Rant #2,625: April Fools

Today is April 1, April Fools’ Day, when we are supposed to do mild pranks on each other to celebrate the day.
 
Well, my April Fools’ Day trick on myself was that I overslept again, and what’s more, my allergies are once again going haywire, so “April Fools,” isn’t that just so funny.
 
Today is also the beginning of the 2021 Major League Baseball season, and supposedly, we are going to get a full season this year, not the Strat-O-Matic season of baseball we got last year due to the pandemic.
 
But even baseball plays into April Fools’ Day.
 
First off, the New York Yankees play the Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium … or do they?
 
The weather is terrible right now—in the 30s and raining pretty hard—and even the 10,000 or so fans who have tickets for the game will have to wonder if the contest will even be played under these weather conditions.
 
And then on the other side of town, the New York Mets are supposed to play the Washington Nationals in Washington today, but not only is the weather crummy, but there has been an infestation of the coronavirus in the Nationals’ clubhouse, several personnel have been quarantined, and the question is this: is it safe to play for not only both sides, but for anyone else in attendance at the game?
 
And continuing on with the Mets, there is another April Fools’ Day joke here: during a pandemic, where thousands if not millions of people don’t know where their next meal is coming from, can one justify the contract that Francisco Lindor signed with the team just yesterday?
 
It is for $341 million over the next 10 years, and the two sides were even inexplicably at an impasse before the contract was signed.
 
Whether you are a Mets fan or not, whether you are a baseball fan or not, with so many people out of work and so many people not knowing where their next meal is coming from … I mean, they couldn’t even agree on the terms for such a mega-deal.
 
And during a pandemic yet?
 
That is an April Fools’ joke on all of us, isn’t it?
 
My own personal April Fools’ Say joke may come a day late, as I have to get my second vaccine shot tomorrow.
 
Based on my first experience, the cure is almost worse than the disease, and I am not hyperventilating about the shot as much as everything surrounding it.
 
Four hours last time—two hours of which were in transit—and it was just so unnecessary and poorly handled at the vaccination site … but I have been assured by Northwell Health that my experience will be better this time around.
 
Let’s see what happens, but again, the April Fools’ Day joke might just be on me, but a day later than the actual occasion.
 
I remember several years ago, I tried to pull an April Fools’ Day joke on all of you, stating that I was closing down this blog for good.
 
I had nothing more to write about, everything I had to say had been said, and that was that for the blog.
 
But again, it was April Fools’ Day, and I had absolutely no intention of shutting down this blog in any way, shape or form.
 
Some people took me for my word, others kind of got it.
 
But here I am, still here, and still writing this blog without missing a beat.
 
And to me, that is no April Fools’ Day joke—I have plenty to say, and I say it.
 
Last year, in my April Fools’ Day entry, No, 2,377, my April Fools’ Day joke was that I announced that the coronavirus was “gone, movin’ on” … oh, how I wish that was true.
 
But it isn’t gone just yet, even though we have that vaccine just waiting to go into peoples’ arms.
 
Maybe the pandemic is the world’s April Fools’ Day joke on itself, but whatever it is, it is here, it is still here, and even with the vaccine, it isn’t going away anytime soon.
 
Two hundred and forty six Rants later, we still have this scourge to deal with, and it has proven itself to be anything but an April Fools’ Day joke.
 
Beyond sickness, the collateral damage of all of this is that our collective sense of humor has been lost during the pandemic, we have completely forgotten how to laugh at ourselves, and at life’s human foibles.
 
My April Fools’ Day wish is that somehow, we return to the way we were, and that we look at life as just a steep hill to climb, but one that we can do collectively without venom and without hate … and one we can do while taking breaks to feel good about ourselves once again.
 
That goal is attainable, if we all take a break and learn to breathe again.
 
And that is no April Fools’ Day joke by any stretch of the imagination.