The warm weather was holding on but even 70 degree weather in mid March didn't do much to improve my mood. I was in a funk over vaccines and that ruled my week.
The problem was that UNL was prioritized in Lancaster County but since I live in another county, I couldn't sign up for a shot under UNL. On Tuesday, a bunch of my friends were getting shots and I was bummed that I wasn't getting one. I finally decided to call the Health Department on Tuesday morning and plead my case. They said they'd check and call back. I left for lunch in the park with Lori, which wasn't very pleasant because of the wind. The picnic tables were in the shade so it was pretty chilly but when I got back there was a message on my machine to call them back and they could sign me up. Yee ha! It took about 10 minutes and they said there would be a clinic on Friday and I'd get an email to schedule an appointment. While I was relieved and hopeful, I wouldn't calm down or get a good night's sleep until I had an appointment.
I was a maniac on Wednesday, jumping every time my computer dinged with an email message but still hadn't gotten it by late afternoon. My monthly Ripples zoom was at 3:00 and the topic was resilience. I look forward to these but Paul started with a retrospective of the last year, including talking about his mom and 2 aunts dying of covid, which brought me down. By the time the zoom was over, I was feeling maudlin and I told Anne I would not be driving to Lincoln to swim. I spent the evening running to check email after every ding but had no vaccine email so went to bed for yet another night of stress dreams. I hadn't slept well all week.
Nothing early Thursday either and when I mentioned that I was waiting for an email at my morning team zoom, Ben said he'd gotten the email so I was back on the phone with the Health Department immediately after the zoom. They checked my record and found that they'd put me in as general population instead of UNL so they fixed that and scheduled me for 12:45 on Friday. There are no words to explain the relief and elation I felt after that phone call. Ecstatic isn't enough. I was going to get a shot and couldn't have been happier. The rest of the day flew by and I went to bed and slept like a rock.
I had plenty to do Friday morning with monthly Foundation reports and a zoom training that I struggled to focus on but it was noon before I knew it. I was driving down on my lunch hour, would be taking sick time for however long the shot took and then was using vacation time to take the rest of the day off to celebrate. The vaccine location was in indoor soccer field and from the minute I turned off the road, it was like Disney. There were people waving you through the parking lot then they were ultra organized inside. I signed in, filled out a form and had the shot in my arm within 10 minutes. Then waiting in the recovery area was fun. There were lots of UNL people there so I chatted the time away and may have stayed 30 minutes or more, chatting with people I haven't seen in more than a year.
I had kept Saturday clear in case I had any side effects but other than a slight headache that came and went (and I mean slight), I was unaffected. Nice. I enjoyed a quiet day of knitting. It was raining anyway so inside worked. I set the clocks back and went to bed early to read.
I was jolted awake on Sunday but the sound of a branch from my neighbor's dying tree hitting my roof. I knew what it was but it was raining too hard to go out and check. Then when I got up, I saw there was water in my basement. I'd checked the gutter knowing rain was coming but I hadn't taken it off. I went out in the rain in my nightie to check and come to find out, the gutter had a clog of leaves so the water was backing up and coming out where the downspout met the bit at the bottom. I knocked out the glob of dead leaves and the back dripping stopped. It wasn't too bad in the basement so I just left it to evaporate. With all that done, it was time for Sunday morning TV, chatting with my sister and doing enough chores to get ready for the coming week. And since Pi Day was on a weekend, I made little mincemeat pies and brought some to my friend Lorri, who had made the mincemeat and shared it with me at Christmas. It's good to have friends to share with.
So a week that found me angst ridden to start ended on a great note. I'll be due for my 2nd shot (I got a Pfizer vaccine) at the end of the month so will be safe by mid-April. The first thing on my list is lunch with Layton and while I'm trying to save vacation time, I'll use some for that. Can't wait. And while I hate the time change and think it should be voted out of existence, the extra hour of light at the end of the day will be nice in a few weeks when it's warm enough to garden. So much to be thankful for!
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