BattliNg BaCk

Alexa’s 7:30 a.m.

musical alarm awakened me in what could only be described as a morning fog. I lifted my head slowly to see the time. What? My eyes were glued semi-shut. Something my kids used to call “gookie eye.” Well, it was “gookie eye” and all it portended. I had a cold … or did I? One never knows these days.

That was the first question that came to mind - did I have Covid? If I did it was probably too soon to tell. My next step was to remedy up. Wiping away the exudate that had fastened my lashes together, I perused the first shelf in the medicine cabinet where I kept the nostrums for colds and such. I found a lot of tubes of antibiotic creams, a giant box of band aids, some baby nail scissors and finally a container of my “go to” for upper respiratory infections, Alka-Seltzer Plus.

“Voila,” I thought.

I had to put that voila away, since this particular box held the variety of Alka-Seltzer plus that contained aspirin. Another medicine that I take eschews the consumption of any NSAIDS. The only analgesic that is available to me is acetaminophen or Tylenol. As I told the doctor, I might as well eat a cupcake.

So downstairs I stumbled, and I should accent that last word since all my joints had joined the constellation of awfulness so that moving was an act of heroism. I was heading to the kitchen, where I could at least have a cup of coffee… and a cupcake if there were one. There wasn’t.

I thought, “I’ll get through this in 10 days to two weeks.”

That afternoon, I called my spouse at work at told him to pick up some Chinese for dinner. I went back to bed and slept on and off for four days. In the off times, I took three Covid tests, all of which were negative. I clearly remember Sr. Sulik telling me that negative didn’t mean negative. So, what to do? Back to bed. I think I ate about four pieces of bread and some Chinese during that first week, thinking with my failing appetite that I might be losing weight. Not a chance.

I had to call my dentist to reschedule my appointment, allowed the work that I was doing on the income tax to pile up undone, which was also the situation for laundry and vacuuming. Now, to my credit, I did get dressed on several of those 10 to 14 days, as an attempt at fooling the offending virus and trying to put mind over matter. Matter won.

I didn’t often comb my hair, but I did shower every night, even on those when I was so wiped out that I thought I might drown.

The days passed and I had to call the dentist again to reschedule, apologizing for my inability to get better. The gal on the other end of the phone commis -

Making our voices heard

To the editor:

There has been a lot of talk about the banning of tobacco flavors including menthol and as students from Cazenovia HS and active Reality Check members it is time our voices be heard.

Getting everyone to understand what Big Tobacco is doing and how important it is to our generation is key to saving lives. The governor has proposed a ban on all flavors including menthol in all tobacco products.

Menthol is a chemical that is put in most tobacco products that helps remove the burning taste and replace it with a cooling pleasant feeling.

The harshness of menthol wasn’t counted originally as a flavor because it wasn’t a “significant taste” in tobacco products. This, along with the way the tobacco industry packages tobacco/vaping products in colorful packages such as: watermelon, pink, red, and cherry, makes the products seem more appealing to buy, especially to youth.

Reality Check members, like us, from across the state are educating their elected officials, peers and community members using key messaging so we can reduce the number of unnecessary deaths. Here are just a few that stand out to us.

Menthol makes cigarettes easier to smoke and harder to quit and more than half (54%) of youth ages 12-17 years who smoke use menthol cigarettes.

It is up to us to be the change. We want to continue to educate those we care about and create a tobacco free generation.

eMilY BeNeDiCt & kaRlY VaaS Cazenovia

Engagement is a tenet

To the editor: A recent story about the Oxbow Hill Solar Project (Commercial solar devel-

Reporter: Jason Klaiber, jklaiber@eaglenewsonline.com

Sports editor: Phil blackwell, ext. 348, pblackwell@eaglenewsonline.com

Display ads eB: linda Jabbour, ext. 304, ljabbour@eaglenewsonline.com erated with me, telling me that her daughter had been sick for three weeks. I was coming up on the three week mark. Ten to fourteen days?

Then I began to coughjust a little, dry cough. My house, by this time, looked like dust was invented there and I thought my cough was the response to dust. It wasn’t. The little cough became bigger and looser, very much looser. I coughed, seemingly all the time. My head started to hurt and then my sinuses joined the chorus of complainants. I had bronchitis. More Covid testing to tell me that I was negative … or was I? I kept my spouse up at night as well as the four cats who sleep on our bed.

After a week of staying on the sofa with a box of tissues and some Tylenol, I began to try to concoct some cough medicine out of honey and lemon juice. You have to imagine this. There I was standing in front of the stove where I was heating the bottle of honey in some water. The honey had solidified in its plastic jar and refused to melt when standing in a cup of hot water. I was taking it to the next level.

While I was carefully watching the bottle of honey in the simmering water, I was rolling a lemon to extract the juice. The honey never really returned to its original state but it was loose enough to scoop some into the cup to join the lemon juice. I had to oper to seek state approval for Fenner solar project, March 13) contains a quote from Town of Fenner Supervisor David Jones that grossly mischaracterizes Cypress Creek Renewables as negligent and dismissive of town residents and community members. This could not be further from the truth. keitH

As a solar energy company serving communities across the state of New York - community engagement is a tenet of the work that we do at Cypress Creek. From day one, we’ve kept an open dialogue with the town of Fenner, requesting the establishment of a regularly scheduled status meeting to keep the community apprised of ongoing developments, and have posted all of our correspondence with the town on the Oxbow Hill Solar Project Webpage (ccrenew.com/projects/oxbow/).

We have sent newsletters to every residence in the town and held an open house at the Nichols Pond Park Pavilion. Currently, there are no outstanding information requests from the Town of Fenner.

We look forward to sharing an update on the Oxbow Hill Solar project permitting process, our interconnection with National Grid, our participation in the 2022 NYSERDA Renewable Energy Credit Auction, and the ways in which individual landowners and the town as a whole will benefit economically from our project at the April 12 town board meeting. We encourage those with questions or concerns to reach out to us any time. Our lines of communication are always open.

SilliMaN, DiReCtoR oF RegUlatoRY CoMPliaNCe

CypreSS Creek reneWableS

Suggestions for F’ville comprehensive plan

To the editor: The village of Fayetteville is in the process of updating the compre-

Display ads CR: lori lewis, ext. 316, llewis@eaglenewsonline.com

Classified advertising: Patti Puzzo, ext. 321, ppuzzo@eaglenewsonline.com

Billing questions: Alyssa dearborn, ext. 305, adearborn@eaglenewsonline.com legal advertising: luba demkiv, ext. 303, ldemkiv@eaglenewsonline.com

Publisher: david Tyler, ext. 302, dtyler@eaglenewsonline.com

Creative Director: Gordon bigelow, ext. 331, art@eaglenewsonline.com add hot water and stir to make something drinkable. Honey and lemon have been touted as a great cough medicine. I must have gotten the proportions wrong because I coughed on for hours. hensive plan. Kudos to everyone who has worked hard developing it. It includes many great ideas. Here’s some thoughts on how to improve it.

The cough continued for two weeks until a friend took pity on me and made me a cup of tea with her home-made concoction of Mullen, rose hips and spearmint. Amazingly, that worked. I was cough free for two hours. What a blessing.

I am back to standing up with washed and combed hair, clean clothes and an almost dust-free house. Lots to catch up on, though. I took another Covid test to be sure and I tested negative.

I thought that I should have suffered through something with a name for all the distasteful symptoms I and my spouse endured. I have had all my vaccines including the flu, but, alas, there is no vaccine for the common cold.

I fully intend to restock my medicine cabinet just in case and I am scheduled to get my dental work done next week. Just wanted you to know. Today I left the house for the first time in a month.

Ann Ferro is a mother, a grandmother and a retired social studies teacher. While still figuring out what she wants to be when she grows up, she lives in Marcellus with lots of books, a spouse and a large orange cat.

First, make welcoming diversity central to the plan. To do this, the plan should make concrete commitments to diversity goals in hiring village staff and awarding contracts to vendors. Contractors with NYS currently are required to demonstrate efforts to support qualified, cost-effective vendors representing historically disadvantaged groups. We should do the same. As part of the housing goals, meaningful outreach to people of color should be included.

A more diverse Fayetteville will enrich our village. It will also act as a magnet for our children to want to live here. From what I experienced at the input sessions, folks want this diversity. We can make it happen, but only if we prioritize strategies to do so.

Traffic was identified as perhaps the biggest concern of residents. A goal should be to reduce it over the course of the plan (I’d suggest 10%). The other goals in the plan should then be linked/judged by how they contribute to this goal.

Zoning criteria should be more clearly established. I suggest: first, decreasing traffic/congestion; second, increasing ease for pedestrians/bikes; third, promoting recreation, cultural and entertainment opportunities; fourth, increasing youth friendly spaces/venues; and finally, promoting diversity. These criteria should be clearly identified and available to developers so that they won’t waste the planning committee’s time on developments that don’t mesh with our criteria. Reducing light pollution via the zoning plan should be for all buildings, not just for new buildings. The Greenway Corridor map provides a blueprint letters l Page 5