A small thing I forgot to mention the other day, but that I don't want forgotten for good. When I was driving home --- with my car at that magical 142,500 miles --- I noticed several wild turkeys on the side of the road. They were just hanging out, and looked really good in the early-evening light, with their heads almost shiny. Nice moment. I didn't know that there even were turkeys in that area. I expect to see them farther from the Interstate.

That's all. Just didn't want that forgotten. And now ... the last pictures from our big Halloweekends visit last year! The next Cedar Point photos you see on this blog will be from this year! ... Except ...

Gemini in the evening light; we're getting close to sunset and not that long before the park closes.

Way back over near what's now the Boardwalk area is this building, where long ago Helen Keller gave an important speech. Here it's decorated for the season.

Little view of the control booth for the Atomic Scrambler.

Midway Carousel, and what seems to me like a rare focus on the mirrors in the center.

And now the park is closed; GateKeeper's lights are already off, and people are rushing to the bathroom and to leave.

A last picture of the Midway Carousel, after its last ride but before they turn off the lights.

We took a shortcut through the Breakers since that was an option now, to get back to the car. It's surprising it's this dark considering there were still some people staying there through Monday morning.

And a last walk through the lobby --- Linus is writing the Great Pumpkin --- for the weekend.

Trivia: During the Great Fear --- a stretch in July and August 1789 when the French countryside erupted in panic at rumor of what might come from the aristocracy or from foreign invaders --- gossip spread at apparently supernatural speeds: in the Languedoc hills, on a single day, the same rumor appeared in places twenty miles apart and unconnected by road. Source: The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography, Graham Robb. Wikipedia notes the abolition of the feudal regime in August 1789 was a measure the National Assembly took to appease the peasantry and quiet the fear.

Currently Reading: Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, Daniel Okrent.

On my humor blog this week I had Jimmy Rabbit, I shared the same news everyone has about Nancy, I summoned Rex Morgan back to his comic strip, and I complained about clickbait, so please enjoy all this:

• MiSTed: The Tale of Jimmy Rabbit, Part 5 (Making Somebody Happy)
• So I Need to Use Mass Transit More or Somehow Less
• Statistics Saturday: _Space: 1999_ Episodes By _Star Trek_ Mission Objectives Accomplished, So Far As You Know
• Robert Benchley: Help!
• Now We Know Olivia Jaimes Isn’t Drawing _Nancy_ Again
• What’s Going On In Rex Morgan, M.D.? Seriously, _is_ Rex Morgan still in his comic strip? June – September 2025
• We May Be at the End of Clickbait
• MiSTed: The Tale of Jimmy Rabbit, Part 6: The New Wheelbarrow

In Cedar Point Halloweekends Sunday picture you'll recall my sharing photos of two rabbits in the petting zoo. Remember that? Because ...

Ah, but what do we have here? Is it a third rabbit, hiding off under a shelter and grooming themself.

Meanwhile the other rabbits are back to facing both directions.

House rabbit still busy grooming. Are we going to see toes? No, but it's a realistic thought.

On to a show. The theme of this was they were singing to explain the mystery of who killed the guy in the picture there. As part of the show you're encouraged to sign in to the 'funeral home'.

And here's the show, explaining the history and motives of all the potential killers through the medium of 80s rock.

More of the show, as part of the dance numbers. And you want to know who's responsible for the death? Turns out the audience gets to vote.

Back outside. Here's the pirate ship set out in Frontier Town for whatever reason, and its cannons firing.

This might be the first time I've photographed the back of the pirate ship prop. There's not much to it.

Over by Magnum here's a plush fox, face down in his egg and chips.

The Monster and Gemini seen in glorious late-afternoon light.

I take a photograph of myself! My shadow, at least. You can see how I was wearing the Angel kigurumi as it was warm enough for that to make sense.

Lake Erie Eagles, the flying scooters ride, which we rode when I realized we were just a few short of having ridden every flat ride at the park this season.

Trivia: A (1939 - 1944) CBS radio show, the Gay Nineties Revue, specialized in old-time songs and barroom ballads, and outfitted the cast in turn-of-the-century costumes. Source: The Mighty Music Box: The Golden Age of Musical Radio, Thomas A DeLong. Wikipedia notes there was also a television version on ABC in 1948-49. Also, yeah, another source (John Dunning's On The Air) also says the Gay Nineties Revue cast dressed for their radio audience.

Currently Reading: Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, Daniel Okrent.

While driving home today my car reached 142,500 miles, and then a couple more because I wasn't quite home yet. This stands out to me because 142,500 miles is what my Scion had on it when I drove into a flooded street and killed it.

The Prius bought hastily to replace it was not a new car --- odds are I'll never own a brand-new car again; it was fun doing once and probably necessary after I got over monthly major repairs, mostly transmission-related, on the Mercury Cougar but I don't know that it's worth the premium --- but rather had something like 95,000 miles on it. I guessed at the time it'd be four years before I reached what my old car had and I sure called that right, to within about two weeks.

Of course, a couple weeks after I bought the Scion I got laid off, start of a truly horrible fifteen-month span that I'm not fully recovered from yet. Fortunately, there's no chance of that repeating as I have a comfortable job working directly for the state.

On a coincidental note work asked everyone to submit their plans for what to do in the event of a budget-impasse-provoked shutdown with the start of the new fiscal year in October. It's not regarded as likely, but the state Republicans have been radicalized since the last shutdown something like fifteen years ago, which came and went in a couple hours past midnight October 1st so that nobody except last shift even noticed.

It happens that one of the programs that I work on is regarded as critical, so that as the prime programmer I'm rated as critical and so wouldn't be furloughed. At least, my understanding is, if I'm working on that program. I'm trying to get confirmation on that. Because this program is also complete, and hasn't had a bug fix or service enhancement required in months. There is work that I could usefully do it that that would keep me busy for about a one-week shutdown. If there were a one-month shutdown, the other case we've been asked to plan for, I'd run out of stuff to do after that first week. If they want me to come into the office and screw around on my phone all day fine, it's their essential-personnel budget, but I felt the need to tell my boss that after that first week of stuff we'd meant to get to, I'd be able to cover the project just checking in once or twice a day in case a problem developed.

I'm sure this car event passing and then surprise job uncertainty emerging is all harmless and meaningless coincidence though.

In pictures, now, back to Cedar Point Halloweekends. We'll finish Sunday before our big Halloweekends visit this year, I promise.

Camp Snoopy had Lucy out doing some crowd work! Not sure if the kid in the foreground is happy or distressed by this.

Clownz: Death Metal Tour, that's the name of the other performance I had photographs of, the one out here near Gemini in the back of the park. The area is called an aggressive, high-fear-factor zone and maybe I'm jaded but all that really happens is a guy in a death metal clown outfit will jump-scare you?

Mine Ride with one of those classic Halloweekend long lines, possibly because nobody set up the switchbacks so people had to spill onto the midway. But at least you can see the train rolling.

Nice afternoon light near the Town Hall Ex-Museum (out of frame to the left) and Maverick (roller coaster straight ahead). The structure at the center, to the right of the swings, is the former Frontier Carousel building. The carousel was moved to Dorney Park in the 90s and since then the building's been used for a Halloweekends walk-through attraction.

Bunnies! Here's a pair of antiferromagnetic rabbits in the petting zoo.

Here, the rabbits do their impression of a Venn diagram.

Trivia: The car company Toyota split off from the (1907-established) Toyoda Automatic Loom Works company in 1937. Source: Car Wars: The Untold Story, Robert Sobel.

Currently Reading: Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, Daniel Okrent.