Payment Day

I’m a firm believer in the concept that all highs in life have to be paid for. Life’s very predictable in that manner. If you have a very good time than on some level an invoice will be issued wherein some responsibility has to be assumed to justify the good times. Life’s all about peaks and valleys. People who try to avoid paying their invoices are the ones who struggle with life. All this being said I knew the very, very good time I enjoyed with my favorite son and the ABFA on Saturday had to be paid for on Sunday.

I got in trouble with my favorite Panamanian when I reported that I left New Hampshire early in the morning yesterday before either of those stalwart individuals had awakened yet. In our family this is known as “pulling a Keene Friend” (using his last name). He has established a pattern of disappearing in the early morning hours after his weekend visits. Yesterday I took a page out of his book and my wife was not pleased. She thought I should have waited for them to get up and allowed them the intense pleasure of making me breakfast before leaving.

I, unfettered with wifely supervision, was more interested in getting to work on the invoice which called for grocery shopping, laundry, cooking, and the myriad other Sunday tasks required of me during my geographical bachelorhood. I said the proper goodbyes to my fabulous hosts the night before and I don’t think they were too put out not having to provide breakfast to me. My son has to get up very early all week long for his commute into Boston and I wanted him to sleep in. When I reminded my wife that I had to accomplish all my tasks before the Patriots’ game she was even less impressed. I think the phrase “it’s just a game” came up during the dressing down I received.

Get Out of the Way!

Buddy was more than up for our early morning dash back to Worcester and firmly reminded the neighborhood rabbits that the sheriff had returned. I got everything done and was decisively ensconced in Couch Potato position for the start of the game. The Patriots came out like gangbusters and steamrolled the overmatched Redskins in the first quarter. A fumble and interception kept the score from getting ridiculous but it turned in to good, if costly win. The Patriots lost yet another offensive lineman and then my favorite new Patriots player Dion Lewis to what looked like a serious injury.

Ouch, This One Will Hurt

The good thing about the Patriots is they just keep rolling with their “next man up” mantra, despite the fact the next man is the next man precisely because he’s less talented. As long as number 12 continues on his revenge tour I think we’ll be all right. It was a good day to compare him with Peyton Manning who experienced another one of his meltdowns when the weather wasn’t perfect and he wasn’t being showered with love and affection. I think this is the earliest in November we’ve ever seen the Peyton face. My fantasy football team continues with its Peyton personae as we got our butts handed to us in no uncertain terms yesterday.

I’m starting to get excited about this year’s pub crawl in Keene scheduled for this coming Saturday. I got a call from my closest cousin last night and he confirmed he was going to attend and was looking for hotel information in Keene. I started this “tradition” in 2013. My son and I were the only ones that made the complete crawl. Last year was much better attended and an entirely different level of fun, including both daughter and my son as well as high school friends. It was during the crawl that we learned my daughter and Wingman had scored their sought after L.A. apartment. I’m hoping I’ll have much more auspicious L.A. news to celebrate this week. Okay, now I’m really excited – this is going to be a long work week. I get to start it off with a trip to the RMV to renew my driver's license, not for the faint of heart.

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