Our Wander Years

The vaccination wildcard

Posted on February 12, 2021 by Sparky

I don’t know why it took me so long to recognize the obvious, but all of my tentative plans to travel north in April are moot until I get vaccinated. It is nearly impossible to get the vaccine here in Florida, as a resident of the state, and I think you can drop the “nearly” qualification if I try to get the vaccine in Massachusetts – or somewhere along the way – as a non-resident.

I also have to get cataract surgery on my left eye.

Both things – COVID-19 vaccination and cataract surgery – could occur before April. But there are no guarantees. And until I get both I will be remaining in Florida.

Categories: Health | 2 Comments

Shutout #4

Posted on February 10, 2021 by Sparky

Today, for the fourth straight time, I was denied an appointment for the COVID-19 vaccine.

I should mention that the shutout occurred on the Publix supermarket site, which, along with the Florida state site, seems to be the only source of vaccine right now. I think that is rather odd – why Publix? Why not CVS or Walgreens (both of which have many more sites and many more qualified people capable of administering vaccines)? I have to believe that some money went into the pocket of some politician somewhere.

The Publix website is actually pretty good, listing appointment slots available by county. The counts are updated each minute, so you can sit in front of your computer for an hour or more and slowly watch your opportunity to get immunized slip away. Also, if you are lucky enough to be offered an opportunity to book an appointment, you can book it anywhere in the state where there are open slots, if you are willing to travel.

Today all slots for southwest Florida were booked in under 45 minutes. But I am willing to drive 2 hours to get my shots so I continued to watch. 90 minutes after all local slots were gone there were still thousands of slots available in Orlando. I imagine some of those slots were taken by people like me who were shut out of the local venues. That strikes me as an inept allocation of doses. Why allocate so many to Orlando, which has relatively few eligible residents (i.e., over 65) and so few to southwest Florida which is drowning in retired folks? Isn’t it both incompetent and cruel to make retired people travel 12 hours (2 6-hour round trips to Orlando) to get the vaccines that the state wants the elderly to receive?

Today was especially egregious. In my previous 3 shutouts , all slots were taken within 90 minutes. Today, 3 hours after the site opened for business, there was still one county up in the panhandle that had slots available.

Categories: FL, Health, Places | Leave a comment

Patriots by proxy

Posted on February 9, 2021 by Sparky

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers won Super Bowl LV on Sunday by a score of 31-9, a huge surprise for most sports prognosticators. But three of the Tampa Bay touchdowns were passes from Tom Brady to Rob Gronkowski (2x) and Antonio Brown. All 3 are former New England Patriots. Anyone who has watched the Patriots for years has seen this kind of touchdown innumerable times. It was like watching one of the Patriot’s 6 Super Bowl victories, but with different uniforms and without Bill Belicheck on the sidelines. And without Patriots-haters in the stands.

Tampa Bay: Patriots by proxy.

Categories: Commentary, Sports | 1 Comment

“The Cuban Affair” by Nelson DeMille

Posted on January 28, 2021 by Sparky

I am having a hard time evaluating this book. This is my first Nelson DeMille novel and I have to say that I like his writing style. Very lively. The characters are interesting. The settings are places that either I have been to and liked (Key West) or places that intrigue me and I would like to visit (Cuba).

So why was I not wild about the book? The plot. The “affair” was arranged as a clandestine visit to Cuba to retrieve, among other things, $60M that had been stashed away during the 1959 revolution. Spoiler alert: they never get the cash. Worse, they never try to get the cash. The protagonist, Mac MacCormick, who was promised $3M to join the expedition, led by Cuban ex-pats, feels duped. I feel the same way. The great adventure never really gets off the ground.

The story is really one of arranging the expedition, biding their time in Havana, embarking on a romance with the female leader of the expedition, obtaining some papers and relics (Plan B after the money is abandoned), getting the two trunks of Plan B stuff to the boat that will extract them from Cuba, then shooting their way to international waters. Spoiler alert: their boat is sunk and the Plan B trunks are lost. Or are they?

At the end of the book Mac mulls the possibility that the two trunks were actually salvaged by the men in the helicopters who saved their bacon. Were they CIA? No one is quite sure.

So an aborted expedition, a failed extraction. Does Mac get the girl? Even that is indefinite. In short, a plot that doesn’t satisfy. No one wins in this story.

Some books that might otherwise be lacking are redeemed by the descriptions of the exotic locales in which they are set. Cuba is exotic, but Mac hates it. I started the book thinking that I would really like to visit Cuba, but this book pretty much killed that desire.

There was enough good about this book that I will read DeMille again. But there was enough bad about the book that I can’t recommend it.

5 out of 10.

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WOW (softball edition)

Posted on January 28, 2021 by Sparky

We won our softball game today, 20-19 in extra innings. This victory was a minor miracle as we were outplayed and beaten badly for 5 innings . We were down 17-9 after 5. But we held them in the 6th, then scored 5 to make it 17-14. They added one in the 7th but we came roaring back to tie it 18-18 after 7. We gave up a run in the extra frame (thanks to my throwing error) but they made some bad plays of their own when we got to the plate. I knocked in the tying run and put the winning run on 3rd base with a hit down the line. The next player up – a guy that I had moved from 7th to 5th in the order because I had a good feeling about him – lined the next pitch over the shortstop’s head to win the game.

Hell of a game. I will be smiling the rest of the day.

Categories: FL, Places, Sports | Leave a comment

2020 blog booklet

Posted on January 19, 2021 by Sparky

2020 was a disastrous year, but the booklet, as I realized as I was assembling it, is fairly upbeat, largely because of the wonderful 2-week cruise early in the year. Anyway, if you want the PDF you can get it here:

OurWanderYears-2020 (MSC1, TN6 and TS6) (19.4MB)Download

Categories: Blogging | Leave a comment

5% report

Posted on January 18, 2021 by Sparky

It is now January 18, which means we are about 5% of the way through 2021 and I have not posted to the blog. Why? Because there hasn’t been much of interest to report. Rusty and I hang out every day. He gets his 3 walks per day. I get my 3 meal per day (though lunch is sometimes just cheese and crackers or yogurt).

But what other activities have occupied my time? Well, Frank and Rachel made a return visit, leaving Jan 2. Or, to be more precise, they were scheduled to leave Jan 2 but actually left Jan 3 because they missed their flight. Why did they miss their flight? Good question. I had better not go into it too deeply or I will get upset. The good news is that we used the extra day to make a quick trip to JetBlue Park, spring training home of the Boston Red Sox. Both Rachel (who knows more sports trivia than I do) and Frank liked that. Frank made a goof photo as he was capturing the field on his camera.

What else? Well, quite a few things:

I scanned all of my fathers WW II letters to my mother. They aren’t particularly interesting as historical documents, but they provide some insights into my father’s personal history and the early marriage to my mother. They are worth keeping and it is a lot easier keeping a thumb drive than a large box full of huge D-ring binders.
I ordered new hubcaps for the Toyota (Frank popped one on a pothole while he was visiting) and got new wipers (because he complained that he couldn’t see in the rain).
I did some end-of-year accounting of the budget.
I delivered 3 more boxes of donations to Goodwill
I got my softball team organized (yes, I am a manager this year) and played 2 games
I spent a lot of time preparing the 2020 blog booklet. It was sent to the printer today. Assuming the proof is acceptable, I will post a link to it soon.

None of that is very exciting but it is all pretty important. So I can say that the first 5% of 2021 has been fairly productive.

Categories: Family, FL, Places, RV Living | Leave a comment

2020 wrapup

Posted on December 31, 2020 by Sparky

How to describe 2020? To borrow a phrase from Judith Viorst, it was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year.

Highlights:

A wonderful 2-week MSC cruise in the Caribbean
A positive experience being a poll working in the 2020 general election
Completion of shed construction (though some trim work remains)

Lowlights:

Jett’s death
The COVID-19 pandemic, punctuated by a positive COVID-19 test result at the end of the year, followed by a second negative result 10 days later, with a lot of stress and the loss of a joyful Christmas in between
Many truck expenses, including several rounds of fuel line repairs and replacement of the turbocharger uppipes
Many health problems for Jett, prior to her death, including several falls
A very difficult TS6
A joyless TN6, with an initial delay due to truck problems

I think we can all agree that the Lowlights outweigh the Highlights.

I will be happy to send 2020 on its way with a hearty “good riddance!”

Categories: Commentary | Leave a comment

Damn

Posted on December 30, 2020 by Sparky

My second COVID-19 test was NEGATIVE. This is very disappointing as it strongly suggests that the first result was a false positive. I was really hoping for confirmation that I had, in fact, had an asymptomatic case and had developed antibodies without ever getting sick. Now I know that I either had the virus or didn’t. Not very helpful.

So all I have gotten from this whole episode is a whole lot of worry and loss of a Christmas holiday.

One final loss to end a year full of losses.

Categories: Health | Leave a comment

My best Christmas gift ever?

Posted on December 25, 2020 by Sparky

I wasn’t expecting any gifts this year. But I did get one gift and it was a good one. Probably my best Christmas gift ever.

My health.

It has now been at least 10 days since the exposure that resulted in the shocking positive COVID-19 test. I think that means that I am no longer infectious, if I ever was. And that I am unlikely to get sick.

I feel like I have dodged a bullet. Better yet, this probably means that I have some immunity to COVID-19. I won’t go crazy now and start kissing people in the ICU but I think the time between now and whenever I get vaccinated will be relatively stress-free.

I will retest in a couple of days. At this point I am really hoping for a positive result. Because if it is negative then the possibility of a false positive remains.

The photo is my flowering hibiscus. The red and green make it an appropriate Christmas photo. And a cheerful one, to match my mood. But I was also amazed at the clarity. This was taken at dusk, in low light.