Oh well, forget about getting vaccinated. I called my doctor’s office the first day I was eligible, at 9 a.m. sharp, and they knew nothing. Then I called Southampton Hospital, and they too knew nothing.
The state’s “Am I Eligible” website said the nearest site for East Hamptoners was in Medford, some 50 miles away, a trek for one who hasn’t driven past Southampton in the past 10 months. I demurred, and then the next day read that the cited site there, a pharmacy, had been overwhelmed, and that, moreover, it had no vaccine to begin with.
Now Newsday says we geezers won’t be able even to make appointments until late April. Thus one has to inoculate oneself against the likelihood that, eligibility aside, one won’t get inoculated anytime soon.
So, we’ll continue to be cautious and follow the protocols. I’m so careful I jumped back a few feet in my chair during our Zoom editorial meeting this morning when someone sneezed. I avoid aspirate “Hs” like the plague, and I’ve been wearing a mask when playing tennis, not only as a safety measure, but to muffle my periodic cries to heaven when the gods have treated me rudely.
I would like to think, then, that the face-covering confers “heard” immunity, but I’m still pretty sure those playing two or three courts down — at least if they’ve been at E.H.I.T. for a while — know who the ass behind the mask is.
It occurs to me that it might not be such a bad thing to continue to wear masks even after the pandemic passes, as a means to stifle at least some of the hot air within. Ask not what your country can do for you, but what your mask can do for the country. It could become infectious.
Aside from having dodged the bullet thus far, my chief achievement during the pandemic is the fact that I’ve come to keep up with Mary as we walk O’en. She is shorter than I, though her turnover is rapid, a purposeful strider. It used to be that, in contrast to the Muslim world, it was I who was always the one walking 10 paces behind.
But the other day I found, probably because I’ve been exercising regularly, that I was matching her stride for stride, which delighted me.
It was good to be walking along shoulder to shoulder, whether we’d received shots in them or no.