Shots today
We are back “home”. I say “home” because we are in a campground about 15 miles from our house. It is mostly above freezing here, so we came home. We aren’t moving back into our house because our son, his wife and a couple of kids are living there. Two are healthcare workers. Besides, moving our stuff out and into the house just doesn’t seem worth it (we will be here for a couple of months and working hard on downsizing the house). We have been eligible for Covid vaccine for some time as we are both in the 1B group, but it wasn’t really available to us in Texas.
We got a tip yesterday on a place we could sign up for vaccine shots for today. We both quickly signed up – got our slots in the schedule and today, we got our Johnson shots. We have slight pain in the arm, that is the only reaction so far. That and a sense of impending relief instead of impending doom. It has been over a year for us. We saw this coming. We were in Wisc this time last year, having just watched my brother die of cancer. We had a family meeting coincident with the funeral. Many of my siblings thought Covid was no big deal. There were snickers around the table when we talked about how bad it was going to be. Sadly, many of them still think it is no big deal. No doubt many are refusing to wear masks, refusing to social distance and claiming that taking chances with the virus is about personal freedom. UPDATE: we both felt blah! the next day with a mild headache and a very low grade fever, but after another day, we are both fine.
I will still be surprised if there isn’t another funeral in our family’s future. There are eight of us, including my 90-year-old mother. Toss in spouses, children and grandchildren, probably 50 or more family members – many with pre-existing conditions. Given the number that live in red states and the number who think covid is no worse than the flu, the chances are at least one won’t survive 2021.
My mother so far refuses to get vaccinated. We won’t be visiting her any time soon, because vaccine or not, it’s still possible to carry the virus asymptomatically. None of the vaccines are 100% effective. People think this virus will just “go away”. It won’t, it will just become less prevalent. With kids who live all over the country and have to travel to go home and see mom – it simply isn’t safe for her to think the vaccine isn’t necessary. Normally, this time of year, we’d be discussing when to make a trip to Gardner Mountain, as we call our parent’s place in Wisconsin. Most years, we’d make two or three trips up there to see Mom, to repair stuff and help with firewood. Until Mom has the vaccine, we don’t expect we will be making the trip. Well, we might make the trip on the way somewhere else and wave as we go by.
If you are reading this, please just go get your vaccine. Do it for yourself. Do it for everyone you know. Do it for the people serving you food in a restaurant. Do it for all the healthcare workers who have been overwhelmed for the past year, many of whom have died taking care of Covid patients.
Mike and Deb