The Most Magical Place

So, my niece Olivia visited me on Thursday... and that has nothing at all to do with the rest of this post. I just got a lovely (albeit unfocused) picture out of it!

The Athpartment

Saturday morning, Athennia and I headed over to Morrisville to grab Riley for the weekend. Passing through the center of Langhorne, we saw this weird, arguably-fake, almost-perfectly-square cloud—perhaps proving that not only are all the metaphysicians correct when they insist that our reality is merely a simulation... but that said simulation is in fact just someone's Minecraft game.

The darkest aspect of this apparent unreality is that Microsoft bought the intellectual property rights to Minecraft a few years back—which essentially means that Microsoft controls the universe we perceive as our reality.

But getting back to Athennia's apartment, she's been slowly but surely cleaning up the chaos that Taylor and her girlfriend left behind when they moved out back in early June; and, part of that involves working towards switching bedrooms with Riley. (Athennia had initially given the kids the larger room, on account of all three of them having to share a living space; but, she'd like the larger room, now that Riley is the only one still living at home.)

Athennia wants to shampoo her carpets before she makes the switch; so, I suggested that we take a couple hours this morning to move around some furniture so that she'll have an easier time maneuvering the shampooer later in the week. We made some decent headway on that without much to report on... although I managed to crunch my hand in Athennia's treadmill when I went to lift it without realizing that she had taken out the stabilizing pin!

I would have sworn in the moment that I'd broken every finger on my right hand; but, as I'm typing this (~10 hours later), there's been no bruising or reduction of mobility whatsoever. So I guess, in this particular permutation of our simulated reality, I was destined not to break my hand. Thanks, Microsoft!

Booger King (and Unfriendly's)

By the time we finished moving furniture around, we were ready for something to cool us off. I suggested 84-cent ice cream cones from Burger King—which Riley and Athennia were totally on board with. But, as we pulled into the drive-thru, Athennia asked if we just wanted ice cream... or if we should grab an actual lunch.

We decided we'd get some burgers first, then swing around again for ice cream afterward.

So...

Three double cheeseburgers, one of them plain.

That—verbatim—is what we ordered.

Now, way back between ninth and tenth grade, I spent a year working fast food... and I personally wouldn't have considered this a terribly confusing order... But, to whomever was manning the burger station at the Morrisville Burger King this afternoon, "three doubles, one plain" was a tall order...

Incomprehensible. Unknowable. A true riddle of the sphinx.

We pulled up to the second window, grabbed our food, found a shady parking spot, and eagerly unwrapped our so-called-"double"-but-suspiciously-thin-even-with-shrinkflation cheeseburgers, only to find...

The sphinx was not impressed by that. And neither were we!

The simulation had lied. Curse you, Microsoft! Perhaps burger_king.exe had performed an illegal operation and would have to be shut down. Or perhaps the fast-food industry hasn't changed all that much since back in 2000 when I was usually the only one on shift who wasn't high as a kite. <shrug>

You know the old adage though: When life gives you cheeseburgers, you make... cheeseburger-ade. So, we went through the drive-thru a second time, spelled out our order a bit more slowly, and had our frowns turned upside-down when we got to keep the initial "mistake" burgers in addition to what we'd actually ordered.

We still wanted ice cream afterward... but didn't exactly feel like going through the drive-thru a third time and having the staff wonder what we were going to complain about next; so, we went a few miles down the road to Friendly's instead. And, for a whopping $21, we got three ice cream cones. (Pretty sizable, to be fair. But... $21?!)

Playwicki Park

After lunch we continued on to Playwicki Park in Langhorne: the most magical place of my childhood years, bar none.

I've been reluctant to visit again since I barely recognized it when I took my cousin-in-law Aaron there last year while my out-of-state family was visiting from Indiana... I don't know if everyone in the Parks Department just decided to stay in Slackersville after the COVID scare, or what; but, the grass in the fields was almost waist-high, and we couldn't access any of my favorite childhood spots. Whatever the reason, all the magic had been sucked out... and I had gone midway to vowing never to go back.

But, Athennia and I drive past all the time on our way back and forth between her place and mine—and the world has kinda sorta started to content itself with telling Fauci where to stick his little needle—so, I figured there was no harm in taking a minute to see whether anything had changed:

If the park still sucked, we could turn around and leave; and, if by some miracle its magic had returned, Riley and Athennia would get to experience one of my favorite places in the world...

So Far, So Good...

We started at the rock beach just a little ways from the parking lot: In all the times I've come here since my dad first brought me in 1989, it's always been accessible...

Moving On...

Eventually it was time to try moving on further into the park. Last year with Aaron, this was where the tragic happened. Hopefully this time, it would be where the magic happened.

I took Riley and Athennia to the awesome ridge path that runs along the creek...

We could've gone much farther into the woods, but Riley said she was dehydrated and her feet hurt; so, we made plans to come back in a couple months when it's cooler (and the leaves are changing!).

But, naturally, we took a ton of cool nature shots...

Artsy-Fartsy

And, we tried our hand at some artsy shots as well.

Here are Athennia's...

And mine...

Tense Shift and a Passing of the Torch

I've brought many, many different people to Playwicki over the years; but, there's always been a spiritual aspect to it that's singular only to me (well, and perhaps my sister to an extent as well).

I have such a substantial catalog of childhood memories in this place that the bittersweetness of nostalgia hits me especially hard here: I can't think of anywhere else that so readily compels such intense emotion; nor can anyplace else remotely compare when it comes to reminding me of things I've lost.

I was probably almost finished high school by the time I consciously realized that Playwicki Park serves me both as a memento mori as well as an "old friend" of sorts—a welcome constancy that helped break the waves of the more tumultuous moments of my childhood.

Suffice it to say, I owe more to this park than I could likely ever put into words... And, I'm glad to report that it felt like it had its soul back this time around. (Maybe Aaron will be up for giving it another go the next time he's in PA!)

Today was also the first time I thought to ponder the magic of Playwicki in future tense... As the three of us explored the rock beach, I realized that my role had shifted this time around: I was now the dad, sharing the magic of the park with my stepdaughter.

That was... kinda surreal, but magical in its own right—like the universe was passing me the torch.

And, I accept :)

Home Sapiens

We went home to grab showers and hang out for the rest of the evening; and, even though we didn't get any decent photos of me and Riley together at the park, Athennia snapped this one later in the evening without either of us noticing.

Also, Riley apparently took some selfies while I was in the shower.

...And then she snapped one of her infamous Marvin the Martian selfies—and insisted that Athennia and I let her take matching shots of us as well: