Pandemic happenings

Well, going back about two weeks...

When I went to pick up Mom to take her for her first vaccine dose, I was dismayed to find her still in bed.  She told me that she didn't feel well.  Well, after talking with her, I realized that there was no way I could take her feeling the way that she was feeling.  So, we had to give that valuable appointment slot up.  It has been two weeks since then and even though I check every day, there are no slots available anywhere in town.  So, it is looking like she will have to wait for her vaccine for some time in February.

Anyway, things are just so weird during this time.  A case in point was one morning when I went to a mailbox outside of a flower shop-post office.  As I usually do when I go to this mailbox, I took a kleenex with me to open the little door to the mailbox.  I was mailing some pajamas to Scotty, and the envelope was a little big but it went in.  BUT, as I closed the door so the envelope would fall, the package got stuck.  I shook the door several times, banged it around but nothing.  The envelope remained stuck halfway in/halfway out of the slot.  At first I thought I'd leave it like that but then started thinking that if the wrong person wanted to, they could rip that envelope right out of there.  So I kept on trying to get the envelope to fall.  I ended up, if you can imagine, with BOTH my arms inside the mail slot trying to push that envelope down.  Even trying to get it back out!!!  But it was fully stuck.  At that point, it seemed so quaint starting off using a little kleenex to hold the door open so my hand wouldn't touch the handle.  Now here I was sticking one entire arm in, then the other and sometimes having both arms totally inside the mail slot. I really thought someone was going to come out of the flower shop and ask what in the world is going on because I was shaking and banging that mailbox and its little door and making a ton of noise!   It was just crazy. I don't know how, but eventually that envelope did fall.  

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This boy LOVES olives!

First Covid vaccine dose done!

 Our appointment today for our first vaccine dose was early, 8:20 this morning.  We got to Wonderland Mall (where they were giving the vaccines) around 7:40 and already there was a short socially-distanced line.  We probably waited for around 10 minutes before the line moved right into the room where the shots were being given.  Everything was well set up except for where they were giving the shots because there were too many people in that room and plenty of times it was almost impossible to not get close to other people.  We got the Pfizer vaccine and maybe, with the conditions the vaccine needs to remain in, there really is no way to spread people out more.  Once out of that room, we had to sit in another room for 10 minutes before being able to leave.  From getting out of our car to getting back in, it took a total of 40 minutes.  Not bad, really.  Our next appointment is February 4th for the second dose.

I failed to mention in the previous post that when we signed up for these appointments and Guillermo immediately received a confirmation email and I did not, it made me think that I had somehow signed up wrong.  So I immediately went back into the site but by then there were only 3 available days left for appointments.  Luckily I was able to secure ANOTHER appointment for January 16th.  Like before, though, no confirmation email ever arrived.    

So today as we moved along through the process, I asked several times of the people working there if I could turn my second appointment over to my mother.  Each time I was told to ask "at the next station".  After leaving that final room, I decided to try one more time and ask about giving my extra appointment to my mother.  The lady that I ended up talking to was very helpful and said she would try to get approval for that.  I gave her my phone number and she said she would call me as soon as she knew either way.  And she DID call, as we were driving home.  She said that it had been approved for my mother to come in for the vaccine on Saturday.  So, Saturday, Mom and I will be going to get HER vaccine!

Happy New Year!

 We spent a good bit of time on New Year's Eve trying to decide whether to make an appointment to get the Moderna vaccine.  And then trying to MAKE that appointment. 

I just so happened to text a good friend of ours that evening with a Happy New Year message.  She immediately called me and said that the University Health System is making appointments RIGHT NOW for the vaccine to be given in January.  I told her we were planning on waiting until the end of January and that Guillermo most likely was going to get it from his doctor.  I thanked her for letting us know and after a while we hung up.  I checked the website she told me about and there were appointments available from January 5 - 17.  I told Guillermo about it and he said he'd prefer to wait for his doctor.  Then I texted Fernando and asked him what he thought about it and what he thought we should do.  He didn't hesitate to say we should get the vaccine as soon as possible.  So I went BACK to the website and now there were only slots available for January 13 - 17.  I tried to get the 13th but evidently they were filling up on the spot and finally was able to get an appointment for the 14th for both of us.  As soon as I made Guillermo's appointment, he got a confirmation email.  I made my appointment before making his and to this day, I have yet to receive a confirmation email.  I'm going to go to my appointment anyway, but it's worrisome to not have a confirmation email.  My friend also did not get a confirmation, yet her husband did.  Her appointment is on January 5th, so she said she will let me know how it goes without a confirmation in hand.  We heard on the news later that all available time slots were taken up within a 5 hour span.

After that, we watched another episode of a show on Netflix until about 11:40 and then listened to and watched all the fireworks going on around us.   Happy New Year!

Our Christmas

We sure had fun with Leo around this Christmas.  Kids really do make Christmas time more special.  We drove him practically across the city one evening to see an incredible neighborhood all lit up with beautiful Christmas lights.  While slowly making our way up the street, we even saw a car decorated and transformed into a sleigh coming towards us and Santa was in the sleigh!!  He "HO HO HO'd" at us as he went by.  That was so exciting for us.  Then Guillermo and Leo walked the street while I slowly drove alongside them.  When we got to the end, we turned around to do it one more time and were amazed to see behind us a sports car totally lit up with lights.  We tried to go as slow as possible so it would pass us up, but it was also content to just inch along with us.  Did not get pictures of either the sleigh with Santa or the sports car.  Too wrapped up in the moment.

We decorated a gingerbread house.

Made a gumdrop tree

Hung around under the tree a few times

Christmas morning

The next day we went to a nearby parking lot so Leo could run his new remote control car.

Mom opening a gift from Fernando and Eva 3 days after Christmas

Just some scenes from around the house.

We ordered this poinsettia from Costco at the beginning of December.  I had NO idea it would be this big.  The only place it really looked good was on the floor because that way you could see the blooms.  When it was on a table, all you could really see were the leaves.

We loved how our lights looked on the porch