Mr. Biden (Bring My Vaccine) (A Randy Rainbow Song Parody)

Went to Costco yesterday.  Very anxiety-inducing, as it was my first "store" outing (other than the library, which has 4 people compared to 400) since the beginning of the pandemic.  I had been putting off my membership renewal (expired end of last month) because it is required to go *in* to do it, as well as getting Chico his own card (he was on the account, but needed to have his picture taken to be official).  Done, and Done.  Zippity... 😍

Zoom with Nancy and Judi this morning, now getting some things done around the house.  Continued Gratitude because, as of this morning, all three of our adult children have been fully vaccinated.  Huge sigh of relief, especially for the boys, since they are both in the restaurant business and have daily exposure to goodness knows what.  Right now we are all looking forward to our next gathering, when we will feel comfortable hugging, maskless.  Oh, Happy Day... 💞

This blog post has been in the works for *months*, back when Chico and I had our first shots in mid-January, and the circuitous and lengthy process we encountered (filling out forms, writing on our windshield at various points:  driver's license checks to make sure we were 65+, as well as waiting 15 minutes after the vaccination, to make sure we didn't have a reaction).  Start to finish, a three-hour experience.  Second time around was half the time, as they had fine-tuned the process.  That was at a public park, in our car, and now availability has expanded to Publix, drugstores, etc.  We've come a long way in three months.

The news is full of variants and herd immunity and "following the science", oh my!  We just have to figure out how to get more people vaccinated more quickly, and convince those with hesitancy, if not for themselves, to do it for others.

SONG:  Mr. Biden (Bring My Vaccine) - A Randy Rainbow Song Parody

BOOK:  Kelly Gets a Vaccine: How We Beat Coronavirus by Lauren D. Block, Adam E. Block, Debby Rahmalia (Illustrator)

POEM:  the delicate arrangement of unavoidable sorrow by Maya Stein

At the clinic, the path to the nurse with the syringe in her hand was festooned with signs.

It took no time to get through the answers - “No,” “No,” “No,” “No,” “No” - before

the clipboard came down and I was pointed toward table number 6. It was, dare I say,

almost cheerful, the processions of new arrivals, the summer-hued short-sleeve shirts

rolled to the tip of bare shoulders, volunteers on circuitous rounds in the waiting area,

spray bottles clipped to their waists. It was only later, midnight, waking to the cry

of my body as it wrestled with the angel serum inside it, that I peered at the edge of what

and who had been sacrificed, and what remainders the disease would scavenge.

In the morning, I drifted between rooms, sipping from my water glass, nested in a limbo

of relief and sadness, my eyes scanning a horizon that kept slipping in and out of view.

Relic by Russell Brakefield

years from now I dislodge a mask

kneeling in a gas station parking lot

to suck crumbs from the consoles

half in and half out the passenger seat

I dislodge a mask from the floormat

flattened and streaked, folded on itself

like a wounded bird but still

retaining its feather-blue tint

ear straps flung aside like broken wings

its sunken breast smudged

where I once pressed my mouth

the downy screen through which

I filtered my life, where my words were

wrung out and carried off as on a soft wind

a dirty plume that held prayers

and songs and desperate transactions

where I said even I love you

in a muffled tone, where I said even

I’m home! standing in the doorway

forgetting, for a brief moment, which

were the safer parts of the world

[Russell Brakefield: “As we encounter positive news about vaccines and look forward to a new administration’s response to the pandemic, I’ve been turning my mind to a post-Covid world, thinking about how we will live and interact with this time in history in the years to come.”]

QUOTE:  "Imagine the action of a vaccine not just in terms of how it affects a single body, but also in terms of how it affects the collective body of a community." ~ Eula Biss