Friday Night Potpourri

A half of a fortnight, methinks:

• I went with my nine year old to the local open space area, and it was so muddy we were several inches taller.  Our soil here where we live is predominantly black clay, and it doesn't make for good mud.  I'm glad we used our old shoes.
• I went out the other night to go to the store.  As I was walking out my driveway, I saw a dark shadow out of the corner of my right eye as I crossed the sidewalk, and it was up at the neighbor's driveway, moving parallel to me.  I park at the curb just after my driveway, so I continued straight out into the street behind my car.  Then at my car's left rear, I made a 90 to the right to go to the driver's door.  The dark shadow made a 90 left at the front of the neighbor's car which was in front of mine and started back toward me.  The dark shadow quickly turned into a dark silhouette of my neighbor Bob.  He was proceeding back to his car door.  I said hi, and he continued back to my car.  We shook hands and he said, "Hi, Steve..." and knowing I take night classes, he continued with, "...are you going to class right now?"  "No, I'm on milk buying duty and I'm going to the store."  "Hey, that's where I'm going, too!"  It was like that movie about 50's suburban living where all the dads backed out of their driveways at the same time every day.
• My favorite weekend of football is coming up this weekend.  The championship games are almost always better than the SuperBowl.  They're often played in cold weather in front of a one-sided crowd.  The feeling is just more intense.  Man, Packers/Bears?  Wow, this is gonna be great!
• It's a bit late, don't you think?  I saw a number of Christmas trees on the curbs on trash day this week.
• As classic 80's as it gets.