Coast Guard Festival 08 Post Mortem

Well here it is already Thursday and I'm just now getting to this. You'd think with no wife at home this week that I'd be taking it easy but nope...ain't that smart. Spent most of Monday night pulling weeds and cleaning up the patio area so it looks like someone lives here, Tuesday night I put the first coat of primer on the front of the garage. Just doing that makes it look quite a bit better. Hopefully one coat of the good stuff will suffice to finish the front. Last night I stopped a U-sell-it place over in Spring Lake to see about putting the van there and because it looks promising and I'm taking it over there tonight, I spent the bulk of last night fixing the wiring to the headlights (now they all work again Yay!) and cleaning it up a bit.

So, last week.....Monday night I took Mercury for a hike on the pier and shot some good shots during the hike, only to have the camera crash later when I tried to finalize 'em and eat the disc. That ticked me off and kinda killed my plan to shoot some pics each night for the whole week for a festival presentation. I really need to come up with some cash for a real (DSLR) camera somehow.....I didn't even go downtown Tuesday night, but Wednesday I grabbed the gear and went down to try again. Hiked around for awhile and went and did a boat tour on one of the smaller ones. A big ship from Canada had came in during the afternoon, but they weren't open for tours until Thursday night and I never did get back down there to climb on board.

All of a sudden it was Saturday morning so I was up early. Parked the truck by the old high school and started hoofing around. I went down to Central Park to check out the art show and spent a couple hours there checking stuff out and talking with folks. About 10:30 or so I started heading back to the parade route to find a spot to sit my carcass and got back there just in time to witness the Clown Band's annual pre-parade old folks home performance. After that I found my spot and kicked back with the Ipod going until I saw the flashing lights of the cop cars leading the festivities. For the next couple hours I shot pics, had candy thrown at me and had an enjoyable parade. One of the high points was having the studebaker club going by when not one, but two of their vehicles died right in front of us and had to be pushed to the end of the route, several blocks away. And you wonder why Studebaker ain't in the business of making cars any longer?

Once the parade was over I headed for the truck and then for home. I'd gotten an invite from neighbor and engineering manager at work, Nick, to stop over for a pig roast and some conversation so when I woke up from my little nap about 4:30 I headed over there. Wanda came with and for the next couple hours we hung out there. Lots of good food and some interesting folks too.

About 7 or so we left Nick's house, Wanda headed for home and I headed for downtown and the impending fireworks display. Ri had called and invited me to sit with them in Bicentennial Park (Ground Zero for fireworks viewing). I strolled downtown and shot pics of the carnival as I went by. I was resting and trying to call Ri on the cell phone when her and Adam just walked up to me. Adam asked if I'd seen the statue guy and not knowing what the heck he was talking about he led me over to where this guy was sitting on a park bench, frozen in motion, painted entirely in a copper color, scaring the hell out of folks when they were going by and realized it was a real person. He looked like a statue, really cool. we spent probably a half hour there taking pics and watching folks reactions to him. I sent some pics I took to him via his business card's request. Here's the link to checking this cat out.......

http://www.livestatue.com/

After our fun with the statue man we headed for their blanket and hung out there while it got dark and the lights came on. It was a bit after 10 when the Musical Fountain fired up and not long after that they started shooting off the fireworks. they lasted a good 20 minutes, maybe longer and once the grand finale faded from the sky everyone in the park clapped, stood up and headed for their cars like they just couldn't wait to get in that 4 hour traffic jam straight ahead of 'em.......

I said goodbyes to Ri and Adam and starting making my way back home. I took a break for awhile on Grant and Beacon Blvd just to watch the long lines of headlights not going anywhere fast. After I rested up a bit I finished the trip home, getting there a bit after midnight.

Sunday morning we were up early again. Wanda was headed up north to band camp for the week as a champeron and I was headed to the folks for the annual, smaller every year, family reunion. Had a nice ride up on the bike, first one since getting back from S.D., and got there about 12:30pm. Not long after we were eating and then not long after that people left. I ended up talking to uncle Noel until about 4:00 and was the last one there that didn't live there. I stopped by the folks house for about an hour before heading for home. Got back in town about 8 and pretty much called it a day.

So there ya have it, last week and most of this week. Plans for the weekend are the Del Shannon Car Cruise on Friday night and the car show Saturday. Don't have anything shaking for Sunday yet but I can fix that!

Tom