My Second Dose

Tomorrow's the day.  We'll drive up to Casa Grande, to a different Walgreens on the other side of town, so that I can get my second dose of the Moderna vaccine.

Though I was delighted at the time to receive Moderna's entry into the vaccine marketplace, today I wish I didn't have to do it all over again.  A one shot, J&J miracle cure would suit me just fine.  

But off we'll go, and I'll present my arm and wave it around once it's inoculated, and I'll stay hydrated. I have Advil and chicken soup and small cans of Coca Cola.  I've got the blankets the kids made for us through Shutterfly to cosset me.  I've made no plans for several days afterwards.... not that there were that many plans to be made before the shot, anyway.  

And two weeks from now, I will be free.

Or not.

We can gather with our vaccinated friends, indoors, unmasked, sharing food and drink and hugs and sports on tv.  We can gather with unvaccinated families, one unit at a time, as long as they are not at high risk.

Okay, I get all that.  If I could beam myself up to Indiana, I could hug my grandchildren and their grown ups.  But the CDC is still saying I shouldn't travel, that there are risks.  If I could drive across town to touch them, I'd be there in a heartbeat.  But what if I come in contact with a contagious person, and I bring that contagion into their home?  Until the CDC tells me otherwise, I'm waiting until the grownups (at least) have gotten their shots.

I'll still be masked.  I can't see myself in a restaurant filled with unmasked eaters, but I might find it possible to sit at an outdoor table, far from other diners, and eat a slice of pizza hot from the oven.  Scarlet and I will play mah jongg together, but the friendly weekly gathering of Happy Ladies at the Oro Valley Community Center won't be part of my life for a long time, I'm afraid.

The Happy Ladies are hiking - but they are wearing masks.  I'll put that off, too.

Listening to music outdoors at Club Congress will be on the agenda, dining at the Cafe's close quarters will have to wait.

I'll take the remaining pink yarn into Michaels and try to match it myself.  I'll check out the Tweezerman tweezers near the Customer Service Counter at Bed Bath and Beyond with my own eyes.  And the fruit --- I'll be in every market in town, just to see and smell.

Best of all, I'll be able to be outside in Grandma's Garden with my Prince Mustangs.  There is a lot of work to be done.  I will enjoy supervising it, from a distance, masked and not hugging, comforted by the mere presence of those small humans playing with what's growing in the garden beds.

Slowly, life will return to normal.  I cn hardly wait.