Posts by Jonah

I dreamed last night that a Checkers hamburger joint opened up in Divide on Cedar Mountain road. This is, of course, preposterous, because we’re too far north for it to be a Checkers; it would have to be a Rally Burger. I ordered a Checker burger, seasoned fries, and a banana shake, and then Berck started cursing because the total was $18, and I was dismayed because there were children in the restaurant.

The closest retail establishment to our house is in reality a Pepsi vending machine, which is at the campground that is full all summer of people who are trying to get away from it all, that we pass on our drive to our house.

But now I want some fries the way Checkers batters them. Berck tried to make them in his deep fryer once, but the breading all came off and made a huge mess in the fryer.

It was about time to get a new COVID shot, and Novavax just came out with their updated vaccine (for Omicron, I think). So I looked to see where I could get it. The options in Colorado Springs were CVS and Costco. There’s a CVS a couple blocks from my office, so I went on their website to make an appointment. The questionnaire got as far as which vaccine I wanted, and when I selected Novavax, it said no appointment was necessary and to just walk in and talk to someone in the pharmacy.

So on Tuesday I clocked out for lunch and drove over to the Target that houses the CVS, the same one where we got Paxlovid. Even though it was the middle of the day, there was unfortunately, a line. I wasn’t sure if I was picking up or dropping off, so I just stood behind everyone else. It was finally the elderly woman in front of me’s turn, and it was taking the pharmacy employee at the pick up desk a long time to figure out the least expensive way to fill the woman’s prescription, running it through her insurance, with her coupon but without her insurance, and with both. The other pharmacy employee manning the drop off desk became available. I said I’d like to get a COVID Novavax shot.

“Uh,” she said, glancing at her coworker, still holding the elderly woman’s coupon, “You’ll have to talk to Nancy.” So I backed up to indicating that I was waiting in the pick up line again.

When Nancy had finally sorted the elderly woman’s issues, 20 minutes later, I finally had the opportunity to ask her for the COVID Novavax shot. “Have you made an appointment?” she asked. No, I explained that the website said for Novavax to just walk in and talk to a pharmacy personnel. “Just make an appointment for any time this afternoon, and we’ll go ahead and give it to you.” I checked the website on my phone, but it still said I couldn’t make an appointment for Novavax, but Nancy had rushed off to do something else. So I filled out all of the information on the website, and it told me I had an appointment for 3:30 for Pfizer. By the time Nancy had finished administering a shot to someone else, she came back and said, “Were you able to make an appointment?”

“Yes, I said, “But it would only let me make one for Pfizer.”

“That’s right,” she answered, “We only have Pfizer.”

“But it said you had Novavax?”

“You want Novavax?”

Turns out they did have Novavax, and I’m guessing this is the first one Nancy had administered, because it took her a while to find the information she needed on the packaging to input it in her computer system. I finally got my jab (I elected to go for the left arm to keep up the right, left, right, ones I’d gotten previously. It stung right away.

I was pretty happy the next day that I did not feel lousy at all, though my neck and lower back started aching. The next day my neck and back were really hurting, and the injection site had turned into a very itchy goose egg.

Five days later though, everything went mostly back to normal, with the swelling at the injection site going down and my neck and back stopping hurting.

Wedgie, Holly, Heather, Nikki, and I went to a rodeo up in Woodland Park yesterday. Evidently, Holly, Wedge, and Max won tickets to it at Cowboys the night before. It was a celebrity rodeo benefitting abused kids, which meant that the competitors were locals, who knew what they were doing, and celebrities, who we’d never heard of. They’d get out in the ring and totally screwed up whatever the event was taking place.

One lady, the people sitting near us called “Lori,” competed in some event where a man would run up, grab a young roped steer, and wrestle it to the ground while his female partner would grab a ribbon tied to its tail. Dennis looked in the programs Holly managed to steal and discovered that “Lori” has been in several movies I’ve never heard of (including _Pumping Iron II_) as well as Divorce Court. Dennis and I looked at each other and said, “Divorce Court? But… I thought that was real?” Lori returned to the stands we were sitting in and was congratulated by all for winning the event. “I better get a buckle,” she said, “Last time they gave me a plaque.” Out of the crowds of people in cowboy hats, Levis, and boots stepped a woman in stretch pants, heels, and a leopard spotted scarf. “Lori,” she smiled, “can we interview you?” A kid with a camera labeled with some local TV station came up, and they performed it right there.

None of us really knew what was going on, so a lady behind us clued us in about the events. “Team Penning is harder than it looks,” she said during the last event, “Three strangers who’ve never worked before have to go into a herd of calves and separate four of them wearing the same number (the announcer calls out), get them down the ring and into that little pen. If more than five calves that aren’t that number pass that imaginary line in the middle between those two guys with flags, the team is disqualified.” So we shouted encouragement to the participants and clapped when one team led by a lady in a matching red outfit finally got two calves in before time was called.

It was a fun time, even though we had to listen to country music all the way there, all the way back, and it was playing over the loud speaker in the stadium.

That night while we were picking out a movie at Blockbuster in Monument, Dennis whispered, “Hey, Jonah, wasn’t that lady in red over there in the rodeo?” Sure enough.

Maybe she was renting a Western.