I am hesitant to write a personal post on this blog now that I have spent a tiny parcel of my own semi-hard-earned money on promoting it. I feel like some of the writing here, such as the posts on broadcasting history and other retro pop culture, is worthy of a slightly wider audience. Like, maybe 12 and 1/3rd views instead of the usual 3 1/2. So we’ll see if my efforts achieve anything.
On Wednesday I got my first Moderna COVID vaccine. Some people want the shot, some don’t. I wanted it despite knowing that it might knock me on my butt. I stopped taking the flu shot because, for two years in a row, it made me feel like hot death to the degree of calling in sick to work. As the sign-on guy (if by some miracle the advertising brought you here, I’m a radio disc jockey), I can’t really “call in sick”. I can call a guy at 5am and start his morning in a really crappy way. I prefer not to. In this case I couldn’t have anyway because that guy was on vacation all week.
So on Wednesday, right after I got back from getting the shot, I pre-recorded my Thursday morning show. Boy am I glad I did that. As Wednesday wore on my arm hurt at the injection site, and everybody who’s received the shot has seemed to report that to some degree. But as the day wore on, the deathening occurred, just as I’d remembered it from the flu shot. Headache, muscle aches, exhaustion. I woke up Thursday morning and, confident in the Canned Wenty doing my job for me at Radio City®, rolled back to bed.
At 8:30am or thereabouts, I rolled out of bed, managed to take a shower without concussing myself, and took the public transit to KCOW (a distance I typically walk with ease but did not trust myself that morning) so I could host “Open Mic”, our buy/sell/trade show. I did that, and some commercial production, and felt less-than-terrible by the end of the day. And today I feel pretty darn good.
In about four weeks I get shot #2. I’m already planning to just take the next day as a vacation day. I have a weak immune system and other delightful medical history which conspire to make things difficult. But worthwhile! Perfection would be getting both doses before the Chicago trip (two weeks from today!) but that will only encourage me to be safer and maskier and distancier and other things that aren’t real words.
As always, the Box Butte General Hospital staff were incredibly helpful and made the process simple and brisk. My experience was that everybody who was there felt incredibly fortunate to be getting their shot. If you believe in vaccines, this is the first step towards The Good Life, whether you live in Nebraska or not.
If you don’t believe in vaccines, I disagree with you but respect your right to hold that opinion. It would be easier to take a cavalier attitude to those in this category but I have very close friends who feel this way, and I can’t do that to my friends. I can argue, discuss, hector, heckle, etc. to the ones who give as good as they get. But only those.