(Sunday Paper, Year IV, Issue 45)

Soon we’ll catch up on the goals for 2019 and how I’ve done at achieving them.

(Spoiler alert: I will not be running a marathon in 2019.)

The thing about goals is they evolve and perhaps turn into something different.

That’s what happened to mine, anyway.

The report on the goals I set at the beginning of the year will not be all that successful.

But that doesn’t mean I haven’t found success with activities in the new year.

What you see at the top of the page there is a chart I decided to start keeping at the start of the year.

It actually started sometime in the middle of 2018 - probably right around the time I turned 40.

I decided I should start doing a certain number of push-ups a day. I can’t remember where exactly I started. I think it was somewhere around 30, but then I quickly added to that and was doing 50 or so, then it was 60.

I began 2019 doing 70 push-ups a day, and I marked it on this chart.

I kept the chart in a prominent place in my office, and that worked, because I haven’t missed a day. (How prominent a place? Well, you can see the coffee stains on it, so prominent enough that coffee splashed on it more than once.)

At one point in 2019 I started mixing in more and more runs - you can see those annotated in the bottom right corner of each square on the days I ran - or walked. Some of those are long walks, but I don’t remember the difference. Maybe the ones without square around them.

It’s neat looking back at this and seeing the patterns - I don’t like running in extreme cold or extreme heat. (See January and July.)

And I’m not sure why that March date has the push-ups in parentheses - it could be that day I was sick, because I remember there was a day I didn’t do them straight and had to break them up. I guess other than that I’ve been relatively healthy this year.

I can’t say I do picture-perfect push-ups every time…but I’m exercising. Every day I’m doing at least 75 push-ups now, I lift a couple of weights I have at home, and sometimes I run.

I haven’t set foot in a gym in more than a year. But I’m doing OK and I’m feeling good about it.

Writing

*I am not embarrassed to tell you that I have decided it is in my best interests to not continue with NaNoWriMo. (You may remember, from way back in [checks notes] oh, last week, I was going to try to participate in National Novel Writing Month.) I don’t think I can do the ‘set word count per day’ thing on a project that I thought up on the spot the day before the challenge began. It’s just not for me. BUT it made me think hard about what kind of project would get me to meet a certain word requirement per day, and what I might want to write, and if I had any good ideas in my head, and I thought of something I’m going to try. So it did light that fire in me and I’m looking forward to writing something soon…just not a 50,000-word novel in 30 days.

It’s also worth noting that I was inspired earlier this week to write an essay and I submitted it and I don’t think it’s going to be a ‘yes’…but it was a pretty good week for the creative writing muscles and those have been few and far between lately.

Comedy

*Saturday night was the November edition of Comedy Night at Exhibit ‘A’. it was one of the best ones yet. I love when I see the audience enjoy the comedians I put on the show as much as I enjoy them.

Tickets will go on sale this week for the December show, with headliner Bethany Van Delft, who you might have heard tell a story on ‘The Moth,’ if you’re into that show. Or maybe you’ve seen her host local editions of the show. Then I’m the January headliner. These shows are all A+. It’s a real thrill.

In the meantime…you might see me riding out this cold weather in this hat, which I bought Saturday night.

What I’ve Been Enjoying

*It’s not like this Exhibit ‘A’/John Sucich pairing was pre-destined….but it was a happy coincidence that the brewery also happened to produce a beer called Sunday Paper years after I had been writing this weekly column (first as a Mets/Jets blog and later in its current iteration).

Being the seasonal beer as it is, November’s show was the first one where I was able to have a Sunday Paper at Exhibit ‘A’ during a comedy show. I’m pretty sure it had been tapped out since January…or shortly thereafter. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thoughts On Dog Ownership

*The biggest reason Kathy and I did not get a dog earlier in our life together has been weather. Every winter when there’s a snow storm I think, “Sure am glad we don’t have to take a dog out in that.” And often I had that thought on rainy days. (Not the ones where I was standing outside the school, in said rain, waiting for dismissal.) But, to be honest, so far the rainy days for the dog haven’t been that bad. She does her business and hustles back in. How will the winter go? That’s what I wonder, as the temperature drops. Is it the type of thing that you just bundle up against and deal with out of love?

Or am I just gong to be complaining about it every winter for the rest of my life?

Notes

*You know how I like to give little tidbits of information to my loyal readers…so if you’re still with me, here’s this: I’ve told you before that the plans for the marathon I was going to run in 2019 fell through. Heck, the plans for the half-marathon I was going to run in 2019 fell through. BUT because the running training has been going well and I’m feeling good about where I’m at with running I entered the lottery again this year for a Boston Marathon spot with Team Framingham. I don’t like advertising things that I turn out disappointed if I don’t get, but I’m telling you because you support me and I want you to know. So Tuesday night is the drawing and you’ll definitely be hearing from me this week if I’m drawn. The fact that I will be disappointed if I’m not selected is a good indicator of how ready I feel for this year to be the year. And I don’t know that I’ll ever end up doing the Marathon if I don’t get one of these Team Framingham spots…so hopefully it happens.

*Twitter here. Facebook here.

*I will not be putting out the Christmas lights until after Thanksgiving (the Saturday or Sunday of that weekend, if all goes well), but since Thanksgiving is so late this year (the latest it can possibly be, if my math is correct), I am doing a little bit of Christmas-ing up inside the house. Last year I told you about my favorite decoration - the family pictures over the years. After I put that post out last year I got a lot of recommendations about how to display those pictures…now that I think about it I’m not sure I shared the end result. I might do that this year. But, long story short: I put that out this week. It’s my favorite decoration, after all. It needs maximum seasonal exposure. (It is likely to remain out until at least March.)