The Popcorn Stand: I got it, I got the shot

I got it. I got the shot. That’s an inside joke in which only a couple of people know what I’m talking about. I received my first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at the CVS Pharmacy in Tulare last Saturday. I go back to that same CVS Pharmacy in Tulare for my second shot on April 5.

Even now a few months into this vaccine thing there may be those who could be upset over somebody like me — a relatively healthy male under the age of 65 with no real underlying health issues — being able to get vaccinated. And that’s understandable.

But without going into personal detail I can assure you I made sure and double checked and triple checked I was indeed eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine. And I know this sounds self serving but as much as I’m relieved I’ve gotten that first short for myself — I’m more relieved that I got that first shot to help protect those loved ones who are around me.

Of course I’ll be a lot more relieved when I get that second shot. Then I’ll be able to say, “I got it. I got the second shot.”

As others have written about getting vaccinated, I too will echo their theme that I’m one step closer to returning to normal by getting that first shot. And I’ll obviously move even closer to normal when I get the second shot.

Of course even after receiving the second shot I still won’t be anywhere near the kind of normal I thought was normal before this whole COVID thing. I’m sure I’ll still be wearing a mask, oh say, virtually all the time when I’m in public outside of my household well into the summer.

The Centers For Disease Control came out with new guidelines this past week on basically when people who have been “fully” vaccinated can stop wearing their masks. With the danger of sounding flippant when I read the guidelines I kept waiting for them to say then “you have to do the hokey pokey and turn yourself” around before you can take off your mask.

Of course it’s understandable the CDC has you know, our lives, in mind with such comprehensive guidelines. So after that second shot, I’ll pretty much still be wearing my mask for at least two weeks all the time outside of my household when out in public. And after that I’ll, you know, still be pretty much wearing my mask all the time outside of my household when out in public. The new normal.

But I do know grandparents who are fully vaccinated will eventually be able to be with their grandchildren. That’s a good thing.

The experience of getting vaccinated was painless and didn’t take long at all. I left for Tulare at 1:45 p.m. and got back home to Porterville shortly after 3:30. And that was with the 15 minutes I was required to wait after getting the shot. Getting the shot itself was also pretty much painless except for you know the little soreness that happens anytime you get a shot.

If this makes any sense as Yogi Berra would say, I’m going to get political without getting political. When it comes to the ramped up vaccination effort — at least locally — I don’t credit Biden. Or Trump. Or Gavin Newsom.

I have to give a shoutout to our local leaders, the Tulare County Board of Supervisors and those at Tulare County Health and Human Services. Because, they were the ones who told Newsom, you know, we kind of need those vaccines here in Tulare County, too. I mean after all we do have a lot of people who work in the Ag and Food industry like farmworkers, who you know, kind of provide the food you eat.

So it might be a pretty good idea if you kind of step up the delivery of those vaccines to this area like, a lot. And Newsom did. Not thanks to Newsom. Thanks to our local leaders.

So I want thank our local leaders. Because of them, I got it. I got the shot.

And because of their effort normal is closer than it has been in a long time.