Pen-demic

  Jan 2022, Covid 19 Update by Dale Weir We are TIRED. OVERWHELMED. We just want it to either end or become the new annual flu with a yearly covid shot when we get our annual flu shot. The papers and news media no longer focus on COVID as they did at the start, 2 years ago. Now the media focuses on political battles instead: - A politician trying to get his name and face known, not caring if it’s because he is famous or infamous, costing the taxpayers’ money as he sues China, local governments, and school districts. At times, even putting himself in the position of suing those he was elected to defend and protect. - State legislators enacting laws that further disenfranchise many members of the communities they represent, but who don’t have the same ethnicity or racial background that they have - State legislators enacting laws that take away the right of women to control their own bodies. These and similar stories populate the news media reports, rather than updates on Covid 19. T...

  Bethlehem Steel While it might not be easy to think of positives that have come from the pandemic, I have one I’d like to share that may be useful to others. It was July of 2020 and we were tired of jigsaw puzzles, having the every 10-day trip to the grocery store be the highlight of the week, and frankly, each other’s exclusive company. But what could we do? The enforced inactivity was harder on Mitch, who thrives on travel. Rather than giving up, however, he started looking for interesting places we could safely drive to and explore, even if the actual destinations were still locked down. Through internet research, he found many relatively unknown, interesting and historical places within a half-day’s drive from our home. Needing something to which we could anchor time, and the traditional designation of “hump-day,” he chose Wednesday as the day for us to venture out. That’s how “Wandering Wednesday” was born. The first WW was a drive along Great Bay Boulevard, a little-used, s...

  “The best things in life are the people we love, the places we’ve been, and the memories we’ve made along the way.” – Auliq Ice As 2021 winds to a close, I’m grateful to be turning the page to a new year. In many ways, COVID has caused life to feel like a roller coaster this past year, filled with barrel rolls and corkscrews that make it hard to get my bearings. And yet, somewhere between the roller coaster inversions, I’ve been lucky enough to catch my breath and enjoy slower moments visiting new places, spending time with loved ones, and making memories. As my family can attest, I take a lot of pictures as we’re making memories. I am frequently behind the camera lens, but sometimes will force my family to do a group selfie, or even have my husband step behind the camera to take a pic of me with one or both of the kids. As my son edges closer to his teen years, I’m starting to receive eye rolls and snarky remarks. But simply reminding him that our family’s annual yearbook won’t ...

 I’ve been whispering to you  As to not disturb your streaming and clicking and daydreaming  But this year I decided to shout  The warm wind is here  The ice brilliance is here  The bird symphony is here  The lilac scent is here  Always been that way  Why have you dismissed these?  Like channels that don’t catch your fancy  At one time there wasn’t an unseen creature with a crown  That could turn the world upside down  But now, so much to observe and feel  Being apart from others, but closer  To our true selves  Scary to witness suffering, longing, fearing  Find the perfect scene with a grasp to heal  What is strangling our souls and keeping us engulfed  In the big hurt  Open the door, breathe, see, listen  Our world, always changing, is injected with  More hues, more sounds, more energy  And you are in the midst of perfection  Do I have your attention now? Linda Larim...

This evening’s newscast had another story about the latest developments in the battle against Covid and the citizens of the United States have become divided between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated. The disease of my childhood was infantile paralysis or as it is more commonly known, polio. All over the United States, the summer months were considered the most dangerous time of year when people were most likely to sicken with this devastating illness. The photographs of polio patients in an iron lung were frightening to all. The most famous person who suffered from the aftereffects of polio was the New York Governor, Franklin Roosevelt. The most well-known treatment for polio victims was the Sister Kinney method. One summer when I was in middle school was a particularly bad year for the disease. Among the many resulting restrictions was the summer closure of the public swimming pool where my family lived. My younger sister, Kathy, needed to have her tonsils removed, but the surgery ...

Nearly everyone who was around on September 11, 2001, has a picture in their mind that represents what they experienced the day of the terrorist attacks. It might be the firefighters raising the flag on the rubble of the World Trade Center, the image of the towers crumbling to the ground, or the faces of people running to escape the clouds of smoke and ash that blew through the streets of lower Manhattan when the towers fell. While I can bring up those images in my mind, the one that haunts me is the sight of a signboard on an exit from the New York State Thruway that said, “ALL ENTRANCES AND EXITS TO NEW YOUR CITY ARE CLOSED.” And behind the sign in the distance hung a huge plum of white smoke. At the time, I was working for the American Cancer Society in New York and New Jersey. I supported staff and volunteers in both states and happened to have two meetings I was asked to attend on September 11. For no particular reason that I can remember, I chose the meeting being held in Albany ...

The 2021 school year has arrived. Backpacks are packed.  First day of school outfits are chosen. Teacher assignments are received. The last thing on my checklist is to have the kids fill out their chalkboard for the first day of school. Obligingly, my son and daughter will stand in front of our home – backpacks on and hair fixed – and hold their respective chalkboards. Those boards are currently blank slates but soon they will be filled with each child’s age, teacher, and aspirations for what they want to be when they grow up. I’ve been anxiously awaiting their teacher assignments and over the past week, I’ve been asking them to think about what they want to be when they grow up. Last year they both said they wanted to be soccer players. To be exact, my daughter said she wanted to be the greatest soccer player EVER (she’s got some serious goals!). As I stare at the blank slates in preparation for the 2021 school year, I’m thrown back to last year. A time when we took their photos i...