This morning, Pete and I went to Sutton and got our Covid 19 Vaccinations. This was as uneventful as it gets. The Chickaloon Native Health Center is 20 minutes from our place – the Glenn Highway parallels the Matanuska River. The view, on the drive there, of the snow-covered peaks, is breathtaking.

Our neighbor, Karen Hoppe, is a dental hygienist, and therefore she is considered to be a front-line worker. She has a patient who got her first vaccine there, so called Pete and I told us that we should see about getting our inoculations there as well.

Pete called and got himself an appointment. I sat on the fence for a bit, deliberating about whether or not I should get a vaccine. I did a lot of reading on the subject beforehand. I hesitated, mainly because the supplies are limited. I didn’t want to keep someone who really needed it from getting their vaccine. I also (of course) was concerned about possible long-term side effects.

Just like voting, you get a sticker after vacination

I finally decided to get the vaccine, my thinking being that if I did get Covid, that I’d be infectious. I would not want to spread something like that around. I also might have to travel in the months ahead – the vaccine would, I determined, be like wearing a mask, another precautionary measure.

Pete called back, and we ended up doing piggy back appointments.

There are many advantages to living in a state in which the population is fairly low. Yes, we have long winters. These long winters keep some of the riff raff away and the numbers down. The tradeoff is that we don’t have to wait months for basic services. An aside, our veterinarian and farrier both come to our place and spend a lot of time with us. We also don’t have to wait long for dental appointments or haircuts. The overall pace of life is slower, which is also conducive to good health and good health care.

The health clinic that we go to has a small staff who know us well. There are also very few people in there at any one given time. Todd, the physician’s assistant, gave us the vaccine symptom run down, and within minutes, we were dosed. We had to sit and wait 15 minutes, in order to see if there were any symptoms. There were two other patients in the area that usually is reserved for the exercise equipment. One guy went off on a riff about how he got mad at his computer and shot it – twice. The other, an elderly woman, was fairly quiet.

All total, we were at the health center 45 minutes. We were told that we will in a month’s time, be given booster shots.

All things would be so easy if there were fewer people in the world. People, when they decide to have babies, don’t give much thought to how they are contributing to overpopulation, and with it, a decrease in the quality of life for everyone. I guess that selfishness is in some people’s DNA.

Next: 22. 1/22/21: Telling it Slant