My sense of OCD really appreciates this day's number.
You know that song by fun. (lowercase, with a g.d. period) that goes, "What do I stand for, what do I stand for? Most nights, I don't know?" Well, that damned song has been bouncing around in my head for the last three days, ever since I forced my nephew to go to the store with me on Friday, and let him choose the station, and that song came on.* Are you a fan of that song? What about the part at the end where the music gets all distorted and shitty?
Oh, alright. To each their own, I guess.
Sit-ups Today: 100
Sit-ups In April: 2033
I came to the library today, and nobody's got masks on. Just the employees. Oh wait, of the seven people I currently see, one does have a mask on.
More amazingly . . . the drinking fountains were back on and available again! Honestly, I've missed that more than the lack of human companionship during the pandemic. You see, I didn't have that to begin with.
Did you know that in some dark corners of this country, drinking fountains (or water fountains) are known as "bubblers?" Isn't that the worst thing you've ever heard?
And speaking of terrible things . . .
So, I had an appointment this morning, and it fell apart, so I thought I'd go over to Walgreens and ask about the COVID vaccine again. The last time I went there, they were all booked up, and explained to me how to make an appointment, but it seemed too complicated, so I never did it. This time, though, I asked the lovely employee (she's worked there long enough I've seen her without the mask on) how I make an appointment, and the manager overheard and came over to tell me that they had some doses of the vaccine that are expiring today, so they had to give them to someone.
He told me to walk up and tell them that, and I did. There was only one girl behind the pharmacy counter,
While I was filling out my paperwork, a big hillbilly-looking dude came up and stood in line in front of me. When I say big, I mean, about six-three or six-four and about three or four hundred pounds. When I say hillbilly-looking, I mean he wore overalls and had a scraggly grey beard over a foot long. Think "Buddy has an axe to grind. A big axe."
This guy's name was not Buddy, though. He said it when he went up to the window. I'll tell you what it was next time you see me, if you want another laugh.
He was not there to get the vaccine, he mentioned in a gravely, Southern-tinged voice, but to pick up a "perscripshun," and when I finished my paperwork, the girl behind the counter said I could just come up and give her the form and her pen back (instead of waiting in the line again).
As I came up next to him, I couldn't help but notice the pinky ring he wore on his huge finger. It was a swastika, complete with red circle around it. I did a double-take, since I figured I had to be imagining things (kind of like when I allow myself to believe that Blondie the Walgreens employee recognizes me).
I thought about trying to take a picture of it for you, and promptly put that out of my mind. But in scouring the internet, this seems to be the best representation of what he wore:
It's so weird that you would wear something out in the open like that, but after the last four and a half years, nothing should surprise me anymore.
The actual vaccination bit didn't take any time at all (and it didn't hurt in the slightest). The kid who stuck me didn't seem too knowledgeable, and would be around my own son's age . . . if I had had a kid a decade ago. There was a big list of possible side-effects and warnings and such, but that's not why I hadn't gotten the vaccine yet, when so many other people had. Just yesterday, Seth Meyers on his show mentioned that in the U.S., they passed the milestone of more than half (51%) of Americans having gotten the vaccine . . .
. . . and that made me think: Why am I not among them? I hear statistics all the time ("67% of Americans approve of Joe Biden," "31% of filmgoers have gone back to the movies since the pandemic," "98% of Americans have never heard of the 1987 Slasher Film SLAUGHTERHOUSE ," "57% of adults would not pee on a homeless person," etc.) and I often consider myself on the "right" side of the argument. A lot of the people who refuse to take the vaccination have made it political, or racial, or are conspiracy theorists, and I didn't want to be lumped in with those fear-mongering, pinky-ring-wearing types.
When I got home, I had a message from my friend Jeff in Germany that he had gotten his first shot (Moderna for him) today as well. I guess that makes us brothers.
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| "Who makes the sausage?" We may never know. |
So, I got the vaccination (Pfizer for me), and three weeks from now, I'm supposed to get the second one. And that was pretty good use of my time (even if I only got three pages of my new book read while waiting for my turn).
Push-ups Today: 161
Push-ups In April: 2197
My arm is really killing me right now.** They said there would likely be side-effects, and I remember years and years ago, that I got one of those injections they called "peanut butter shots," and had been freaked out by the horror stories the other kids promised were in store for me . . . and then there were no adverse effects at all.
I had intended to come here and write more of this twin story (I'm leaning toward calling it "Identical" or something along those lines), but I got an idea for YET ANOTHER Lara and the Witch story, and I started to jot down my thoughts, but then wrote the opening scene. And now I need to go, if I'm going to get my run in before it's time to meet my cousin for our hang-out and TV watching.
Words Today: 1283
Words In April: 14,274
*The whole song is bouncing around, not just that part. There's a baffling line at the beginning that goes "Some nights, I wish that my lips could build a castle; Some nights, I wish they'd just fall off." Not sure what that means, although I imagine a castle made of Legos, for some reason.
**Dang, that's an exaggeration. It hurts when I move it, and is sore to the touch, but it's not throbbing in pain or anything. I'm fine, and fully intend to do push-ups and sit-ups and running later, even if it hurts. Especially if it hurts.
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