Today's walk report: 101613

Driven by Death.

More and more Halloween decorations popping up which is nice to see. Probably from about age 12 forward Halloween became my favorite "holiday" celebration. I miss my old neighborhood for Halloween though. There you had a lot, in fact I'll say most people, doing up the decorations for October 31st trick or treaters.

Death driving the pumpkin coach reminded me of an image I did for shits and giggles in 2009. I reworked Frank Frazetta's "Headless Horseman" as a bicyclist. I get into cycling during the fall/winter. I prefer night rides on lonely streets with lights on both the bike and the streets. When I came back to this Valley 2.25 years ago I was attempting this but my primary focus was to take care of my mom. After a few rides I decided it wasn't worth worrying her over my going out at night nor the possibility of a fall or flat delaying my return so I put it aside. This year it will happen and it's coming up pretty soon.

The original image by Frank Frazetta.

and my "Headless Cyclist."

I took some odd liberties with proportions, struggling a bit but it was for fun. I frequently do a Happy Halloween e-mail blast so there is that motivation. I usually try to do something nice, a little personal and different. Last Halloween I put my face in place of Johnny Depp's as the Mad Hatter. Actually, I have quite a few of these but this one came out the best.

Here's a few shots from my old neighborhood walks this time of year to provide an idea of the scale of involvement in Halloween.

Today's walk report: 050713

I don't usually bring a DSLR on school days but I did today. One reason was to see if I could capture an image if the traffic problem at the intersection I tried to describe yesterday. The other reason was I thought I might catch a nice sunset. Well, sunsets are always nice aren't they? But you know what I mean--photographically nice, as in special. The traffic thing is a Monday deal for the most part so that didn't happen. I'm not quite sure what it is about Mondays and intense rush hour traffic. Maybe it's a lot more people going to work because it looks really bad if you call in sick on a Monday? Right? It looks like you might have a problem. So people struggle through and perhaps give some indication of how crappy they feel yet what hard workers they really are so ultimately the boss shows enough sympathy that they feel they can take off on Tuesday. I don't know. I'm merely speculating, for all I know on Tuesdays everybody goes to the gym after work. Anyway, on to the walk...

This could very well be my alternate gig for the walk. I was a pretty serious cyclist on and off over many years of my life. I will, in fact, start riding night rides once again once school lets out in the summer. For the most part the campus is deserted and I have a route which is relatively safe. I tried this a few times last year but last year I was taking care of my mother and I don't think she was particularly excited about seeing her son head out on a bike in the evening. I had a great sense of responsibility to my mom too so this night ride thing was a rare exception to that responsibility. For those people stumbling into me here, my mother passed away at the age of 90 here at the house where I grew up. This Valley, a place I vowed 27 years ago never to return to except to visit, has once again become where I live. Life has it's little unexpected surprises, doesn't it?

Riding in a pack really helps control automotive traffic to the rear.

I added about 1.5 km to the walk by heading up to the campus cross country course and walking some of that. I ran this course in High School. Miserable sport--cross country running. Just awful. This is the view off toward the music and theater arts buildings. The main theater has been under reconstruction for over 2 years now and was supposed to re-open last fall. It's behind the green fenced off area on the right of the image. The parking lot is covered with solar panels which was a pretty early adoption for that sort of tech. I guess the school had funding to get stuff done back then.

These are the "switchbacks" on the CC course. They start about 1 mile into a H.S. race right after you go up "Hernia Hill." The other part of the course which had a name was the hill marking the final 550 or so yards of a race. It was called, "Puke's Peak" and rightly so.

Finally, a panorama of the sunset. When I started the walk that cloud layer out there wasn't so dense. That sucked up the end of the setting sun. Still it was a wonderful walk on a beautiful day.