Fight against coronavirus is no time for malaise
This may be one of the toughest columns I’ve written in the past few years. I mean, it seems to be such a serious world right now. We have COVID, civil unrest, economic uncertainty, and it feels like we have a lot less joy.
So you can’t write something too light. Yet haven’t we had enough of the serious crap? Maybe too much at times?
No wonder we’re all a bit — dare I say? — crazy, right now.
In an effort to find some peaceful, uninterrupted writing time, I find myself parked at Allentown’s Cedar Beach Park. Maybe I ended up here because subconsciously it reminds me of incredibly good times in my life. A far from perfect, yet wonderful, life well-lived.
I played summer touch football games with area athletes. It was competitive, but we had fun. We’d play in between jumps in the pool here at Cedar Beach. I smile at the memory of a jam-packed swimming pool overflowing with happy people.
I watched many great, rising star, local basketball players at a lot of tournaments held here at the basketball courts. There was Lehigh Valley SportsFest, fireworks and Drum Corps International at the nearby J. Birney Crum Stadium.
I ate delicious hot dogs and snow cones at the Cedar Beach Pool snack bar. I listened to happy, mindless music playing in the background, competing with the noise of hundreds splashing in the water. I heard the unique rattle of the high diving board as people dove off and showed their stuff. I played games of tag in the sandy area and walked over to the rose gardens, where we played pretend safari. But most importantly, I’m reminded that I didn’t care about germs, not for one minute! I mean it was heaven in every sense of the word.
So I ask you, what happened to fun!?! I mean, that pure happiness. That guiltfree, unadulterated fun? It’s almost 100 degrees … and it is quiet. It is void of all the busy people enjoying life. And the playground, childless and empty.
It’s all COVID’s fault, I say. COVID, you made us stop and reflect, then reflect some more. You kept us at home idle and “the idle mind is the devils workshop,” as my wise uncle would often tell me. You changed our wonderful world, and I hate
was originally purchased, a dealership might have a master socket. When I take our Honda to my Honda dealership for tire rotation, they don’t need my unlock socket, as they have a master socket. E.L., Allentown, Pennsylvania
A: Good point and something I had overlooked.
Q: You recently wrote that Americans have a fetish for frequent oil changes. My 2013 Honda Civic has an oil quality sensor. Can I believe the reading?
C.W., Des Plaines, Illinois