Damn, I love potato salad

So, as I sit here shoveling spoonfuls of Zanatto's $5/pound potato salad in my face, I'm prompted to reflect on today....

First, after watching both Monday Night Football contests, three comments come to mind.
1. ESPN sucks. Where's ABC?!?! MNF on anything other than ABC is a travesty.
2. The Raiders are a complete joke of an organization. And while I admire the Raider Nation's passion, I have a message for them - YOUR TEAM SUCKS! Of course, I'm a Chicago Bear and Cub fan so I'm doomed for an eternity of mediocrity.
3. I'd much rather see closeups of Washington's fans and cheerleaders than Oakland's Black Hole inhabitants.
Now, don't get me wrong -- I've had my share of time at games as the local derilict. Getting a phone call to "wake up" from my friend who saw me passed out on the start-of-the-inning "Fan Cam" in the front row of an Oakland A's game was pretty good. Getting phone calls at work from friends who saw me on "SportsCenter" the day after getting hit in the head with a hockey puck was cool too. Hey, I protecting my beer, the sales of which had been cut-off at the end of the previous intermission and since a beer at the Shark Tank is about $6.50 and a puck is $5, well, you do the math. Anyway, I was at the first Monday Night Raiders game after they returned to Oakland and had a blast. It was raining all afternoon and during the opening ceremonies with the drunken crowed revved to their Budweiser-assisted redline, suddenly thunder and lightning commenced at the Oakland-Alameda County (not McAfee!) Stadium. It was incredible. The out-of-the-playoff Raiders proceeded to demolish the Chiefs in a highly entertaining game. Of course, I think the best Raider game I attended was when we arrived at 8am on a Sunday, got drunk, passed out, woke up in time to throw bottles at the Pittsburgh Steelers bus, harassed the Steelers from behind a flimsy 3-foot railing (this was during the Mount Davis construction when we had to walk behind the visiting bench to get to our seats), and then had the honor of being the last person in line thttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifo buy a beer at the end of the third quarter. There's nothing quite as unnerving as watching the beer wench close the little fence while announcing "NO MORE BEER!" and turning around to a line of 25 thirsty Raider fans.

Next thought -- while driving through a 25-mph school zone after purchasing the aforementioned potato salad, I couldn't believe the number of parents picking up their kids at our neighborhood elementary school. What happened to walking to and from school. I know I sound old, but I remember being overjoyed at riding my bike down ice and snow covered streets the 6 or so blocks to my elementary school. Have we become that soft as a society that we can't tell our kids to walk home? Of course, I swear that every parent out there had a lobotomy prior to hitting the road - illegal turns, cutting people off, etc. Lunacy.

Final thought -- sitting here with the news on the background, our local weatherman is saying it's HOT here today in a bitchy, complaining tone. Wasn't this the same jackass that was crying about how it was unseasonably cold last week?? Let's put his ass in Green Bay, WI some December afternoon and see if he takes the bet that he can lick a streetsign pole. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you didn't grow up in a cold-weather climate or never saw the movie "A Christmas Story".

Good times.