Election Day, Custom Steel, and Halloween

This morning I joined a few hundred of my neighbors to stand in line for an hour and make small talk in exchange for the privilege of voting in today's presidential election. Having never biked to a presidential polling place, I thought it would be nice to take the Girvin along so it could see what all the excitement was about. I only had my camera phone on my so excuse the small resolution.

If your election last longer than 4 hours contact a doctor immediately.

The Girvin quickly got into the spirit and made small talk with one of my neighbor's brand new custom steel Palermo touring bike. This bike was beautiful, British racing green and cream with gold inlay on the lugs fitted with XT and Thompson components. Very elegant, and not something I see on the everyday commuting circuit.

After a stellar voting performance I spiked my helmet on the floor and did the Truffle Shuffle before heading of to work. I went by way of the Capital Crescent trail to take in some fall colors. I also happened to take in some second hand ganja smoke from a dude burning one down while walking his dog. I did not take a picture of this because it just wouldn't be cool and he would have been justified in setting his dog after me.

Further along I spotted this dude taking a set of dishes into the house he worked at via burley trailer. This guy gets props for several reasons; first for transporting a set of dishes via mountain bike on a bumpy gravel trail. Second for recognizing the Girvin and still having one he blew out back in the day.

On to Halloween...

This is by far my favorite holiday. Most major holidays are family oriented and require travel and large meals and dishes and house cleaning and that is all well and good. But it's nice to have a day where none of that is expected, where the emphasis is on creativity, silliness and sexiness. Where the level of participation required to be socially acceptable is soley up to the participant. Plus everyone gets free candy and women suddenly have the urge to out slut each other! All that is missing is a declaration of federal holiday by the powers that be and this would be the best day of the year.

My Halloweens usually fluctuate from raging parties to quiet nights of candy dispersion. This Halloween landed somewhere just left of the middle of that scale. Having a 3 month old daughter made things pretty tame, which was just what I was in the mood for. Some neighbors came over with their little one and we went to a few houses before retreating back to our house to drink beer and eat candy.

Happy Holidays indeed.

For a costume I thought my 1993 White Zombie "Say You Love Satan" world tour shirt would be totally appropriate. To top it off I found the scariest mask I could find... children ran screaming, parents locked the doors and turned out the lights, and somewhere a copy of the constitution burst into flames... it was perfect!

BOO!