Got my first covid vaccination. I had applied with my county's health services site online and over the course of a month received four automated responses that just said, "We're reviewing your request for an appointment." After first responders, our county first chose folks over 75, then dropped it down another 10 years. I then qualified.
So last Saturday night I finally got an email saying, "Make your appointment no later than tomorrow." Although I could have chosen by distance, I decided to simply take the first available appointment, which happened to be up in Antioch, at 9:30 am on Wednesday.
I was driving against the morning commute so it was a piece of cake to get there. In fact, I was forty minutes early and they weren't taking people until literally the time of the appointment, so I took a stroll through beautiful downtown Antioch. The old downtown is right along the water, which is the San Joaquin/Sacramento River delta. I often have said to people that I was up by the river and they always give me this nonplussed look, so maybe the locals refer to it as the delta, I don't know.
The whole downtown is only about 5 or 6 blocks square. The railway runs right along the water, and between the tracks and the shore are umpteen homeless encampments. I guess that's a function of the railroad. Or the fact that the land is part of the right of way for the railroad but nobody's bothering those folks.
Anyway, once my group was called in, I was highly impressed by how organized it was and by how cooperative everyone was. For a brief moment, I was actually proud of my country and the people in it -- and I haven't felt that way for a very long time. I was registered within five minutes, only waited maybe another 5 to get to one of a dozen stations for the shot. The shot itself was painless. Then we had to wait in an observation area, where chairs were placed six feet from one another on all sides, and we were asked by signage to stay for 15 minutes. There was no one timing you; you were simply on the honor system and I saw no one, out of maybe 30-40 people, leaving early. I was in and out in 27 minutes.
I go back in one month to the same site for my second shot. Had a little bit of soreness, not much, in my upper arm last night and a slight headache, but I've had a stronger reaction to flu shots. I hear the second shot may evoke a stronger reaction but I'm not sure of the reason why.
And to close, I'm going to toss up another music video. I meant to include this with last week's Valentine's Day songs. It's my next-to-last Dreamer's Circus video. This time they're guesting with another Danish musician, Kristian Leth, who wrote and sings lead on the song. It's called "When the Lights Go Out" and it's part of an album entitled "Dangerous Alliance." But then, in the world of romance, all alliances are dangerous. They all have the potential to put an end to an old life, take you on an entirely new path, or cast you down a dark hole. You need both courage and wisdom. And your wits and wisdom are not the same thing. Wisdom comes from the heart, not the head.
I'll have one last DC song in a few days and it's a segue into introducing a new artist and then entirely new artistic territory. Enjoy.
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