A bevy of outdoor holiday decorating occurs early, at the same time that mice move inside, and even the most Modest Mouse will say that is right up their decked out alley. So how, now, brown mouse? Even into the basement if you are a cute little deer mouse … the kind you just can’t bring yourself to squash, although their entry to the bathroom may make you rethink that. So here goes this grab bag of such items …

A doublewide garage door needed some mid-day, mid-November dressing up for the holidays up-top, from one end to the other, as a North Hudson man went down to the last bulb in getting a string of lights up and now-fully in place, up and down the pipe of where the downspout dangled.
As he retired from his ladder, and down on the last step, he was asked if that final bulb — fulfilling most of the colors of the rainbow as a precursor to up and down Packer-Viking football in just days, with a win much more pressing for one team than the other — made all the difference in decorating, with it still a full 40 days before Christmas.
The response of this trendsetter and man for all seasons, one of the first to brave the new cold and get the holiday flare up there, was a combo of “yeah” and “ugh.”
So it goes, a mixture of emotions, in the early times of the season(s).
A few wooded lots down, an acquaintance of mine who was raking the various shades of oak leaves from the yard, reminded to do what’s most vital first. This is the time to fix that (Christmas?) mouse problem is before it starts – and that’s before the snow flies, and before you deck out your house and the halls for the holidays, as the vermin might try to show up for moral support if you do the typical Griswold holiday thing, and that finds you ending up Home Alone when they see you — that being the missus and the kids — and what are you going to do with that ladder in your hand? Because the rodents are collectively Modest Mouse and can be tamed with traps that are aside from fooling that turdy-point buck, like the Taming of a Shrew, so get it on right now as much as prematurely calling forward the holidays with erection of your silver bells.
Whew, only HudsonWiNightlife can throw that many cultural and musical musical references into two run-on sentences. But we hope the tip value in your memory remains, as we are heading into the typically most popular time for getting your roof and yard looking shipshape, (reference a couple of previous posts), as there can be a counter purpose to Black Friday (and Menards) since sales are up, but at the same time availability via the shipping lanes is down.
That latter point has Santa doing what all good world citizens do, and outscouring ways to do outsourcing of production and delivery, even if it is in violation of the labor agreement with the elves, see Randy Newman and his Short People song — but not the one with the better unionized reindeer as a special and vulnerable population, allowing Rudolph to take paternity leave and thus bolster the ranks of this endangered species. Having twins with Cupid?
So people are going above and beyond in some cases with decorating that didn’t wait unlike the middle of the extended Thanksgiving weekend, such as my neighbor actually getting out a cherry picker he rented (I assume). So take that, oh ye library that will not reopen from storm damage, mainly to the carpet, until 2022, and woe be to ye who before that want to read up on the storm of 2021. And up the block, there was an extended SUV with tailgate open that backed up through the front yard and the middle yard all the way to the back yard. Then out whipping back to the front and the driveway.
But of course there also is, simultaneously, The Biggest Bar Night Of The Known World And Limo Bus To The Outerlying Planets Pub Crawl. A precursor was the inch or two of snow for the first fall, and the visitor/partier who muddled through it, and we have it on good authority not from Minnesota or even Iowa. Why? Her words as she climbed the few steps into the Smilin’ Moose: “I’ve only see this much snow three times in my life.” We assume that’s once every seven years.
That’s about how often you see a verdict coming forward about a style of hockey glove. If its (colors) don’t fit, you must acquit. That was the national news made when Zach Parise sported the wrong but new colors when stickhandling, and doing it well, at a skate-around of the New York Islanders, virtually announcing his new team of choice with nary a press conference, and more colors in the form of a jersey displayed. (More down the — blue — line later about mansion listings for he and Ryan Suter).
On a much more serious note, the trial of the century, or such, in Kenosha, found the vigilante killer not guilty of all counts. All during final arguments, a man I know with Tourette Syndrome vocalizations kept uttering, with his echolalia, the semi-nonsense phrase, Rittenhouse mouse, in the house? Maybe to make up the difference in frequency of use, as spell check does not register that symptom-based term.
(And from a likeminded person, Happy Covid upcoming). Yes these could be found offensive, or is there some sage satire I’m missing? Anyway, my mom phoned her grandson and told him to get the heck out of Racine, even if one city over, as soon as his work shift was over.