A lot of people I’ve been speaking with spend a lot of time talking about October surprises. Will the Bush administration miraculously find Osama Bin Laden this month? Will the United States launch a pre-emptive attack on Iran? Will Cheney have heart troubles and have to be replaced by a Republican that hasn’t aliened as many people, such as McCain or Guilliani? I’m not really expecting any of these October surprises.

However, my life has been made up of October surprises, and it seems like this is as good a time as any to reflect on them. This morning, my wife and two of my daughters went to Riverbank Park to help the North Stamford Association. Riverbank Park seems to be one of those places high school students go to have parties on the weekends.