I Stuck It To Covid

And so, the wait is over.  I just walked to Shoppers and had a Pfizer vaccine, 9 weeks and 5 days after the first AstraZeneca one.  I mixed and matched.  After much thinking and debating.  And counting and wondering.  And worrying and mulling. 

So let the chips fall where they may.  I am so very grateful to be in the 11.08% national and 16.3% provincial minority to be fully vaccinated.  How lucky am I?    I wonder if I’ll have side effects again like last time? 

It feels a bit surreal.  Like limping over the finish line.  That was a long 15 months of waiting, wondering and worrying.  Let’s turn the page to a better, brighter chapter now, shall we?

Who Da Thunk It?

 Well, I just did a thing!!!   Thanks to Shelley Hosaluk’s connections, I now have one of my paintings hanging in a real, legit art gallery.   And it’s on sale....FOR 60 BUCKS!!!   😂😂.  Never would have imagined it.  Crazy! 

Endless...

 ...and so it continues.   No, not continues, drags on.   In what seems like an endless loop of Groundhog Days.  The checks and balances don’t ever really seem to tip to the side of optimistic change.

Vaccines are here...yes.   So are these wicked variants.

Vaccine supply is increasing....so are hospital cases and stays.

It is indeed like a race and we never seem to get ahead.

Yesterday I cancelled my reservations for San Diego in January.  My first payment was due on the 15 and it just seems too uncertain to make any kind of international travel plans.  The land borders are still closed.  It looks like numbers might soon start to plateau/decline but they aren’t there yet.  It only seemed fair to Pete to give the reservation up so he can try and book a more certain rental.  It seems like the prudent thing to do and then readdress the travel situation in the fall and hope something is available, even if it’s for a shorter or a different time.   I think that’s the best/all than can be done at this time.

I’m now past the 3 week mark of having my first jab.  On one hand, I feel more confident and secure when I need to go out but, on the other hand, I’ve been questioning how this affects my day-to-day living.  I did go for a massage.   I wonder about going home though and or doing things like going to a movie.   I’m certainly not comfortable going to a restaurant yet. It appears things are changing, but they sure seem to be remaining the same.

My prediction is that May will continue to be nasty-in terms of high numbers and hospitalization.   But....we are to receive 2 million vaccines a week, starting this week, in May and June.   This will add to the 33% of us who have already had our first one, so it can’t NOT start making a difference....right?   I think my mid-June,  more people will start getting their second jab and we will start to see a slow and steady improvement and a turn toward better, easier days.   I have to believe this.  

My days feel all the same.  Leisurely mornings with coffee and the news, walking, audiobooks, painting and then, suppertime...it’s always freaking suppertime!

I know things could be worse.  I really do.  And I try not to counter that with “yes, but it could also be so much better”.   

Patience.   Focusing on the positive.  Appreciating the moment.  Counting blessings.   Good health.  Safety and security.  Walks.  Warmer weather.  Longer days.  No work stress.  

These remain my focus until thoughts of travel and unencumbered time with friends and friends can become normal again and we can break this endless loop that has become life in covid times.

Post-Jab

That was a rough 29+ hours.   Chills, fever, body ache, 29 hour headache, lethargy all kicked in at 2:30 am yesterday.   Finally broke down and took some ibuprofen at 5 am this morning to break the headache.   Seems to have helped.   Glad to be feeling better!  Can’t wait for the second one!  😳🙄🤕

I Am Jabbed

I’m trying to process how I feel.   I think it can be summed up simply as relief.  

I went to the drive-thru AstraZeneca-Oxford clinic at Prairieland this afternoon.   It took an hour and 20 minutes from entrance to exit.  I had not planned to do this today, but I’m very glad I did, as much for my mental health as my physical.  

Up to four months until the next one, and I will wait 3 weeks before socializing with less worry.   

There’s so much concern over variant spread.   But now I feel more hopeful.  

Please let this awful time end swiftly now.

The Art Of Waiting: Marking One Year Of The Pandemic

Today marks one year since the WHO announced the pandemic.  Incredible.  Six months ago, I wrote a post to mark that milestone with a few predictions/speculations for today.  Then I made a note to update it.  

So here goes:

Wolf Blitzer just said it’s 6 months to the day since the WHO declared this Covid pandemic.✔️

Dr. Fauci just said it’ll be a year before life goes back to how it was before the pandemic.✔️

The Weather Channel just said it’s going to be an El Nina winter (extra cold).

That’s a lot to take in. (Well, despite a couple God awful weeks, relatively this winter wasn’t as bad as if certainly could have been.)

So 6 months from now:   there’ll be a vaccine,(4 actually!), we’ll be in the downward slide of winter ✔️, Spring will be nearer ✔️, Bill’s wedding will be overX (a Covid casualty) and the promise of travel should be, once again, a possibility. (Well, practically, no, as there are many restrictions in place with testing requirements, self-isolations in hotels after air travel, land border between Canada and USA still being closed BUT the prospect for change is higher than its ever been because of the beginning of and hope in vaccinations).  

This has been an incredible roller coaster ride.  In these 6 months (3 actually) there have been:  vaccination inventions, announcements, procurements, distributions,   threats of it being held back, a 4-week “slow down”/stop of delivery in February, a ramp up afterward, an announcement to increasing the second dose from 3-4 weeks to 4 months to enable more people to get the initial dose quicker.  As of today, the Saskatchewan online booking system opened to 85+ year olds and tentative dates have been announced to receive our “jabs”...(I’m looking at you April 19!!!!!). 

Also currently, the race is on between vaccinations and variants.  Strains from the UK are especially worrying and present here, but ones from Brazil, South Africa and Southern California seem to be looming with questions and concerns of their own.   So, the roller coaster ride continues it’s ups and downs with no sense of certainly of when we can get off and be back on solid ground again.  

Like a roller coaster, so has been my state of mind.   On the up side, I have taken up painting, walked for hours and miles a day, listened to many audiobooks, and am grateful to not be working.   On the down side, I’ve been oddly concerned about getting water in the basement, felt alone and lonely more than I ever have, had such a sense of “Groundhog Day”, watched far too much gloom and doom news.   

It seemslike better days are coming.  Apparently, in the next three weeks we are to receive more doses of the vaccine than we have in the last three months.  🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼But it feels like it’s been so long since there has been anything positive and immediate in this regard that people, myself included, seem hesitant to embrace good news quickly; to believe that the end is, actually, nigh.  I am finding it more and more challenging to just, simply, wait.  

That said, to remain hopeful as I countdown to vaccination day in April, I think about next winter in San Diego, about going home to see Deed and Brenda, about singing again, about taking painting and glass classes; to just feel safer leaving the house and more relieved once family and friends are vaccinated too.  

As of today, 7% of Canadians have had their jab.   It’s coming.  Not fast enough, but it’s coming.  

A few months ago, I started this list.   I can’t wait to eradicate these from the vernacular!  

Words I Can’t Wait To Not Hear Any More:

Corona

Covid

19

Pandemic

Pivot

Variant

Mask

Virus

Self-isolate

“New normal”

Physical distancing

Donald Trump

Covid fatigue

Bubble

Connect virtually

Spike protein 

“We’re all in this together”

“Flatten the curve”

“Another layer of protection”

“Another tool in the tool box”

“Rounding the corner”

“Light at the end of the tunnel”

Second wave

Efficacy

“Could be worse”

Front line workers

Spike protein

Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4

👍🏼☺️👍🏼☺️