Our health care system announced Monday they would be opening appointments for anyone over 65 “later in the week.” I logged into my account to make sure it worked, and I told asked Dale to do the same. We would need to act quickly when the time came. After I logged in, I could see all my information, but you still couldn’t make appointments.
I decided to check in every morning and every night, figuring it would go live before they announce it, and all of the sudden it would work. And that’s exactly what happened. Dale was still eating breakfast when I called him upstairs to log into his account.
Oh, but did he listen to me when I expressed my desire for him to test his account? Of course not. The password didn’t work, and we messed around with that for 30 minutes until he finally got a replacement password.
Although I was rather annoyed with Dale, we got appointments for tomorrow, so I got over it pretty quickly. I never do this, but I demanded an apology. Seriously. He claimed it was a misunderstanding, which is his way of saying he’s sorry, and I forgave him because after 42 years, why not?
That was Thursday, and I have still received nothing from our health care system announcing the COVID vaccination feature on the website is active. Sometimes it helps to be crazy neurotic.
For some reason, I became irrational with fear that I wouldn’t be able to keep the appointment. Being somewhat of an over-zealous pandemic warrior and part-time hypochondriac, I decided to take my temperature, which was 98.6.
I’m usually in the 97 range, so I freaked. As I was trying to calm myself down, I thought, even in the grandest cosmic joke of all times, I would not get COVID on the same day I made my vaccine appointment. Plus, I felt fine, no symptoms whatsoever and only left the house once to play golf during the last 10 days.
Coffee! I had just had two cups of coffee when I took my temperature, and I wondered if that made a difference. I waited a couple of hours and took my temperature again, and again and again. Because as a functioning hypochrondriac, I have three thermometers! One digital from CVS, one digital from Walgreens and a mercury. All three put me in the 97 zone.
You can’t make this stuff up.
We’ve not been to the mass vaccination site, so we’re doing a test run today. Normally, Dale would complain about the overkill, but he knows he’s barely out of the dog house, so he’s on board with whatever I want at this point. My pledge to you is that I will not abuse this power.
Sourdough starter
In other news, my sourdough starter is underway. So far, so good, but I’m prepared to fail.
I’m following instructions in the Tartine cookbook and so far feel mildly confident it will work. I used a pint-sized tub filled about halfway with lukewarm water and a 50/50 mix of bread flour and whole wheat flour – enough to make a thick batter. After three days in a cool dark place covered with a dish towel, it bubbled and smelled funky. That’s when you start the feeding cycle.
Every morning, I discard 80 percent of it and add enough water and flour mixture to make another thick batter. Cover and return to its hiding place. I’m not sure how long this goes on – possibly a week – before I can actually bake with it. I’m keeping a log, so I can report back to you on how the timing works.
For now, we’re in the feed and wait mode – not unlike many of us riding out the pandemic.
Feed and wait.
Damaged goods
In other striking parallels, I’m working on a new woodburning piece, and I am once again in awe of the lessons I have learned through working on damaged wood.
I accept the pallet scraps are flawed, and nothing I can do will make them perfect. Perfection isn’t even on the radar. If I make a mistake, I just mess with it until the mistake looks like I did it on purpose. If I start to think, oh, this is ugly, I switch to, hey, cut yourself some slack, it was trash!
Working on wood scraps reminds me that we are all damaged goods. Proceed accordingly and remember, whether it’s art, relationships or sourdough, all you can do is practice and forgive.
I hope you and your husband got your vaccines! There are huge shortages in Canada which means we are learning to wait. Hopefully, supplies will arrive soon.
Good luck with the sourdough. One of my book club friends has starter and she generously offers it at every zoom meeting. It’s only a 10-minute drive to her house but I haven’t had the urge to try making bread with the sourdough starter. I’m interested in reading about your results.
Thanks, Jeanette. I hope the vaccine situation in Canada gets better soon! As for sourdough, I’ll share what I learn. I’m not overly optimistic, but I think there’s a decent chance this will work.
Good luck with your vaccines. We got our first dose 2 1/2 weeks ago. It was difficult to get an appointment in our area of Virginia but I found appointments 2 hours away. I was paranoid also that something would happen and we wouldn’t get there. We left 3 hours early and my husband (of 43 years) and I had numerous arguments which route to take. We got there an hour early and because we didn’t want to stop on way I had to use the bathroom (urgently). We went into the facility and they were so nice, I used the bathroom and they took us right away and we got our shots and were out of there in 20 minutes (we were done 45 minutes before our scheduled appts). Our 2nd dose is Tuesday. Now I am nervous about side effects. We didn’t have any with the first dose but I understand they are more likely with the second and I had a friend who got her 2nd dose last week and had a very miserable 24 hour reaction, fever, chills, sweats, headache (although her husband had no side effects). However I feel fortunate we are able to get the vaccine….still in our area they are saying March or April before the over 65-75 year olds can get it. Let us know how it goes.
Thank you for sharing your story — it sounds all too familiar, including the bathroom part. We did OK during our “test run” to the facility yesterday. Only one “almost fight” about which exit to take. But it’s only a 40-minute drive. I’m not sure we’d survive a 2-hour trip!
Donna, once again you’ve summed up life in a pandemic – feed and wait. It fits in with “drink the bleach” & wait for the marshmallow! Exercise works to counteract both feeding and waiting so I put boots to the ground and walk outside as often as possible. It’s -40C/F this morning so I’ll add up the steps inside today. The process of making sourdough fits my state of mind. I feed it with information; my mind bubbles; some of my thoughts get discarded only to be replaced by more feeding until finally it can be turned into something palatable for some but not all.
I always say golf parallels life, and now it’s sourdough. Your description is perfect!
Dear Donna, practice and forgive, a good move. I had my vaccination today, such excitement. UK leading the way in Europe. Now on third whiskey, can’t feel a thing.
Hi Alan! I’m so excited you got the vaccine. It’s good to know whiskey helps. We are headed out in about an hour. I can’t recall feeling such anticipation.