Category: Family

It’s been a little over three weeks since my father received his COVID shot. The day he received his vaccination, he told me that he was sleepy, and the remaining week, he had a sore throat, but other than that, he’s fine. Tomorrow, I’ll be taking my father in for his second dose of the COVID vaccination. Since he typically takes my mother to work (she’s a nurse), she’ll be coming along, and I’ll drop her off before we head on in for his shot. Dad’s appointment is at 7:30 am.

Immediately after his first shot, he told me that he did not need me hanging about for the second shot. But he changed his tune once he learned that his brother had a nasty reaction to his second dose of the vaccination. Guess what I wasn’t listening to him anyway. I still took time off work and told him I’d be hanging out with him to make sure he was okay. My brother was going to come down if I was busy. He’s not minding that I’ll be hovering about him. Since mom works tomorrow, it makes sense to be available if I’m needed. I’d taken off Monday also, just in case. However, my mother told me that she doesn’t work. However, I’ll stay off and plan to do things with my daughter on Monday.

Here in Maryland, they’re slowly opening up the vaccinations to more people. I find it interesting that while most people who work out of the home are eligible to receive the vaccination, not all are. What? If you think about it, that does not make that much sense since if you are working, your chances of being exposed to COVID are higher than those who are at home. My work is considered essential, so we were never shut down. However, even though we are essential personnel, we don’t meet the criteria for those allowed to get the vaccination. It’s a bit strange since I’m in an office setting, surrounded by many people.

I’m in no rush to get the vaccination. I typically have had nasty reactions to them and avoid them whenever possible. I most likely will be required with my job; at some point, I’ll choose the one that seems to have minor side effects. Currently, I’m still researching the ones available.

Last week, my father told me that he finally received the call to receive his COVID vaccination. My mom is a nurse and received hers shortly after they were made available in our state. She’s had hers for a few months. At the end of January, Dad had me check to see if there were COVID vaccinations available at various locations in our state. Sure, they were administering them. Good luck trying to acquire one for yourself. They were booked for weeks in advance. The only place I could find that allowed an individual to be called when shots were available was Johns Hopkins. I’d also set him up, via the Hopkins website, for them to contact him when the vaccination was available. That’s who called him.

Dad told me that the shots were going to be administered at one of Hopkin’s downtown locations. Hopkins has numerous locations throughout Maryland. Wow, that’s at least 30 minutes away from where my parents live. Too bad it wasn’t at the location 10 minutes away from where they live. Dad is now 82 years old and not as eager to venture out to places that he’s not familiar with, and so as soon as he told me where the vaccination would be conducted, I offered to take him.

My father used to work at UMB and passed by Hopkins daily. However, it’s been many years since he’s been down there, and some things have changed. My mom isn’t familiar with downtown, so it made perfect sense for me to take him. Dad actually knows more about the city than I do; however, using Waze on my phone takes me right where I need to go, and I’ve been to that Hopkins location a few times. My brother had told me he would have taken dad if I couldn’t, but he lives a state away. Besides, where else do I have to be at 6:30 AM on the weekends? My workday is Monday – Friday.

Yesterday, I virtually checked my father in using Hopkins through MyChart. While doing that, I realized since I was taking him, I had to check myself in as well virtually. Part of the check-in was responding to a series of questions; all of them were COVID-related.

The questions asked were COVID-related.

• Have you experienced this list of symptoms (examples given) within the past ten days
• Have you been exposed to someone with COVID within the last 20 days?
• Did you have COVID with the last 14 days?

There were a few more, but those are the ones I remembered. I’m rarely late for anything since I always give myself plenty of time to reach my destination, and I factor in potential traffic. However, leaving my father’s house at 6:00 in the morning. There was hardly anyone on the road. We arrived about 40 minutes early. The good news is that the Outpatient center is less than 800 feet away from a garage.  At that distance, it was a quick walk to the Outpatient Center.

Once we entered the Outpatient Center, I found out where the vaccinations were to be administered, which was on the same level and about 800 feet away, and dad and I sat down and waited. We were the first ones there and were even there before the ones administering the vaccines. Since that was the case when they did finally start forming the lines. Dad was first to be checked in and receive his shot. They had several stations open, so there was not much waiting. I noticed that most people were older; most looked like they were in their seventies or older. After dad received his shot, one of the nurses instructed him to wait in another area for 15 minutes. They wanted to observe him to see if he had an immediate reaction to the vaccination. While waiting, they scheduled his second round of the COVID vaccination. He’ll be receiving that in a little over three weeks. I’ll be taking him back there in a little over three weeks. Same day/time. Dad thanked me for taking him. No need for that. He’s my dad; I love him. Of course, I’ll make sure he’s taken care of.

Dad is happy he finally got the vaccination, and of course, I’m happy that he’s no longer wondering when he’ll get his shot.

Edited to add:

I followed up with my dad, besides being slightly sleepy later this morning. He is fine. I took off tomorrow. However, I was planning to go to work. However, after reading his discharge notes, I think I might stay off or at least leave much earlier than planned in case he has any side effects.

 

As I sit here typing while riding my stationary bike, I started thinking about certain things I do daily. Until a few months ago, hopping on my exercise bike for an hour was the first thing I did upon awakening. However, now that’s not always the case. In fact, there were a few weeks where I did not get on the exercise bike at all. This is a first for me since riding the bike every day was something that I did upon receiving the bike in May. During the week, my workday routine hasn’t changed. I’m still packing my lunch and water daily.

I consume water daily, that hasn’t changed in fact it’s increased, and now, some of those daily sips of water are carbonated. I’m really loving Drinkmate and will have to write a thorough review once I’ve used it for a few months. Although I can carbonate anything, what I carbonate most is water!

On weekends I typically make food in bulk, so if I don’t feel like preparing meals, I have to look in our deep freezer and choose what I want, heat and prepare. It’s also when I tend to do more modules with my online class. Weekends are also when I tend to focus on knitting or sewing, although the last several weeks, I haven’t done much of either. However, this weekend, I do believe I will focus on knitting. Since I started a pair of socks, using a modified by my pattern, I would like to finish within the next few weeks.

This morning I awoke to the tinkling of ice on our rooftop.

They were calling for 4-6″ of snow in our area; however, thus far, it appears that we’ve only received the ice. Yikes! They have liberal leave (all day) at my job, and since the ice isn’t letting up yet (almost four hours later), I called out of work earlier this morning.

Monday, I was able to get my website showing the images correctly. As seen above, related post images appeared. However, images embedded within the post did not. Well, it’s finally working, and that’s only because I followed up with customer service at Hostgator (my hosting provider), and Shania, the person I spoke with in live chat, was able to assist me. In my case, the issue was with the .hta access file. Shania made the appropriate changes, and now images aren’t missing on any of my websites. Thanks, Shania!

In other news…

Since I’m off today, I’m working on my Aduster’s Pro Claims Adjuster’s Course.

With some of the modules, I find that I need to spend more time on them to ensure that I understand the terms and can use them correctly, and that’s perfectly fine.

 

A few weekends ago, my daughter and I went to the fabric store and I purchased zebra print plush faux fur for my nephew. He’d seen a cow print faux fur blanket that I’d made for my daughter about a month ago. He liked it so much that I told him, I’d make one for him. Since they were sold out of the cow print fur, I sent a few alternative options to my brother. My nephew chose the zebra print. I used a walking foot on my domestic sewing machine (Brother Deisgnio) and I didn’t have any issues sewing the blanket, even though it was bulky. In total, it took me about an hour to complete. For small projects, such as this, I didn’t have any issues. However, I would not make a habit of using my domestic sewing machine for bulky fabric. Since the machine isn’t designed for that. Later this year, I’ll be buying a Juki DU-118N Walking Foot Industrial Sewing Machine.

Last evening, my brother texted me the above picture and said, “Your nephew loves his blanket. When he’s downstairs playing video games, he has this blanket wrapped around him, and when he’s sleeping, it’s on his bed. Their home isn’t cold. My nephew just loves how soft it is. Since I self-lined the fabric in the same faux fur, this blanket is heavy. I’m tempted to make one for myself since I do enjoy sleeping under heavy covers. Yes, even when it’s warm outside.

In other news…

I talked to my father this evening and he said that they are calling for 4-8” of snow in our area tomorrow night. I haven’t been paying attention to the weather, however, I’m hoping we receive snow. My co-workers don’t share my enthusiasm.

 

It’s been a few years since we received more than a dusting of snow,

and to be perfectly honest the snow we’ve received the past few weeks hasn’t been a lot.

We received at least three inches with this last snowfall, but you know what? I’ll take that snow. It sure looks lovely.

My only regret is that I haven’t been able to get out and enjoy the snow as I have in the past.

Life has been so busy, however, I took a few photos of the snow on my way to work last Monday.

Here’s hoping we receive some more snow before spring makes an appearance.

Earlier today, I purchased another laptop, it’s a 17″ Acer Nitro 5 for myself. It’s listed as a gaming computer; however, I will be doing most of my online coursework from here. I also purchased a wireless mouse. I bought them both from Best Buy earlier today. I took advantage of their curbside delivery.

I’m currently going through setting things up on the computer, moving files from one of the desktops to this computer, and perhaps later, I’ll play a video game with my daughter. Currently, I’m downloading Final Fantasy XIV. I’ve never played it before. However, I’m curious to check it out. I’m a World of Warcraft player, although admittedly, I haven’t’ actively played WoW in months, let’s be honest… years. However, I still enjoy playing the occasional game. I’m just not that impressed with WoW. I have plenty of fond memories within WoW and have met folks that have turned into real-life friends. The friends will stay even when I leave the game for good.

Currently, I’m in my daughter’s room watching her play Genshin Impact on her PS4. Later this year, I’ll be purchasing another MacBook Pro. I’ll give the new computer to my daughter, and take her old MacBook.