Not sure exactly when my daughter took this photo but it is relevant to this weekend’s discussion.

(Sunday Paper, Year VII, Issue 38)

Last week I was all excited to tell you about something new I’m going to try this fall.

Then we got hit with another round of COVID and I had to put that off.

So we’re giving it another go this week.

As of the time I am writing this, everyone is just about back to full health.

I have still managed to avoid a positive test…

Which means that by the time you read this I am probably well on my way to New York.

Every year I get irrationally excited about the New York Jets.

I say irrationally because in my entire life they’ve had maybe five good seasons. (I’d like to parenthetically tell you that’s a huge exaggeration…but really it’s only a slight exaggeration.)

For as long as I’ve lived in Massachusetts, I’ve had to bend over backwards to watch a Jets game.

When the Jets are halfway decent, they might be on regionally, or on a couple more national telecasts like Monday Night Football.

But, as previously noted, that’s not often the case. And even in the best of times, they often play at the same time as the Patriots, which means they aren’t on TV in New England.

I had DirecTV for a few years so I could watch all the games. (The Jets didn’t justify the cost.)

For a while I found the best places with the Sunday Ticket where I could sit and eat for a few hours and watch a game - sometimes with people but often alone. (The Jets didn’t justify the cost, again, nor how bad I would feel for taking up a TV that someone else might want.)

There’s a Jets bar in Boston that I checked out one time where a group of Jets fans would watch the games, but it was hard to figure out who was in charge and it felt very cliquey so I just sat by myself and watched the game so it was no different than the previous idea. (Also, this is a sad truth: It’s not very enjoyable being around a lot of Jets fans. Just as it’s not enjoyable being around a lot of sports fans of any team. It gets a little annoying. I won’t speak for everyone. But I bet a lot of people would agree.)

So this year, I decided, maybe I’ll just go to New York to watch all of the games.

I guess the pandemic factored into this (besides its role in making me already 0-for-1 in following through with the idea): we just haven’t been down to New York the past few years as much as we usually are.

So now, every Sunday there’s a Jets game, I’ll drive down Sunday morning and back Sunday night and watch the Jets (and the Mets for the next month or so) with my dad, and sometimes my brother, and maybe others. (I could probably get my mom excited about it. She’s fun to watch a game with.)

Sometimes the girls will come, sometimes I’ll bring Tate, other times - like today - it will just be me. (Some yard work at my parents’ is also on the agenda and I’m bringing a sharp piece of yard equipment that requires seats pushed down in the car…it’s safer if it’s just me this week. It has nothing to do with the football.)

This whole venture will also be reminiscent of the first 18 years or so of my life, where if we weren’t going to a Jets game my dad and I would be watching the Jets on Sunday afternoons. (Well, maybe 16 years…I distinctly remember missing a bunch of Jets games at home when I started to work on Sundays.)

I’m really looking forward to it. Of course, I was really looking forward to it last week, too. So that’s why I’m trying not to get my hopes up about it all too much - sometimes life gets in the way and you can’t make it happen.

But I’m going to try.

And, inevitably, the Jets will start to disappoint. (If they haven’t already, after one week.)

But at least this time there will be some excellent food and company for me to enjoy and distract from the game.

Better than a sports bar in Boston.

What I’ve Been Enjoying

“Women In Music Pt. III” - HAIM
“Long Lost” - Lord Huron
“Far” - Regina Spektor
“Asphalt Meadows” - Death Cab For Cutie
Spectre
A Monster Calls
WALL-E
No Time To Die
Lightyear

It’s funny. I’ve been looking forward to that Death Cab For Cutie album coming out for a while now, and mid-September felt so far away for so long, and now here we are. It’s weird, all these different ways to mark time. Also, I gave in and just watched a cable TV version of Spectre, since that was the only place I could find it, and then I watched the final Daniel Craig James Bond. (No Time To Die? At 2 hours, 43 minutes, more like, ‘no time to do anything else.’) I very much liked the Daniel Craig movies.

Also, I didn’t read many good reviews of Lightyear. I rather enjoyed it. I think the girls did too.

Notes

*Some of you might be thinking, “John, I’ve been thinking about it these past couple of paragraphs and it seems like a lot of driving just to watch the Jets.” But a) it’s not just to watch the Jets. It’s a nice visit. B) There were times when I was performing someplace like Maine and I’d be driving two-and-a-half hours and thinking, “I could have driven to New York,” and then on the way home I’d think, “It probably would have been more fun to just drive to New York.” So…I’ve driven more for experiences that were probably worse than watching the Jets. Most assuredly they were worse than watching the Jets with my family.

*The long runs are inching back up. Because of the Sunday trips to New York, I’ll be doing my long runs on Thursday for now. On Thursday I ran 7 miles in the Newton hills…and I did not feel nearly as sore as I thought I might on Friday. So that’s an encouraging sign. I plan on increasing the mileage by a mile each week until the half marathon, and then we’ll re-evaluate the training before the Wilmington Marathon in February.

*It continues to be an up and down stretch for the Mets. They’ve managed to hang on to first place but they were swept by a lesser Cubs team earlier in the week, keeping Atlanta in the hunt for the division. I do think that everything the Mets go through now makes them a better, stronger team in the post-season. We’ll see. It’s a very exciting time to be a Mets fan.

*Why do I keep giving these Mets updates knowing not everyone cares? I would like to have a semi-official record of some of my thoughts on this, one of the best seasons they’ve ever had.

*The social media links are below - thanks for following along!