After navigating the phone menu system and a few minutes on hold the phone rings and a nurse practitioner picks up…
Nurse: “What can I help you with today Mr. Cooper?” Me: “I need to schedule a vaccination.” Nurse: ” You can do that by going to our website and clicking on the COVID link at the top of the page.” …and she continues with an obviously well rehearsed answer with information on getting a COVID vaccination. Me: “Stop! Not COVID… Tetanus!” A long pause… Nurse: “Let me find you an appointment time, do you prefer the Kona clinic?”
A tetanus vaccine syringe after the dose has been delivered
Lives are often measured by the great events that take place during our short spans of existence. Wars, revolutions, social movements, mark both the great saga of human history as well as our personal stories.
Syringes loaded with SARS-CoV-2 vaccine await use at a vaccination clinic
The COVID pandemic will certainly be such an event. An event with worldwide impact, so many changes, so many lost.
While the start of the pandemic was slow, the events unfolding over weeks and months, I can mark it’s end as today. At least in a personal sense. Today I received my second dose of the Moderna vaccine, a moment I will likely remember, a moment that forever marks my personal journey.
Receiving the second dose of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine
This pandemic is not done, with me or the world at large. The pandemic will still have impacts, and the deaths continue, years from now when I look back this moment is where I will likely consider it done, at least in a personal sense.
For much the last year Deb and I have lived quietly, marking time, staying home. Re-discovering the small joys in life… Cooking, gardening, spending time under the stars with a telescope.
Time to move on with life. The timing seems even more appropriate in that I start a new job on Monday. I can plan for events more than a few weeks away, even consider some travel further than the shores of this small island.
It may not be over, but in my life, in my mind, it is over.
