Seth’s Sightings

Winter has returned, first by temperature, and then in the form of a small storm that decorated our area on Monday night. Having been spared most of the season, the small threat was enough to send organizations into a cancel-a-thon. A Monday night meeting I was to attend cancelled, but the storm came in two hours later than predicted. I enjoyed being home.

I’m one of these older folk who remembers going to school on snowy days. It took a big snow to actually cancel school.

At one of the Penguins games we attended versus the Phantoms, the Geisinger Health System gave out a souvenir foam hockey puck as a stress reliever. The lightly attended game had our Penguins behind until the 3rd period, when an exciting goal earned us a tie… and excited fans began to throw these foam pucks onto the ice hundreds of them, like when someone scores a hat trick. “Fans, Please Stop throwing pucks on the ice” was this this repeated announcement which prompted more foam pucks to be thrown before staff came onto the aisles to shut down the tosses. More importantly, we won that game. Our locals need to pick up their overall game these next few weeks; a .500 record is not going to get us into the playoffs in April.

There have been vees of geese going in all kinds of directions lately, all very noisy. I am guessing the geese don’t know how the weather is and neither do we really. We also sighted an eagle flying over Pocono

Summit near I-380. Other sightings have been the usual of wandering deer into the roadways, plus some early birds returning for what should be an early spring.

Sunday the 12th starts Daylight Savings Time, and I’m counting the days until we get our longer evenings back. I am one who’d like to see DST as permanent.

A travel story:

I needed to make a mad rush across the country as my dad was dying after a heart attack. He was in a hospital north of Sacramento, California. With time short, we chose to fly American from Allentown. We packed our computer cases with travel items and brought a small carry

by Seth Isenberg

bag with clothing changes that could be loaded in an overhead bin so no checkin baggage.

In Allentown, I found a parking place in the main lot close to the terminal, then walked in and right up to the TSA line. After some fussing over the braces I wear on my knees, we were through to await our American Eagle flight to Charlotte.

The airport in Charlotte sprawls. The small commuter airplane gates are on one end, and as travel luck has it, our 777 to Los Angeles was about a mile away at the other end. The trek was tough on my poor braced knees and cancerafflicted body; I arrived exhausted. I’d be needing a wheelchair going forward. As I hobbled up to the gate to just ahead of boarding time, I heard this: “Passengers on the Los Angeles flight, boarding will be delayed because the flight attendants have not arrived on their flight into Charlotte.” Over the next hour we got a playby-play as their flight landed and emptied of passengers. Finally, there was a parade of flight attendants. This crew barely had time to grab a coffee before they were put back to work again.

While we waited, we finished the layout of the

Early February Journal of the Pocono Plateau and emailed it to the press. Work on the road, thanks to the internet.

As a late booking, we were stuck in the back, in the middle seats of a fourperson middle section 3, 4, 3 in the economy section. The seats were narrow and so close to the row in front that my knees touched it. A couple of hours in, I had to get up to walk in the aisle as I was cramping up. I did some exercises and used the tiny lav.

Sightings

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The plane finally lumbered into LA nearly on time. I waited ‘til folks were mostly clear before I waddled out. There was supposed to be a wheelchair at the gate for me there wasn’t. It took forever to get one, and time was ticking away for us to make our short connection. It was going to be tight to make it. LA’s commuter terminal isn’t attached to the air terminal itself but is an island terminal about a mile away. Connection to that is by bus, and we arrived to find no buses. The delay in getting a bus caused us to miss our plane.

A crazy thing about LAX these buses go out onto the tarmac and weave through moving airplanes and service vehicles by the gate areas to reach the commuter terminal. Our trips both ways were crazy, including stopping for arriving and departing aircraft, and for the local fire department that was responding to a call at the airport.

There was no sign of our plane when we arrived despite their knowing we were coming and in the hands of airport transport. They “had to” leave. This earned us a free overnight stay at a three-star hotel courtesy of American Airlines. We were rebooked via Phoenix with an over two-hour layover before a flight into Sacramento. After being shuttled to our gate, we sat and watched Eagles fans arriving for the Super Bowl, which was fun.

Finally in Sacramento, we made quick work of getting a rental from Alamo so we could get to the hospital. We had time with my dad Friday evening and most of Saturday. I had the machines removed, and he was breathing easily but fading as we left to catch the red-eye to Charlotte Saturday night. It was a tough ride home emotionally plus a bit of actual turbulence.

My dad died peacefully, off all machines, on Monday afternoon.

It was great to be back home in our own bed. We went out with friends to watch the Super Bowl on a big screen maybe next year, Eagles.

I am feeling strong ahead of my surgery. I even did a little shoveling this last snow. This cancer surgery is another big one. I am in the good hands of the best of U. of Penn’s oncological surgery team in Philadelphia. The plan is to remove most of the cancer, then treat the area with HIPEC (state of the art). I’ll have some recovery days ahead, and should get back out to work, and to hockey games later in March. While I’m laid up, there will be ice hockey and NCAA women’s basketball (March Madness…) to watch on TV.

Wishes of good health all around. ‘til next month.

Train Meet planned for spring

The Carbon Model Railroad Society is sponsoring its Spring Train Meet on Sunday, March 19, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Diamond Fire Co. Bingo Hall at 120 Main St., Walnutport. This is a model railroad, toy train and railroadiania sale for the serious and amateur railroad and model train collector.

Food will be available for purchase from the Bingo Hall Kitchen. There is an admission charge. Plenty of free parking is available.

Coming Soon

Lehigh Valley Hospital–Carbon is proud to provide the highestquality care to you and your loved ones. As part of our

Voted Best Hospital continued commitment to our community, we’re expanding to provide even more services and care:

• Critical care (provided in a state-of-the-art intensive care unit)

• Breast health services

• Cardiac rehabilitation

• Outpatient lab services

Learn more at LVHN.org/Carbon