(Sunday Paper, Year VII, Issue 43)

I’m not going to lie to you - I was about to mail in the Sunday Paper this week.

(I think my inability to really lie is kind of a character flaw. I could lie like a rug here and you would never know. But I guess I’m just a sucker who chooses honesty.)

Anyway, it’s been a bonkers busy week and I had a little cold towards the end of the week and I was about to just post a fun picture and can the writing and call it a day.

I still might use the picture for a post - it’s a good picture worthy of its own individual post. And I bet an upcoming week will be busy enough to merit the post.

I’ll consider that a bit of an ace in the hole.

But this weekend I find myself in a familiar spot and I figured it was worth writing about.

I mentioned this in passing with the post a month or so ago about how I’d be spending my fall and winter Sundays:

For years I would play a complicated game.

I would compare the Jets and Patriots schedules and figure out what weeks I was likely to get the Jets on TV at home (if the Patriots were playing on Monday night, say, and the Jets were the best of the 1pm games), and then I would figure out which weekends I would be available to spend 3 hours at a bar if I had to go somewhere to watch the game.

For a couple of years I had the Sunday Ticket - either through DirecTV or the app - so I had all the games no matter what, and then there were a few years where life had too much going on and the Jets weren’t good enough to justify my time or my money.

But this week - today, in fact - they play at 4pm. So I couldn’t go down to New York to watch the game. Well, I could, but I figured the only 4pm game in the first half (and most) of the schedule was a good week to skip so I can be fresh for the new week on Monday morning. And I thought, with the Patriots playing Monday night, I might be able to stay here and actually watch the game from the comfort of my own home.

Turns out, though, the Chiefs game is the 4pm game the network chose (and there’s a clunker of a 1pm game - the Lions?!?!), so I’m going to have to go out to watch the game.

Which is fine.

Half the battle for going out and watching the game is knowing where I can see it.

A few weeks ago it was my daughter’s birthday, so I didn’t go to New York. I drove her into Boston to spend some time with a friend and I figured I’d while away the time waiting for her by watching the Jets.

It turns out, though, the Sunday Ticket is not as easy to find as it used to be.

One place was having satellite dish trouble.

At another place the guy lectured me about why the Sunday Ticket wasn’t worth the cost.

Then I stumbled upon a place where I was resigned to just have lunch….and they had the games! (That’s pictured above.)

So that’ll be my new go-to for the weeks I have to find the Jets without being on local television.

Because - here’s the best part - I picked a good year to get invested fully again. The Jets are very good and they’re fun to watch.

And I can’t wait to be sitting in front of a TV at 4pm later today watching them in another very winnable game.

What I’ve Been Enjoying

“Led Zeppelin III” - Led Zeppelin
“Led Zeppelin IV” - Led Zeppelin
“Either/Or” - Elliott Smith
“XO” - Elliott Smith
“Midnights” - Taylor Swift
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Ocean’s Twelve
Ticket To Paradise

Kathy and I had a rare dinner-and-a-movie Saturday night and saw the new Julia Roberts/George Clooney movie. It was a fun little movie. Don’t believe every movie review you read in the New York Times. And I guess I’m a George Clooney fan now.

Notes

*How has the traveling to New York to watch the Jets games been going? Very well, thank you very much. Last week I left right after the game ended and I was home by 7:30. Another week I hit some Sunday night traffic…but that traffic aspect is really the number one worry. Everything else around it has been going smoothly - and the Jets are 3-1 in games I’ve watched in New York. (1-0 when I’ve watched them at my new favorite bar, so we’ll see how that goes today.)

*I had a tough long run last week in some unseasonably hot weather…but a great one this week in some much cooler weather. I think I’m in good shape for the half marathon in just a few weeks. We’re shooting for about 50 degrees that day, if I have anything to say about it.

*If you’re a Framingham person and you want to run the Boston Marathon, the Team Framingham application is currently open. It’s open until November 10th. I will not be applying this year (I have other marathons in mind for 2023 though), but hoo-boy do I recommend it if you’re interested. Let me know if you have any questions and I’ll be happy to tell you all about my experiences.

*Social media links (including many more posts about running at the Instagram) are below. Thanks for reading, and thanks for following along!