No Movies, Not Even a Little Taylor

DH and I didn't make it to the theater this weekend. He really wanted to see Dumb Money, but the entire theater was taken over my Taylor Swift's concert. Well, except for the new Saw movie and some other horror flick. He's not interested in Taylor, and I had too much work to do after losing a day and a half to side effects from the new Covid booster.

The side effects were minimal: fever, headache, chills, but I'm immuno-compromised, which is the reason for getting the blasted shot to begin with. However, I woke up on Wednesday morning, feeling pretty damn. Even the arm soreness was gone, and that usually lasts 4-5 days.

It's one of the reasons I said screw it, and I moved the release of Fae and Felonies to Halloween. There's a lot of stuff that goes into a release. It's not just writing the book (or rewriting the book in this case), editing, and formatting.

And if I can getting that stuff done while I'm in Chicago, maybe I can go see Taylor Swift's concert on the big screen. I may not be a Swiftie, but I can appreciate another artist's work.

I Hate Shots!

Fall is officially here, which means it's time for flu and pneumonia shots. That's become the new normal for me between my screwed up immune system and the fact I'm still considered an active cancer patient.

I got stabbed for the flu yesterday. Unfortunately, my doctor also ordered me to get a COVID-19 booster. Our county's infection numbers are shooting up because the Delta variant is rampaging through the area. Too many unvaxxed folks are on ventilators. There's only two hospitals in Hancock County so there's a limited number of beds.

I don't want to be one of them because break-thru infections are happening. I really wish some of my friends and family took this disease more seriously. I don't want to send out any more sympathy cards. I don't want to lose anyone. And I don't want to die either.

Take care of yourselves, folks. Get your shots if your doctor recommends them. Remember...

Winter is coming.

Coronavirus Pandemic Day 517 - What Will Happen When the Healthcare Workers Give Up?

In the U.S., we stand at 36,319,708 known cases of COVID-19 and 627,018 known deaths from the disease.

Yet, people continue to refuse to get the vaccine.

I read this anguished essay from a doctor last week. She echoes the things I'm hearing from friends who are in various medical positions. The amount of people pleading for someone to save them when all they had to do was get a free vaccine shot is horrible.

The healthcare profession are considered essential workers. They haven't the luxury of Netflix and chilling for the last seventeen months. And a lot of them have caught COVID-19 and died because of the lack of PPE and any vaccines.

So, for those of you who haven't gotten or refuse to get one of the vaccines for reasons that have nothing to do with your own health issues, what are you gong to do when the entire healthcare system breaks, mentally and physical, over the strain of trying to take care of those, like you, who refuse to take care of themselves?

What are those of us who need the healthcare system for things other than COVID-19? Believe me, you have no idea how much I wish cancer could be dealt with in one or two shots!

Look, take a ten-minute visit to your pharmacist. A quick poke, maybe two, depending on which vaccine they have in stock, and it's done. If any one was going to have major side-effects from the damn shot, it would have been me. But, nope, nary a sniffle.

Please get the vaccine! I don't want you to die!

Coronavirus Pandemic Day 503 - It's Still Here!

Believe me, folks! I know y'all wish it were over. I wish it was over, too. But we have half the country refusing to get vaccinated, so it isn't going to go away. The virus will continue to mutate. The Delta variant is inundating the country as I type this. Scientists are still trying to get a handle on it and the new Lambda variant.

Then there's everyone who's not vaccinated refusing to wear masks. The folks in the hospitals whisper-screaming, "FREEDOM!", while the medical staff is trying to shove a ventilator tube down their trachea in a desperate attempt to save their life. The idiots who are trying to own the "libs".

I'm vaccinated, but I've started wearing my masks again. It's the middle of a hot, muggy Ohio summer, and I'm still wearing my masks because I'm immuno-compromised and the dumbasses around me don't give a fuck whether I live or die.

Or worse, whether my newborn grandson lives or dies.

The level of selfishness amazes me. Especially when it includes my family and friends. When GK and SO bring Adorable Spawn to our house in October, we'll have a much smaller gathering than we planned because I refuse to let one person who's not vaccinated step into our house other Adorable Spawn and his cousin, who are both babies.

I was supposed to meet some friends in Vegas in November, but I'm questioning whether or not to go because there's one person who's refusing to get the damn vaccine, even though he's in worse shape than I am.

Yeah, I know there's some of you who can't take the damn vaccine. This rant isn't aimed at you. It's aimed at your friends and family who would put your life at risk because "FREEEEDAHM!"

Coronavirus Pandemic Day 419 - What Happened to U.S. Unity?

32,610,374 recorded cases of this damn disease in the U.S. 583,148 recorded deaths.

The question above is most certainly rhetorical.

I remember the afternoon the Eagle landed on the lunar surface. The collective excitement of the adults around me. The thrill of us doing something that's never been done.

Us. U.S. The United States of America.

Fifty years later, I hear despair from friends and acquaintances in the medical profession. They are abused by neighbors who've swallowed the belief that science is the source of all evil. They are cursed out by patients who still claim COVID-19 is a hoax as they struggle to breath. They struggle to save people who claim vaccines don't work. Or even more ludicrous, the vaccines contain tracking devices.

(*Ahem* If you're one of the last, you might want to take a good look at a certain handheld device I'm sure is on your person or nearby your body. Corporations and the government can already track us through our smart phones.)

As I said, the title is a rhetorical question. I know what's happened over the last fifty years. It doesn't mean I like it. 10% of the population has contracted this disease. And yet, people are refusing the vaccine.

Look, I want things back to normal, too. Even though DH and I are vaccinated, it felt very weird going out to dinner with GK and SO while we were in Texas. I wasn't scared for myself. I was scared for SO and Adorable Spawn. SO found out she was pregnant right as the vaccines were delivered to their base. At the time, her doctors advised against vaccination because they didn't have any data concerning the vaccines' affect on pregnant women.

It's exceptions like SO who the reason the rest of us needs to be immunized. The unity of her friends and family getting the vaccine to protect her and AS helps, but only so far.

I wish the other half of the country understood why this unity was so important.

Bebopping Along with the Words and Vaccines

It's been interesting to observe the psychological effects of getting the COVID-19 vaccine. I've probably gotten more done over the last four days than I have the last four weeks. I've enjoyed the feeling that we may actually be near the end.

I know we aren't though. The same people who refuse to wear masks to slow the spread are refusing to get vaccinated. And worse, most of these people are my age or older, i,e, one of the most vulnerable populations. This virus goes beyond politics, beyond borders, beyond any fucking space rock headed in Earth's direction.

This pandemic could have been much worse. And more could have been done to prevent its spread.

As I said on Monday, DH, some of the in-laws, and I got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. I haven't had any side effects. DH complained about a sore arm for four days. One in-law had the fever and chills for a couple of days.

But I'm still masking and social distancing. The last thing I want is to spread any germs to vulnerable people, especially those who can't take the vaccine right now like GK's Significant Other.

In the meantime, I'm getting caught up on all the things I'm behind on publishing-wise. That work will keep my mind occupied while things become the new normal and some of our favorite activities return.

Vaccine Party!

I was on the phone starting at 8 a.m. yesterday morning with the county health office. It took about twenty minutes to get through, but DH and I have appointments for our first shots on Saturday!

It's important because our first grandchild is on the way. Yep, Genius Kid and Significant Other are expecting. And there is a certain delicious symmetry in that an Army brat baby will make his appearance around the Fourth of July.

The stimulus package will also help with the purchasing of important infant safety and waste disposal equipment.

And my whining about getting a haircut on Wednesday? Well, it is a necessity. I've been around babies. Long hair, dangly earrings, and newborns do not mix. Also, I need to dye my hair because I'm going to be the geek grandma.

The appointments took such a load off my mind that I wrote more yesterday than I did the entire rest of the week. I guess I needed that little glimpse light in the darkness.

Coronavirus Pandemic Day 356 - New Month, New Stories

The U.S. stands at 28,904,197 known COVID-19 cases and 519,014 known deaths from the disease. For all of our advanced medicine, we're approaching the same death toll as the Spanish Influenza outbreak a century ago.

However, the FDA approved the Johnson & Johnson vaccine over the weekend, which will help get more folks inoculated against this horrendous disease.

On the other hand, A Virtue of Child went live yesterday, and I'm working on two new short stories to fill out a new anthology Practical Witches. The volume also includes the two non-Justice stories that were published Sword and Sorceress, plus a story that was originally published on my website.

Most of the two feet of accumulated snow has melted over the last five days. Temps reached the sixties yesterday, but clouds are moving in, and the wind has picked up. March may not be coming in like a lion, but it's definitely coming in like a rambunctious pack of cubs.

Coronavirus Pandemic Day 279 - Hope!

We're at 16,368,406 official infections and 302,141 deaths from COVID-19 here in the United States.

But there's a glimmer of light on the horizon. The FDA gave emergency approval to Pfizer's vaccine last week. The first trucks rolled out from Pfizer's Michigan facility yesterday morning, filled with special refrigerated units containing vials of the vaccine. The first frontline medical workers were injected this morning.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed. That the vaccine works. That there's no horrible unknown side effects from the rush to develop it. That this vaccine will safe the thousands of lives that might otherwise be lost over this winter.

I am by no means an anti-vaxxer. However, I balked at getting a shingles vaccine until its efficacy improved. When it was first introduced, the shingles vaccine was only 30% effective. I finally got one this year once I was comfortable the efficacy was above 90%.

Two months ago, I made a point of getting both the flu and pneumonia vaccines. If I happened to get COVID-19, I didn't need those two diseases piling on. For people with compromised immune systems like me, such things could mean death.

You see, January of 2007 started with a little head cold. Then flu. Then the flesh-eating staph. Then another case of the flu. For four months straight, I was so fucking sick I often had to crawl to the bathroom.

So I'm keeping my fingers crossed this vaccine works as advertised. In the meantime, I'm wearing my mask, social distancing, and washing my hands until the are raw.

Coronavirus Pandemic Day 187 - Exhaustion and Science

I slept until two p.m. today. The stress of getting a new book out and the hellscape our country has become wore me down. Not even DH's birthday helped. We had a low-key celebration at home with a lot of takeout food.

We're at 6.6M+ cases in the United States and 197K+ deaths, and the numbers are still climbing.

After six months, everyone's tired of the disease, the deaths, and the drama. I get it. But if you go back and read the account of the Spanish Influenza pandemic, COVID-19 wasn't going to go away after six. months. I know a lot of people were hoping so, but it ain't gonna happen.

Nor am I an anti-vaxxer, but I want a vaccine with proven effectiveness. I refused to take the shingles vaccine for years until its prevention rate was above 60%.

Despite the propaganda being bandied about, we aren't getting an effective, safe COVID-19 before the end of 2020. I never had hope that we would. One of the research studies had to shut down their human trials because of some serious side effects. It sucks, but you can't rush the research.. It always needs to be refined and tested over and over again.

I believe the research facilities WILL find a vaccine, but it takes time. Time is something some of my fellow citizens will not allow. Or else they believe the disease is a hoax. And that belief will kill hundreds of thousands of more people, and the thought makes my heart ache.