Bills 41, Jets 10

In Nepal, it is known as Sagarmatha. In Tibet, the name is Chomolungma. In 1865, Andrew Waugh of the Royal Geographic Society, who held the post of British Surveyor General of India, decided to "re-name" the world's highest mountain after his predecessor and the man who hired him, Welshman George Everest. Everest, who had never seen the mountain himself, apparently objected to his name being used in this case because, among other reasons, it was not easily pronounced in or translated to Hindi. The Society went ahead anyway and the name has obviously stuck.

Mount Everest rises 12,000 feet from its base which sits at about 17,000 feet above sea level. Its peak is measured at 29,028 feet or 8,848 metres. In other words, the top of the world's highest mountain stands almost nine kilometres above sea level. By comparison, the deepest part of the ocean lies south of Japan and east of the Philippines in a part of the Mariana Trench known as Challenger Deep. That clocks in at just short of 11,000 metres (or 11km) deep.

One day, I plan to dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, swim to India and then climb Mount Everest. But I will start by going to Nepal and trekking to Everest Base Camp - something which I am on my way to do right now. I have received more that $500 of vaccinations, filled prescriptions for Diamox (to prevent or minimize altitude sickness) and a powerful anti-biotic in case of intestinal infection and I have been climbing the stairs in my 12 floor building for a few weeks.

Am I ready? We'll see. This trip could make wilderness canoe tripping seem like 5-star luxury. Our guides tell us that Nepal is a mystical and spiritual place with wonderful warm people who rely largely on whatever income they can generate from the thousands of trekkers and others who come to see the world's most spectacular mountains. Everest Base Camp alone sees about 40,000 trekkers every year.

As you read this, I will be on a 15 hour flight to Hong Kong. We left Sunday evening and will arrive on Tuesday. Crossing the International Date Line in a west-bound direction means we will not experience Monday this week, although I understand that the Giants v. 49ers Monday Night Football game will take place anyway. On the way back, we will endure Thursday November 29th for a couple of days. The Saints play at Dallas that day.

Meanwhile, yesterday in the Meadowlands, the NFL dialed up another entirely unpredictable outcome as the Bills dominated the home team in all three phases of the game with Matt Barkley looking decidedly above average at least in terms of his ranking among the team's 2018 class of quarterbacks through ten weeks of play. I'm sure that Barkley jersey sales came close to crashing the Bills merchandise site when they went up 31-0 late in the second quarter. I have a feeling that I may be seeing soon-to-be former Jets coach Tod Bowles within the next few days. If I were him, I would seriously consider immediately going trekking in Nepal. 

I scheduled the trip in order miss only one Bills game - the November 25th home game against the Jaguars. The bye week is next week so there will be no blog posts from me until Monday December 3rd, after the Bills play the Dolphins in south Florida.