Inoculated

Well, that was easy. Getting my H1N1 shot took little time that didn't involve walking about a third of a mile each way. I went to the city's web site, looked for places near my office that had H1N1 vaccine, called the drugstore I found to confirm, and walked over a little after noon. On the way, I was thinking that maybe lunchtime wasn't a brilliant plan. I got there and found one woman being prepped for her shot, and no line after that.

So I filled out the forms, including a separate consent to be included in an anonymized city immunization database; paid $20; rearranged my shirt to expose the relevant part of my left arm; and got the vaccine. The nurse doing these was good: the woman before me commented that this was the smoothest she ever had, and it's certainly up there. She told me I was brave, and I said "I'm not afraid of needles" and pointed at the tattoo on that bicep.

While I was waiting for the nurse to get my vaccine from the fridge, another woman came up, and I explained how it was set up and that I wasn't actually the nurse. When I was about done, and had asked about a receipt (for the pre-tax medical stuff) a man came over, asked what this (setup with table) was, and then asked if they were confident it was safe, meaning side effects. I assured him it was safe, and the other woman added that they were planning on folding it into the seasonal shot next year. I hope we convinced him.

(I fudged slightly on the forms; I'm not sure it's been four weeks since my tetanus booster.)

First gym visit of 2010

This was my first workout since before my trip to Montreal, so I didn't push myself. The gym was less crowded than I expected; at a guess, people who are making the usual "I should exercise" January resolutions are looking for cheaper ways to do it. Selfishly, I'm glad: most years, the gym is annoyingly crowded for about three weeks, and then most of the January people drift away again.

( numbers, probably of no interest )