"Autumn is a Second Spring"

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower"
– Albert Camus

Yesterday after lunch I walked into town to get my seasonal flu + covid shots. My health care centre is in that building behind the trees. Things were well organised this year: No problems neither with registration, nor having to wait too long; and the procedure itself went smoothly and quickly (but without feeling rushed). There was a bit of light rain when I walked back, but no wind to speak of, so that was no problem either (I had an umbrella).
 

After a bit of rest at home, I went out again later for a shorter walk to the nearby branch library to return a book and borrow another. As I've mentioned before, we just recently got a small library back to my part of town, after it's been gone for a number of years. Probably only back temporarily but I intend to make use of it while it's here...  

Unfortunately it is difficult for me to read books with small print these days - one I returned now I ended up also borrowing online as audiobook to be able to finish it... (A Swedish book not available in English, so no use going into details here.)

I still like to browse around for a while when I'm there, though, because what I still find easier among "tactile" books is to just browse around without a clue what I'm looking for!

Today I woke up with two sore upper arms after the injections, but otherwise feeling okay. (No fever etc.)  After a lazy morning och some lunch, I went for a walk to the supermarket for just a few items, and on the way passed these magnificent RED rowan trees...

"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns." - George Eliot
 

This & That

 

Walked into town today for an appointment with my dental hygienist, just a routine checkup and treatment, and all went well with that. The sky was grey, but it did not rain, and there was no wind either - the river was almost like a mirror. 

 

Weather forecasts for the next couple of days here have changed a bit and now it seems that storm Kirk probably won't be affecting the area where I live much, but will follow the east coast up north . Will still be raining here tomorrow, but no special warnings issued.

Got a message that flu (+covid) vaccinations are starting here already this week; which is almost a month earlier than usual. Logged in for further info and managed (I think!) to book an appointment for that on Monday. Last year I remember it all got rather chaotic with long queues at the health care centre in spite of pre-booked appointments - I can only hope they've managed to organise it better this year... 

 

Double Vaccination

 Back in mid October or so I got a message from my primary care centre about booking time for the seasonal flu vaccionation + a booster dose of updated covid vaccine. The premises across town where they used to coordinate all vaccinations during the pandemic were closed after last year's flu season; and this year they are instead using premises in close connection to my primary care centre in the town centre (within walking distance for me). It seemed they were keeping the same time booking system as during the pandemic though, and as it worked fairly smoothly back then, I expected it to still do so now, even if in another place. So I booked myself in on the first day available (=today), at 2:10 pm, to get it over with. 

It was raining in the morning, but the rain stopped around noon, and I went for a 20 min walk into town, arriving at the health centre ten minutes before my allotted time. There was no queue outside - "so far, so good"... BUT when I got inside, I found the waiting room absolutely crowded, and chaos seemed to reign... The poor nurses at the reception desk kept explaining that somehow too many patients had been booked into each time slot, so they were running behind... And we were all told to "sit down and wait", even though there clearly weren't enough seats for that... Most of us were over retirement age and there were also quite a few people in need of canes, crutches, walkers or wheelchairs + someone to accompany them. The registration process did not seem optimised to run smoothly either. The nurses on duty were no doubt doing their best under the circumstances - I'd say the fault was in the overall planning... (And I have to say that did surprise me, considering all the experience they ought to have gathered from organizing things during the pandemic!)

 

The main difference between the (AI generated) image above and today is that I think I was the only (!!) person in the room actually wearing a face mask. I'm not really fanatic about that in most contexts now - but as soon as I saw how crowded the waiting room was, I immediately chose to put one on (I had one with me). They also had some at the reception desk, but no one was told/asked to wear them (as we always were during the pandemic), and I saw no one else using one! - neither staff nor patients.

 

While I was booked for 2:10, I had to wait until nearly 3 o'clock until it was my turn. I found an empty chair after a while though (and even a bit to the side), so at least didn't have to stand the whole time. 

 

Once I got into the nurse's cubicle (I think they had three of them) the actual procedure of getting my two injections went smoothly, though. I've never had both vaccines at the same time before, but I got one in each arm this time. 

 

 

I did not manage to get AI to draw exactly the image I had in mind (an octupus injecting itself) but I kind of like the facial expressions on these two above... ;)

 

Just after 3 pm I was out of the chaos; and as it was still not raining, I had another fairly pleasant 20 min walk back home - where I settled down with a cup of tea and a piece of cake in front of the TV to relax for a while... Phew!

 

Remains to be seen how I'll be feeling tomorrow, having had both vaccines at the same time. I have absolutely nothing planned for tomorrow except a day of rest, though! On Thursday I have the laundry room again; but I can move that booking if I don't feel up for it. And on Friday I have a delivery of groceries coming, but I don't have to go anywhere.

Queuing

 

Last week, I didn't get another chance to go across town for the drop-in flu vaccination. (Wednesday was Laundry Day, Thursday Dentist Day, and Friday Food Delivery Day. Plus it was rainy all week.) Today it wasn't raining, and I decided I had to grab the opportunity. It did require an effort, though! 

First, I spent about an hour online trying to solve the mysteries of the buses. The printed time table I had did not match the one that I (at last) found online. And when I tried the online search app (supposed to be simple, but it really isn't...) that did not seem to match either of them. So I just had to take a chance, and decided to trust the latest PDF timetable. (It seems they adjusted the times from 1st November, which probably explains why I "missed" the bus last week.) To be of the safe side, I also gave myself a margin with the time I needed to walk to the railway station to take that bus. 

Not to write a whole novel, the result to day was: 15 min walk from home to the railway  station. Nearly 15 min waiting for the bus. 10 min on the bus. 10 min walk from where I got off that bus to my destination (the current vaccination centre). I arrived almost on the dot when they opened today, i.e. at 13:00 (1 p.m.) .... to be met by a long queue gathered already. (Not too much of a surprise. By the look of it, nearly everyone 65+. I guess the others probably did not like the thought of outdoors queuing in the rain last week any more than I did.) 45 min in the queue to reach the door. 5 min for the vaccination itself (including paperwork and clothes off and on etc - and 1 minute sitting down for the actual jab). After that, I had another errand to a "tech" shop nearby for a few purchases (various cords and bulbs and whatnot for the upcoming Christmas season) - 20 min. Coming out of there, I decided I probably wouldn't really save much time (or even effort) on trying to catch another 10 min bus ride part of the way back. So I just walked all the way home: another 45 min. Which means the whole adventure took 2 hr 45 min; out of which I was on my feet (walking or standing) about 2 hr 35 min... (phew)

Yes, I was tired when I got home. But at least it didn't rain; and now it's done; and hopefully it'll be a while before I need to visit that part of town again!

More Snowy Adventures

We're still trapped in a cold spell of early winter here, and it seems likely to last a while.

From Wednesday afternoon until Thursday morning, quite a lot more snow fell, this time also combined with strong winds. On Wednesday I could just stay in, but I had a dilemma: Considering the snow situation, when to try and book my booster covid19 jab? ... as I'd have to get myself across town for that ...

I found a time slot for Thursday afternoon though, and kept my fingers crossed that by then main walkways would be ploughed and city buses running more or less on schedule...

Turned out the town's snow clearing efforts had not really stretched to pedestrian crossings and bus stop platforms yet... But I managed. (I had on boots with studded soles, and had also brought one of my Nordic walking poles, which was helpful in tricky places.)

Above is what it looked like at the bus platform at the travel centre, where city buses pass frequently and stop to let passengers on and off...

 

The bus was on time, though, and there was no queue at the Arena (vacc. centre) so I was allowed straight in when I arrived... Had to sit the 15 minutes in the waiting room after (and was careful to do so as I was given a different vaccine this time). But I still managed to catch an earlier bus back than I had counted on. (In spite of having to wade through unploughed snow to get to the bus stop.) From the travel centre I walked back home again.

The annoying electric scooters parked all over town are not likely to make it any easier for the service people to clear away the snow...

 

 

Walking straight towards the sunset on my way home...

I was pretty exhausted when I got home, but glad to have it over and done with. The only side-effect from the jab has been a bit of soreness around the injection spot.  Well - I also did feel kind of stiff all over when getting out of bed the next morning... but I think that was probably more to do with all the snow-walking than with the injection!!

Seasonal Routines

 

I cut the brown autumn leaves off my strawberry plants (last week) - and found "spring" waiting underneath... Seeing that, somehow I could not quite bring myself to put them into winter storage just yet! The soil is also very wet from all the rain lately. So for now, I've just moved them from the rail to on top of the bench against the wall (a bit more protected from the rain). Before it turns really cold I intend to wrap them up in  newspapers and put them down under the bench - as I do every year. (The bench in turn is covered with a tarpaulin over winter so they're pretty well protected under there, and usually survive.)

It's been raining a lot this past week. Yesterday was another day when it just kept pouring down and I didn't set foot outdoors all day. (Got my exercise doing the laundry this time...) This morning when I woke up, it was still raining. But I was in luck - it stopped around noon, before I needed to go out and take a bus across town to get my vaccination for the seasonal flu. This year, they are coordinating that at the same arena as the corona vaccinations. This time too it was all amazingly efficient. Almost no queue, and having booked time online I was in and out again in less then 10 minutes (with this vaccine not having to stay and meditate for 15 minutes after the jab...) Still not raining, and not too cold, so rather than wait 20 minutes for the next bus, I decided to walk back home, which took me about 45 minutes (which it would have done anyway, if I had waited + taken the bus).

Pretty much all the leaves have fallen to the ground now, so no photo stops on my way home, I just kept walking...

In about three weeks, I expect a repetition of the procedure, as then it will be time for my 3rd covid jab. (Just heard today that for my age group, 65+, they've just shortened the time between 2nd and 3rd jab from 6 to 5 months. So hopefully I'll be able to get it done well before Christmas.)

'Devil Whirls'

I don't know where to start. Perhaps I'd better just pick up where I left off...

Towards the end of Midsummer Eve, Friday evening, I cracked a tooth (a pre-molar in the upper jaw). It broke in two, but the loose half did not fall out. I spent the rest of the weekend keeping my jaws clenched and/or keeping the tooth in placer with my tongue; with occasional breaks for very careful intake of fluids and half-liquid/mashed food. And worrying about how to manage Monday, when I knew I'd need to call my dentist first thing, hoping they'd be able to fit me in the same day, and preferably early, as in the late afternoon I also had my important 2nd covid jab scheduled, which I also had to count on to perhaps be followed by similar flu-like side-effects as with the first one, and...

Well, I did my best to distract myself from worrying too much over things I could not do anything about over the weekend anyway. But it wasn't easy!

I thought of contacting an on-call dentist but for one thing I wasn't in severe pain (just "in trouble"), and for another I really thought it best to have my regular dentist handle it. (Even if she's new and I'd only met her once before. But I've been going to the same clinic for 30 years, and they have all my dental records etc.) 

On Monday morning I got up early; I needed to get dressed and have some sort of breakfast (yogurt) before calling (as soon as they opened), in case they would be able to fit me in early. I called around 7:50, actually did get an appointment at 8:30 (and walking into town takes me around 25 minutes)... Good news: Although it was a tricky job, the dentist was able to replace the broken-off half of the tooth with a filling. (Bad news: Next time something happens to that tooth it might not be fixable any more... But I'll worry about that when the time comes...)

I was back home again before 10 am, and my covid jab was not until 5:30 pm (across town). In between, a (local) friend messaged me - the same friend who was kind enough last time to offer to drive me to the vaccination center. I asked if she would have time to do it again, and she did. I feared there might be more of a queue this time, as I knew they were carrying out at least around 1500 vaccinations that day.* But again, it turned out well organised. I got there around 5:20 and was out again by 5:45 including the 15 minutes wait afterwards. 

*The reason I knew the number of people that day is that all of us were the same 65+ who had been given our first jab the last weekend in April. (My friend's husband also among them, by the way. But not the same time of day as me.) Back then, we were all told we'd have to wait until 2 August for our second jab, i.e. 14 weeks, which was longer than the 9-12  recommended. In between, some people have protested about that; and then recently the 'delta' version of the virus caused some concern, so the authorities decided to reschedule after all, and - with extra resources - moved all of us forward to 28 June. So we ended up waiting only 9 weeks instead of 14!

Felt very relieved last night to have it over and done with, but was prepared to face similar side-effects as last time setting in during the night or morning (fever, headache, muscle ache etc). However, that did not happen. My morning temperature was normal and I felt pretty much as usual (except still a bit sore in my mouth, from the dental job!) 

So I even decided to go for a walk into town (late morning, back before noon) and take some photos of that new sculpture at the travel centre; which by now I knew had been unveiled already the day before (we caught a glimpse of it from the car when driving to the vaccination centre). They filmed it in advance to include it in a digital celebration of the town's 400th birthday today.

Here it is:

 

 

I like the sculpture; less sure about the name... But while writing this post, it struck me as a quite suitable title for this whole post after all...!

More about the 400th jubilee and some other things to follow - another day.

Slow Progress

Horse Chestnut tree

Spring is making slow progress here this year. While some years, everything seems to explode all at once, it's been quite the opposite this year, with very subtle increase of greenery from one day to the next - or indeed, from one week to the next.

Myself I still seem to be in "slow" mode, too, recuperating from the vaccination last weekend. While the worst side-effects wore off in a day or two, I've still had some lingering "harder-to-pin-down" kind of (perhaps) symptoms, like a bit of headache and general tiredness; plus the injection spot staying red and sore and itchy longer than I recall from any ordinary flu-shot. (The latter reaction seems finally to be almost gone today, though.) It's not that I've had any real difficulties coping with things I've needed to do. It's just like everything has seemed to require a bit more effort and "self-peptalk" than usual. 

 

The Vaccination

Last week they opened up vaccine-booking for age group 65+ here.  I checked out the website the same morning I read about it in the local paper, but then there were no time slots open. I tried again in the evening, and then there were lots of times for Sunday afternoon, and I managed (2nd attempt) to book one. The next day I mentioned it on Facebook, and then a friend pm:d me and offered to drive me = transport solved.

So my friend picked me up on Sunday afternoon and drove me across town to the vaccination centre set up there. We arrived 25 min early, but there was no queue and I was allowed in straight away. Got my shot (the Astra vaccine), sat for 15 minutes in a waiting room afterwards (that's to make sure no one gets a severe allergic reaction) - and was out again before the original time I had booked. My friend was waiting in the car and drove me back home. The whole adventure took less than an hour. (Well - that part of it, anyway.)

On Monday, I did go through some side-effects, but I was prepared for that to happen. It started around 12 hrs after the injection (i.e. in the middle of the night) and involved slightly raised body temperature (with some initial shivering), tiredness, headache, and general muscle ache. As I have some chronic pain problems, primarily in my right shoulder/arm, I had asked to be given the shot in my left arm. Even so (but not really surprising to me), it was still primarily my right side that reacted with increased pain. (A rather odd feeling, hard to describe: knowing that there is a spot on your left arm that is 'rightfully' a bit sore, but it's still the right arm acting 'drama queen'...)

So I had a quiet Monday, just resting with audio books, radio and TV. (Heated up some soup for lunch.)  Towards evening I was feeling better, and on Tuesday morning my temperature was back to normal. I'm still kind of feeling a little bit 'off' in a hard-to-define way, though. The injection spot is also still red and sensitive to touch, so I guess my body is still working away at trying to figure out what on earth hit it, and how to best deal with it. 

 

I hope it will be done with the processing soon and then continue to quietly build up a good defense for possible future attacks; as my next shot won't be until the beginning of August. (Vaccine deliveries were delayed earlier in the spring, and it seems the current priority is to give as many people as possible their first shot.)

***

Photos: Playing in Picasa with photos from the recent "We Knit For Peace" exhibition.

No.3 is from the waiting room after I got the jab, though. That was a bit surreal, too. People came quietly one by one and took a seat, and every now and then someone quietly rose and left, as their 15 minutes had passed. No one spoke; it was like a ritual of a short silent meditation...)