Nighthawk of Sleet

[ismo]

Yay--we got our first Pfizer doses today. I feel as if I've participated in some gigantic and poorly understood ceremonial and received a ritual blessing. No bulls or goats were sacrificed! It was a bloodless ceremony except possibly for a wee drop that might have followed the needle. It was all very well organized and remarkably quiet and non-crowded. We had directions to the parking garage beneath the giant convention hall where the injections were set up. As soon as we arrived, there was very clear and abundant signage. Once we parked, we were ushered inside by helpful people in orange vests who checked our temperatures and made sure we had masks and had sanitized our hands. Then we proceeded through the vasty halls, following the "6ft.apart" dots on the floor, and beckoned along at every point where there might be even a hint of confusion by helpers in orange vests. They even put a pre-printed sticker on the Sparrowhawk's jacket to remind us where we parked our car. We registered on a screen at a kiosk, then proceeded to another helper who put stickers on our paperwork, newly printed out via the screens we'd just engaged with. There was a double row of cubicles with little curtains on them, and a traffic control person motioned us into the proper cubicle as it became available. There, the temple worker purified our skin and punctured us with the ceremonial needle to avert the attention of the plague gods. We are now off-limits to the pestilence. We waited reverently for 15 minutes afterwards in the Hall of Gratitude to make sure no imp of vengeance was going to attack us for our attempted escape, and then headed back to the parking lot. As we exited, I observed that in spite of all the signage, an older person had managed to turn the wrong way and her car was stuck in a metal barrier. Oh dear.

An hour after we got home, they texted us to set up an appointment for the second injection in three weeks. That's a relief, because I had been afraid we'd have to wait around indefinitely. Now there's an end point. My arm hurts a good deal at this point, but no more than it would from a tetanus booster. And I feel slightly hot and wonky, but nothing serious. I'm just drinking lots of ice water.

Sadly, all this meant I missed the last morning of nice weather for walking. Worth it, though! The snow arrived right on time this afternoon. It's falling thickly and blowing about in white curtains, and is scheduled to keep on like this all day tomorrow. The evening news showed numerous trucks jack knifed on I-94 near Kalamazoo. I don't know why people go there in a snowstorm. It never ends well. Of course, we did it that one Christmas--but I don't recommend it! Everybody should just STAY HOME. And I'm happy that we can do just that. We didn't have time to stock up on anything, because of spending the morning getting shots. I had to laugh when I realized that, because of COVID-19, we're already stocked up on everything--toilet paper, bread, cheese, soup, meat in the freezer, cans of beans . . . . We even have canned milk and powdered creamer if we run out of fresh milk and coffee cream. We're pre-prepared.