Excitement in the Germaine household

February 05, 2021

It's been an exciting time. Especially the last two weeks or thereabouts.

On the roof

First my HOA told my installer that it approved the plans for the solar install. Then, day before yesterday, I woke to the sound of people on the roof drilling holes through the roof. That's always an exciting sound. Then by the end of the day, the solar panels and electrical stuff had been installed. Now just waiting for the utility Leviathan to approve the electrical set-up and flip the switch to on.

Carrying a solar panel up to the roof

That's really high up

COVID capers

A fun day at the ballpark getting the COVID vaccine

Then, on the same noise on the roof day (Wednesday), I overcame a huge psychological barrier and started getting aggressive about bludgeoning my way into a COVID-19 vaccine appointment. My age group (≥ 65) had been opened up the week or two before. No appointments were available on the three different places I checked, which is what I expected. One day after the noisy roof (yesterday), I checked again, having decided that I needed to get full-on aggressive and persistent. On a fluke, I checked at the ballpark where the Padres play to see if they had any vaccine openings at 11:00 am. After much confusion and a long phone call (on wait) with UCSD (U. Cal, San Diego) I found out that my attempt to get an 11:00 am appointment that same day at the ballpark (parking lot) actually succeeded.

I hurriedly told my beautiful spouse about it. She went online and was also able to get an appointment later that afternoon of the same day. Since some folks have a bad reaction to the vaccine, she decided to go with me to the ballpark in case I could not drive. And she wanted to see how it was set up for her appointment later that day.

I expected Trump level incompetence and chaos. That expectation was in error. The whole thing was done efficiently with no drama or stupid. Lots of cars were there. Each directed to one of 15 lines that led to 15 injection sites that handled 12 cars at a time. Each injection site was staggered so cars could get out past the street light at the exit.

On a whim, when we got to the check-in point, we asked if my wife's later appointment was OK for her to get an injection with me. Guess what? They said sure, just gimme your picture ID (driver's license in our case). They found her later appointment and checked her in too with me. If republicans had been in charge, they would never have let my wife get her vaccine early. They're authoritarians and don't tolerate adapting to circumstances.

In due course, ~15 minutes later, we got sent to an injection site with the other cars, showed our IDs again, got verified and then got our 1st COVID shots. Ouch, that shot stung more than most. We got the Moderna vaccine. About 20 minutes after that, they let us go once the egress traffic light turned green and there was room for a batch of 12 cars.

The next place for Trump-style chaos and incompetence came when we signed up fo the 2nd shot at the phone number we were given to schedule the 2nd shot. Once again, I expected Trump-style incompetence and chaos. Again, I was wrong. The person who answered took my wife's info and set her up with an appointment one month after the shot yesterday (March 4), which is exactly what the Moderna protocol calls for. And on top of that, they let her set me up with a 2nd shot appointment the same day and time. Trump clearly was not in charge of any of that. If he was, neither of us would even be started in the process.

The shot was sort of painful last night. It woke me up several times, but it's not painful right now, 24 hours later.

Meanwhile, the Navy is doing boat and airplane stuff in the neighborhood again