"Just Shot Me"

Now that the end of the Pandemic seems to be in sight, we are all jostling in line to get The Shot (aka COVID-19 Vaccine).

I see celebrities and government officials doing photo-ops of them getting The Shot.  They rationalize being among the first because of their status as opinion-leaders, or "essential workers" but I am skeptical that seeing Nancy Pelosi or Mitch McConnel getting a shot is persuading any VAX skeptic to offer their arm to allow  alien sperm to be injected.  Nor do I consider either of them to be "essential" since they have accomplished nothing to ensure that the citizens are safe or well-fed. 

It seems to me that the way to stop the pandemic is to offer the vaccine to people who have the most human interactions.  First Priority should be the nurses and doctors who are personally involved with caring for sick patients.  Then other hospital and group facility staff that directly work with residents (and inmates)  and those who have customer facing positions like cashiers, cooks, servers, barbers, letter carriers, tradespeople like plumbers, repair technicians and electricians who need enter residences to do their jobs, people who work at counters, anyone who has hands-on food preparation or delivery. Also Classroom Teachers doing in person classes.  Then anyone in residential homes setting, including visitors.

If folks at these transmission points can be immunized as a priority.  The spread should be easier to stop. Then I would consider offering the vaccine to "essential workers." Active military, cops, firemen, persons who  need to show-up to keep the wheels of society running.  (This excludes most government workers, especially elected representatives.)

After these folks, then the general public should be next in line according to risk factors such as age, ethnicity, economic status, location, compromising health conditions.   This will be tricky.  I think there should be an outreach to "at risk" communities where infection spread is more of a problem.   Although I would be glad to get The Shot because I am over 75 with high BP  and fat (and therefore at higher risk from Covid complications), I think I would rather see a healthy 50 year old who needs to take public transportation to get to work get immunized before me.    

In other words the risk factor should not be solely based on who is most likely to die, but who is most likely to get and spread the disease.  Since I live in a suburb where there are fewer cases, since I stay home except for food and supplies, and I wash my hands, stay masked and distanced when out.  I am less of a spread risk than someone who is in constant close interaction with other folks.

All this intellectualizing is mere virtue signaling,  of course.  My survival instinct hopes that I am called tomorrow and told I am on "the list".  You can be assured:  I will show-up for my shot.

AFTERTHOUGHT: 

When they give you the second Covid shot you should get a card that certifies that you have had vaccine.  Restaurants and other businesses could then post signs saying "Only those who have had vaccine are welcome inside."  New job title for bouncers:  Virus checker.

No Excuses

Now, faithful fans, you all know that I am not one of those whiner bloggers who make excuses for not writing more often.  I have no excuses. I prefer to spin my excuses as "priorities". Sometimes it happens that there are so many more interesting things to do than logging on the computer and imparting sage thoughts and observations to a largely anonymous audience, for free.



Well, the other day one of the neighborhood mothers accosts me as I am innocently returning from my daily 5 mile walk. She is standing, gabbing with the other doting moms who are waiting for the 3 O'clock school bus to disgorged their pampered kids who can't be trusted to to walk home without getting into trouble.  She practically grabs me by the shirt and demands to know why I don't update the Blog more often.  

I wonder if this so called working mom really understands what being "busy" means.

Heck, she has probably has  nothing to do all day while the kids are in school.  How hard is it to do the laundry and clean house when you have HD TV's in every room?   And, when the kids come home from school you can get them to do all the work you couldn't finish because you were on the sofa watching The View and Dr Oz. 

Whereas, on the other hand,  I have a day of challenges.  On a typical day, I am rousted out of bed shortly after 9am.  I go downstairs, have my breakfast and coffee, read two papers and by then it is 11am.  If I have lunch scheduled, I need to get ready - often this involves a search for relatively unwrinkled clothes and possibly a shower.  If there is no lunch scheduled  then I go through all the take-out menus to see what I feel like and then send out for lunch.  After lunch, I generally spend some time working around the yard  or calling friends and chatting or shopping for dinner.  Perhaps I will have time for an afternoon walk or a nap.  I also cook on the days when my wife is working.  

On the days when the cleaners come, I have to straighten up everything. This includes:

•  Putting old magazines and newspapers away. 
•  Discarding all the junk mail that has been collecting for the past two weeks on the kitchen counter,  
•  Picking up scattered socks and other clothing items that have been tossed on the closet floor and putting them in the laundry hamper.
• Taking empty beer bottles out to the garage.
• Putting music CD's back in their cases and in storage.
• etc.

  I usually go over to the nearest Irish pub when the cleaners arrive - to give them room to work.
 When I get back home, the place looks great, but I am more in the mood for a nap than blogging.


So, you see I have lots of priorities that trump blogging, so get off my case.  OK?

Comparison Therapy

Is there anything more stressful than seeing water gushing into your basement? If you had asked me this question a few days ago, I might have said "Hell no!" But that was then. Today I think everything is relative.

Time and water will do that. Change the priorities in your life.

One of my teachers in high school was wont to intone "All comparisons are invidious." (Come to think of it, that quote is one of the few pieces of wisdom I can recall from my high school education . For some reason the assertion has stayed in my head all these years.) It made complete sense at the time. It seemed to convey a deep understanding about the nature of envy and competition.

These days, I am not so sure about the invidiousness of making comparisons. Hierarchy is all about distinctions, and we cannot escape the hierarchical nature of society, and the fact that we have a "place". The key to contentment is: Instead of obsessing about people who are better-off (and higher-up) than you, it is much more therapeutic to consider one's situation relative to others who are less fortunate. You know like, eat your spinach, they are starving in China. Or, you are complaining about not having shoes; then you meet someone who has no feet(see note 1).


So if you can feel a little better-off than at least one other person, it helps with the stress, right?

On further thought, if I was creating a list of stressful situations, the gushing water would not be so high on the list.

For example: watching your nest egg being depleted by forces you do not understand...that ranks up there on the stress curve. How about nagging rectal itch? Pretty stressful as Capt Hargreaves (Ret.) has informed me. Hell 90% of the world would love to have a house with a basement, and 50% of them don't get enough water to keep the crops irrigated.

So why am I whining about a few thousand gallons of misplaced H2O, and a few ruined LP's that I would never have listened to again?

I am lucky!

Like I say, everything IS relative.
Time and water will do that: wear away at those sharp and brittle edges of fear and logic , until you end-up as a smooth stone of acceptance on a beach called Serenity where you tell yourself, "It could be worse, you could be stuck in Dayton, Ohio." (see note 2)

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Note 1 One time I complained because I had no shoes. Then I met a man who had no feet. So I asked him what he did with his old shoes, since he didn't need them anymore. He just looked at me like I was a cold hearted moron. Hey, How can you have empathy for a guy when you can't walk around in his shoes?

Note 2 - Actually, I have never been to Dayton, but my sister-in-law assures me that this is the last place on Earth anyone would want to live.