Lost in 2012

We lost some really good ones in 2012. Here’s two I knew:

Wild Bill Cody

AKA William Schneible,  Ex Coast Guard then radio DJ and all around crazy guy.  He once pushed a peanut with his nose on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. In the above picture he is dressed as Madonna while working for KWNZ in Reno, NV. I met Wild Bill in 2009 while I was at the ELTC helping him use computers. December 25, 2012.

Herb Geist

Shown above in the black sweater wearing 3-D glasses, Herb was a great friend; we traveled the Mediterranean together; We miss his smile. Note: He didn’t dress in costume much like Wild Bill, but those in the know remember the “cow suit’ incident. January 6, 2012.

Goodby guys, It was a fun trip.

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bugman, December 31st 2012 | Posted in The Dead

Lost Week

Actually it was Last Week:

Six inches of snow

Heavy wet snow on leafy branches caused quite a problem.  They closed down the CSU oval because of downed trees and power was cut off for several hours in Old Town. The snow on the street melted by mid-day. Some of our trees in the back yard are not as tall as they once were ;-(

Pumpkin carving at Mindy and Tom’s

It’s what you do near the end of October. The Day of the Dead is tomorrow and I still haven’t got my alter built. But we had costumes.

Jeanne

Besides watching the snow melt, there were a number of opportunities to go someplace in costume. The Holler!Ween event the previous week got us in the mood!

The “Meatloaf” part

As Eddie at the Rocky Horror Show musical wearing this really cool leather jacket I bought at the Goodwill store for $14. They also had this wonderful mullet wig or only $2.

Rocky Horror cast and musicians

This was very well directed and the actors were incredible. The members in the audience were not half bad either!

Jeanne and Jim

After the show we stopped in at Cafe Vino for some tapas and drinks with some friends.

Lastly, the Haunted Organs this year

At the UCA for the late night halloween organ extravaganza. Kyung-Soon Cho and Bobbie Mielke just finighed Franck’s Prelude, Fugue and Variation for organ and piano. As last year, Sam Dawson began the show with Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.

Zombies by evening

Well, it’s November now. Time to store the costumes, makeup and Halloween decorations… Maybe I won’t put away the mullet wig just yet!

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bugman, November 1st 2011 | Posted in Performing Arts, The Dead

Fort Collins is Haunted!

By Haunted Ghost Tours this October:

Spooky Fort Collins, part one can be found Here and part two found Here. This is now part three:

Walrus Ice Cream

This popular ice cream store has a variety of flavors and in the basement there is 1: A Portal and 2) A secret tunnel. I kind of figured that was the case. Everyone loves ice cream… even the dead.

The Portal

I know, it looks like a sump pump but three out of four mediums claim it to be a spiritual portal that just happens to be in the Walrus basement. It’s claimed that the flowing water is an underground river with an unknown source. Four out of five city engineers say it’s the Poudre River.

Used to be bank auto teller

Now it’s … it’s… I don’t know. Exclusive covered parking spaces? But long ago, it was a transfer point for the dead. Embalmed cadavers used to travel from beneath this parking lot and up to a delivery area to be transferred to the hearse.

Spiral metal staircase

In the basement of the Walrus runs this tunnel south of the building where the bodies were moved. It’s not clear how they moved upwards… much of this end of the tunnel is sealed including the staircase.

Lori at the haunted basement bar

At one of the bars in town there have been sightings of a woman near the boiler. At this spot, the EMF “goes crazy” which to most measurement technicians means it’s time to calibrate the equipment, but to a medium it means contact Ghost Hunters TV.

A sighting of a woman in the basement

It looks like a picture, but it’s really another demon portal where this strange nude woman with big red hair comes to greet you.

The Rio

This is where the Larimer County Coroner/undertaker did his work back in the old days or so they say.  Believe it or not, the coroner’s name was Horace M. Balmer.

At last count there were three tours you can  check out in town. Seems a bit many for a town of this size, but what the hey?

Spooky places to go in town this halloween:

Terror Tours In it’s 11th season, the Fort Collins Museum and Discovery Science Center knows how to handle halloween right. Any other tour in town is just a copy.

Haunted Fort Collins This is the one from which this blog entry was taken more or less.

Haunted History After Dark Tour Yet another tour I just saw advertised.

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bugman, October 20th 2011 | Posted in Historical, The Dead

It was fun, fun, fun until Walter took the VW away

1st there is denial:

I know, it looks like my car, but it can’t be

Nothing wrong with the car… Why would anyone trade it in for a freakin’ bicycle????

Then An-Grrrrrr!

WTF! Them bastards at New Belgium tricked me! And who’s this Walter guy who thinks he’s a bad ass that he can just take my car???  Damn them all to hell, I tells ya!

Wait, maybe I can make a deal with this guy…

“Hey Walter, old buddy… “

I know you were born in Bahia Brazil. I bet you love Samba music right? I can get you front row tickets to the next performance of Bloco em Foco. What do you say… Is it a deal?

** DEPRESSION **

(Nothing to see here. Don’t want to be here. Everything is dark. Go away!)

I ACCEPT !

The car is going to a good home

…and that’s all that matters.

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bugman, September 6th 2011 | Posted in The Dead

Spooky Fort Collins, Part Second

For the first part of this series, click HERE.

Lori in someone’s basement

Somewhere near the old Calaboose jail house, perhaps in the basement some prisoners were kept in what was called solitary confinement cells.

Below the Happy Lucky’s Tea House of all places

is where a not so happy/lucky prisoner by the name of Jack Cassidy died presumably of anxiety ?

This  looks like the basement of my old house in Indiana!

when you turn off the lights, it’s really dark and SPOOKY!

Yet another basement photo (un-retouched to reveal actual digital psychic phenomena)

And here is the location of the jail-house morgue!

Glad to see the dead have been keeping it tidy after all these years.

The old morgue is under the “Jilly Bean”

Note the picture of Jimi above left of the bar. He’s dead.

This picture of a tree at the Jilly Bean

It has been noted that this picture tends to move; perhaps by a ‘prankster spirit’. This particular spirit has issues that it needs to address: maybe some earth linked emotions need releasing? Any ghost whisperers out there that can help Jilly Bean?

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bugman, August 12th 2011 | Posted in Entertainment, The Dead

Spooky Fort Collins, Part First

I ain’t afraid of no ghost!

Lori talks of the dead at the old Linden Hotel

It’s part of some new tour in town called Haunted Fort Collins where you can look at and go into some of the more scarier places around town. This week Lori and her two grave digger assistants Jake and Chris took us on a little tour exploring various morgues and jails and underground places where they might be ghosts!

The Linden Landmark Building

It’s where a woman apparently hung herself on the second floor. Children are the only ones who see a woman spirit in the hotel. According to Haunted Colorado the place was recently cleansed of ghosts but things still mysteriously fall off the shelves!

The front “door” to the calaboose

It’s the old jail where James Howe briefly took up residence until some citizens got together and broke him out and hung him… people do seem to hang around in town.

Side window of the old Jail

You see, James Howe apparently slit his wife Eva’s throat in front of his house (where the Armadillo is now) in the middle of the day and landed in the Calaboose when the law caught up with him.

Near the Old Firehouse

The jail is now haunted by a jewelry repair business

But back in the wild days of the Fort the locals found it necessary to find Mr. Howe guilty and to perform a proper ‘lynchin’ which the Urban Dictionary defines as a form of population control that has been replaced by the drive by shooting.

NEXT TIME: We look at the underground world of Fort Collins!

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bugman, July 17th 2011 | Posted in Entertainment, The Dead

Dead Presidents

On this July 4th weekend:

Big Head Lincoln

Many who looked at these costumed characters said out loud “It’s gotta be boiling inside those!” They seem to depict the stone-faced presidents on Mount Rushmore. But why?

With George Washington throwing the first pitch?

They were well designed costumes; No character attendants were necessary as they seemed to always stand with Washington on the left, then Jefferson, Roosevelt and lastly Lincoln on the right.  And if they had to walk single file, it was always Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln in that order. Damn, they were good!

Dinger was there! This must be Coors Field!

The “Fab Four” as they are called in Rapid City, SD were in Denver for the weekend to promote South Dakota tourism why not?

Happy 4th of July You all!

The Rockies figured that they would sweep the K.C. Royals but it didn’t happen. For some reason, the Rockies have not won a game on a Sunday in the last 11 consecutive Sunday games. Not bad mile-high seats: we could even see Westminster Castle .

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bugman, July 3rd 2011 | Posted in Historical, Sports, The Dead

Frozen Dead Guy Days!

In the sleepy little town of Nederland, Colorado:

There is a frozen dead guy resting in this Tuff Shed.

And as this Wiki Link says, there is a yearly celebration in this town of the discovery of the cryogenically frozen corpse of a one Bredo Morstel.  The celebration includes various events like “The Polar Plunge” , the Hearse Parade and the Coffin races. And it would not have happened without:

The Parade “Grand Marshals”!

Of course there was no time to make a proper sign. Scratching the words “Grand Marshals” in the dirt on the side of a pickup truck is good enough! Riding in the truck are Robin, Kathy and Shelly Beeck, the creators of an independent short subject film documentary called “Grandpa’s in the TUFF SHED” The film put Nederland on the map. And the rest is hearstory.

Among the coffin race contenders: The Bone Cutting Butchers

And who’s this? Could  it be…

Coffin Bieber Fever!

The Missfits coffin

The fabulous Pink Socks team; The Nedhead’s favorite

Lumberjack’s Coffin

Number one of two Mystery Machine coffins

Team Super Mario

Team Gangreen

Team Death by Mercury

Team I can’t read what it says on the guy’s shirt

Team Gogo Gaga

Team Green Sneaker

The Coffin Race judge is ready!

…and they’re off! The Missfits are overtaking the Mystery Machine at the moment.

Here the “Nedterrestrials” try to get their saucer-shaped coffin to the finish line.

I think the Pink Socks team won eventually. We don’t know. We left early to avoid the mountain traffic.

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bugman, March 7th 2011 | Posted in The Dead

Bring out your dead!

at this parade in Northern Colorado:

Hey, it’s a horse-drawn hearse

A dog-drawn hearse? Is that a dead cat in the wagon?

An old horseless hearse

Hearses are usually a converted luxury automobile. The word hearse comes from the Old French Herce meaning rake or a harrow.

A bat-winged hearse with ordinance attached

FDGD stands for “Frozen Dead Guy Days”

The “F” shaped thingy on the back is called a Landau bar reminiscent of the old landau carriages

3-wheeled hearse?

Tattoo Hearse

Two-wheeled hearse

Haunted house prop hearse

A lifted 4×4 “Hearse-Zilla”

A standard everyday hearse

Hearse with flame decals

This is at a small town in the mountains of Northern Colorado called Nederland

Each year in Nederland, the locals (called Ned-Heads) have a three day long festival

featuring a parade of hearses through the center of town

and nearly 10,000 people come to see this event

and spend money in this town of about 1400 population.

and it’s all to pay tribute

to Grandpa Bredo, AKA, The Frozen Dead Guy.

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bugman, March 6th 2011 | Posted in The Dead

And the caskets keep rolling along…

… bringing up the rear at this year’s Frozen Dead Guy Days:

The Squirrely Red Elves with their plywood and PVC touring coffin

It’s Bump 5-0 and the Dog of Doom? I think.

The Ska Brewing Team

Number two of two “The Mystery Machine” Scooby-Doo caskets

The Hot Tub Casket

General Tso’s Chicken Take-home Casket

The Purple Haze Casket

The Jersey Shores Casket

The “Spaceballs” casket

Endangered List casket

The Cross Caribou Miner’s team casket

The Team Budweiser casket

Walt Disney’s cryo-casket

The Red Longjohn’s casket

… and the saucer-shaped casket of the Nedterrestrials.

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bugman, March 5th 2011 | Posted in The Dead
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