2009 Annual Halloween Run

(It's budget season and I’ve been beyond-slammed here at work. I’ve got some catching up to do, so here’s the write-up on last weekend’s Halloween Run.)

The invitation had gone out to all Ghosts and Ghouls that like to ride. It was time for the 2009 Annual Hyde Park Halloween Run! Departure from 640 South St was to be @ 11 sharp. From there, we’d roll over to Ronnies and hang out for a bit while knocking back some road sodas and sharing some laughs.

11:00 arrived and we had a respectable crew saddled up and ready.

Mike had zip tied a skeleton to his front forks – excellent contribution, Mike!

We fired up and headed off to our next destination. 25 minutes later found us turning off the main drag and into the neighborhood of our esteemed host Ronald.

And wouldn’t you know it; I was making the last turn before the aforementioned destination and was leaning hard into a left turn. Leaning harder and harder…and…dammit! Too hard! I caught the floorboard frame, and more importantly; the brand new kickstand spring! The telltale sound of the kickstand dragging along the pavement signaled to all around me that the idiot had arrived.

We pulled up to Ronnie’s and got settled. And I broke out my trusty mini-bungie cord to keep the kickstand up and out of the way where it can't cause any trouble.
Does this pic look familiar? (I’m talking about the spring, not the beer. We can ignore the beer for the purposes of this tale.)
We hung out in the sunshine and enjoyed each other’s company until it was time to roll out.
We shot to the registration location, handed our money over, and took in the sights for a few. Having arrived later than we’d planned, we only had short time until the signal was given to fire things up and head on out.

We found ourselves next to this guy, right out of the gate.
Had to catch up to him and catch a side-shot.
This guy was dangerous – riding up onto people’s lawns and stuff. What the hell is he thinking?
I tried taking a shot of myself through my side mirror…but as you can see; I have a problem keeping my side mirrors clean.
Here’s a shot of Ronnie. If you think his mask is scary, you should see him without it.
Hey kid, just look at your father if you want to see what happens when you don’t keep your hair cut short.
We made it safely through all the many towns and bystanders who were out waving us on. The weather wound up much warmer than we’d expected and by the time we arrived at the end, we couldn’t wait to peel off some of our outer layers.

The food line was beyond ridiculously long, so we contented ourselves by enjoying the road sodas we’d brought with us, and walking around, checking out creativeness of some of the bikes.

I managed to snap a pic of this bike…
…and then my camera batteries died. Man, WTF? This camera goes through batteries faster than this group can polish off a 12-pack. And that’s pretty damn fast.

The beers eventually ran out so we made our way down to the food line, finally managing to finagle some sustenance for ourselves. We mingled about for a bit longer before heading back to the bikes. The sun was beginning to wane and the temps were stating to drop. Did I mention that we'd run out of beers? We could have gone inside and paid for some, but that would be just silly.

In years past, I’ve had folks back to the house for more beers and a warming fire. This year; everyone had different things to do and responsibilities to take care of, so I bade my farewells and headed back to the homestead to catch the Pats game.

And with that; another successful Halloween Run was in the books.

Creepin' Closer to Creepy Time!

A chill is in the morning air, sunlight retreats more quickly at day's end, and multi-colored leaves are beginning to appear along the edges of roads and sidewalks. Yes; Fall has arrived, and this brings what? Halloween!

Halloween is my favorite time of the year. Aside from the tons of candy that I can’t seem to avoid eating, I love the whole creepy/scary themes that come out to play for the second half of October. Decorations begin appearing on houses, scary shows are aired on TV, and I get to prepare for my company’s annual Halloween party/contest.

Halloween is Cognex’s official holiday each year, and the employees take things very seriously. On the day of the party, everyone dresses up in costume, vying for one of the 15 finalist slots. Prizes range from digital cameras, to computers and large, flat-screen TV’s. So the incentive is there for coming up with a great costume. I haven’t figured out what I’m gonna be just yet, but I’m tossing around a couple of ideas (a write-up will follow, once I settle on a plan and get rolling).

Our annual pumpkin carving fest is coming up in a couple of weeks, too! We all gather over at Ed & Denise’s house, pumpkins in hand, and begin the ritual massacre. Knives are chosen, stencils are selected, and the hacking and slashing begins. Mix a number of frosty libations into this concoction and you truly have an event not to be missed.

A bit of practicing was needed to hone our skills for the upcoming shindig, so we headed to the store this past weekend and picked out two unfortunate victims. Once home, the all-too-familiar scene was repeated without care or concern for the poor bastards.

And here were the finished products;

My contribution:
Add a couple of ceramic jack o’ lanterns, and here’s what the front window looked like.
The New Yorkers are getting into the mood, too; check out this picture and text I got from Mary this morning; "Happy Halloween from Eddie. AKA Batman"

Too cool!
What else, what else. Oh! We have the annual Halloween run coming up this Sunday. Those that can make it will gather once again at 640 South St, then roll over to Ronnie’s house where libations will be tossed about for a bit. From there, we’ll shoot over to register and then join in with the procession as we wind our way through a myriad of towns, finally ending up at….well, I’m not sure where we’re ending up this year. (Each year, the final destination changes, as each year, we wear out the welcome of the town we party-hearty in.) So while we don't know where we'll be at the end, we’re still looking forward to a fun-filled day.

Ahhh Halloween. I welcome your sweet embrace...

Fright Hard, Stake Chances

C'Mon People, it's the Flag, Dammit!

I was leaving work last week and had just merged onto the highway when I spotted a small American flag lying off to the side in the breakdown lane. I pulled over, set the kickstand, and walked back to retrieve it from the pavement. As I was doing this, I couldn’t help but notice as car after car drove right on by, paying no attention to this symbol of our pride and freedom that was just laying in the dirt. Come on people, this is the US Flag!

I can’t count how many times I’ve been riding along and seen a mini American flag lying on the road as folks just cruise past, not giving it a second thought. Ok, I can count; it’s 6 times. How do I know it’s 6 times? Because that’s how many mini American flags I have sitting at my house that I’ve stopped and retrieved from the roadway.

They may have a bit of road dirt on them, or their poles may be broken, or have some scuff marks on them, but the flags still represent every bit of courage and sacrifice that our great country has been built upon. And that means that I will not ride on by them. If I see one, and it’s in my power to retrieve it, I’m going to do it.

Am I condemning those that lose the flags? Hell no. I go on the assumption that those who’ve lost them had been displaying them with pride, the way the flag should be treated. It’s going to happen that flags will come loose, or their posts may break, and the person won’t even know they’ve lost it until many miles down the road. I understand that this happens. My problem is with those that see them on the road and choose to ignore them.

Moving on; here are some pics of the flags I’ve retrieved so far.

Two of these little guys were retrieved after a July 4th parade, if you can believe it. I fail to understand the logic of standing by and waving flags at a celebration of our country’s heritage, only to then leave the flag on the ground when you leave.
In this pic, the bottom one is the latest retrieval.
I’ve decided that each time I retrieve another flag, I'll take a pic and post about it. My tally of flags rescued so far is 6.

And counting...