Here’s a not so terribly spooky wallpaper to dress up your desktop!

It’s an all-new, fun 2008 Halloween inspired Rippin-Kitten wallpaper! Celebrate Halloween festivities with me and show some love for one of your favorite motorcycle blogs!

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*edit*
Had some “technical difficulties” earlier with the correct images showing up. Hopefully all is under control now!

It’s Halloween week and as most of you know, I live in Salem Massachusetts. The Witch City. Spookytown. Halloween Central. Home of Haunted Happenings and Festival of the Dead.

I’ve lived here for quite a few years and I’m sure it comes as no surprise that it is the mecca for all things Halloween. It is a haven for tourists who want to learn a little bit about history, maybe to learn what actually transpired during the Witch Trials and to be able to walk around wearing a witch hat, a cloak or a top hat without feeling self-conscious about it.

I am not exaggerating when I tell you that it’s absolute pandemonium on Halloween. The city shuts down all of the major streets to accommodate all of the people, the police recruit help from neighboring towns and traffic is backed up for hours at a time.

Here’s a video that was shot of last year. It’s a bit long but you don’t have to watch all of it to get the gist of what it’s like here.

While it is both an amusement and a burden to live in Salem, I do love seeing all of the various costumes people come up with. While it’s always been my favorite holiday, I was never one for dressing up in costume until recent years. Here are two of my recent costumes.

psychotic nurse from 2006

zombie concubine 2007

You can also view my Flickr set from Halloween 2007. There’s lots of good photos there.

With Halloween being this Friday, I cannot imagine what this year will hold for my quaint, little historical town. It will surely be insane. And I will be out there in the middle of it all.

While the anniversary was actually yesterday, I just want to take a moment to mention that five years ago I almost lost the love of my life to a motorcycle accident. This time last year I wrote an extensive post about that day.

While I’m reminded daily just by looking at his scarred body, there is something about this time of year that especially reminds me how lucky he is (and I am) that he is alive.

one month after the accident

I generally try to keep my personal life away from my blogging life when it doesn’t relate to anything motorcycle specific, but this particular instance is where I think the crossover is important to acknowledge. When I think about how much our lives have changed for the better in the past five years, I am grateful that things didn’t go the other way. My life would not be what it is today.

autumn riding in the White Mountains, NH

It’s easy to take your loved ones for granted until something unfortunate happens. Whenever I think about the accident any time of the year, it makes me give my man an unexpected hug or a smooch to let him know how much I love him.

So for us, October 15th is now the day we celebrate that a day of near tragedy paved the way to a (hopefully) long road of happiness.

This Dodge commercial is an oldie, but a goodie!

If you’re like me and tired of seeing the same swag vendors are selling at bike rallies (let’s face it: the t-shirt that says “If you can read this the bitch fell off” was funny at first, but got really old, really fast), then I’ve got a site for you to check out.

Trashville USA is an online store with kick-ass clothing, shoes, accessories and lots of other stuff for men and women. Heavily rooted in rockabilly/psychobilly/retro-tattoo style, the site is chock full of cool belt buckles, t-shirts and killer jewelry. I want one of everything. But instead of racking up my credit cards, I’ll just show you some of my favorite items.

From Trashville USA’s Belt buckles section:

These are only a few of the plethora of belt buckles they have to offer.

From the Jewelry Department:

Seems like guns and brass knuckles are everywhere these days. Honorable mention: the bee and seahorse necklaces are awfully cute!

T-shirts: men’s (left) and women’s (right)

So if you like what you see and are looking for something different to wear to your next biker event, go to their MySpace profile at http://www.myspace.com/trashvilleusa, add them as your friend and save 15% on every purchase (there’s a Secret Squirrel code there for you to use).

Sorry things have been quiet. I caught my first cold of the season. Sore throat, achy, chills. Tea with honey, orange juice, cough drops, my favorite blankie while watching bad tv. Catch up with you all later!