with them and get them to join him in a prank? Or did they just make an innocent mistake? (I like to think it's the first one.)

Anyway, you can guess what happened - they recorded his driveway as a legitimate road, and named it "Harley Road". I'm not kidding; do a search on Google Maps (or Yahoo Maps, if you prefer) for "Harley Road" in South Thomaston, ME, and it'll pull up Russ's driveway.

I know that Russ is up there somewhere, chuckling to himself about this.

Ride Well, Russ. Ride Well, and Ride Hard.

Naming the Dead

Each work day, I drive past the final resting place of many poor souls who were patients at a mental institution. That may sound like the lead-in for a joke, but it's true; my commute takes me by the grounds of what used to be the Medfield State (Mental) Hospital.

This sign stands at the edge of a field overlooking a scenic wildlife area.

I've read articles on-line about the cemeteries at these institutions; overgrown and lost, the interred; nameless and forgotten. Recently, groups have formed that are raising awareness of these situations and are working to identify the deceased, as the practice at these institutions was to just bury the dead with nothing more than a single stone marker. What was on these markers? Not a name, but a mere number. Pretty sad when you think about it.

The access road to this cemetery appears in decent-enough condition and I often wondered what the cemetery itself looked like. Well this past weekend, I found out.

Approaching the grounds, I could see that this cemetery had been salvaged; the overgrowth had been cleaned out and, overall, the grounds were kept up and had a nice surrounding fence and a memorial stone at the entrance.

Walking around any cemetery is always a bit thrilling - not in a disrespectful way at all, but when you stop to look at the names and think of the lives that folks may have had, it can be interesting, if not a bit cheerless. To think that the folks buried in this (and other institution) cemeteries didn't even receive the respect of being buried with their name, is disheartening. It was good to see that this cemetery has been revived; the numbers had been researched and the appropriate names and birth/death dates had been recovered and were engraved on individual marker plaques.

The size of these trees adds relevance to how long ago some of these folks passed away.

Overall, this cemetery looks nice and it was good to see these people's names and living time had been salvaged.
Many other cemeteries at state institutions (in Mass and around the country) have not had as much luck. Other institutions' records have been lost or destroyed, and for those locations, the dead will never be identified.

Here's a link on this cemetery, if interested. http://dsmc.info/gmedfield.shtml

Not bike related, but I thought this was interesting enough to post about.