For Walgreens it's more reliable to call your local store and see if you can get in through the phone system. The online tool gets hung up a lot. But if they boot you to the store phone just hang up, they can't help you.

Any other tips from the Peanut gallery?

After spending most of the day on the CA site, Walgreens, and CVS, and getting one appt for me at a Safeway for the 12th, I ended up sitting on the SF site, refreshing (with the availability only box checked), and getting appts for tomorrow for both me and the Math Greek just 15 minutes apart at City College. Which is great because then it makes sense to rent a car. Apparently that location is underused.

That option also gives you second-dose appointments at the same time. I also found their reservation pages much easier to work with and get through quickly. However if the slot is filled as you are going it will bump you back to the first page without saying why, so if you see a bunch of times I would pick a later one because I think everyone just picks the first available and then loses it and has to go back.

ETA: Fingers crossed for Matilda!

Yeah, the SF vaccine site is pretty good. With Walgreens, I was seeing appointment slots being added in the evening.

Yeah, the SF vaccine site is pretty good. With Walgreens, I was seeing appointment slots being added in the evening.

I didn't trust the "availability" checkbox at first because it was giving me nothing after checking periodically for a couple of days, but I rec it now because it's the easiest to sit on and refresh.

Ooh, City College--good to know!

I go on campus one afternoon a week and I'm due to today, but I have to take a Covid test first because I just got back from a trip to my uncle's "cabin" at Tahoe. Even though it was just Matilda and me and the only people were spoke to the entire time were masked checkout clerks behind Plexiglass screens, and even though I've had Covid and have had both my vax shots. I mean, I'll do it if I have to; I'm just not sure what the point is besides giving whoever administers it the extra practice.

Looks like the Hobby Lobby-sponsored Museum of the Bible paid a lot of money for fake Dead Sea Scrolls fragments:

Sweet karmic justice for their general crappitude, and also yay that it turns out that they didn't just poach a bunch of priceless historical artifacts after all. It's a lovely story all the way around!

The DH gets his second shot this coming week, and we plan on our first meal out in over a year for a couple of weeks after that. We rarely go out to dinner, but we do go out for brunch at a diner each Saturday and Sunday and have done so for the last 27 years. In all the places we’ve lived, we find an awesome funky joint and become regulars.

JFC another reorg, I am back to reporting to the same person I was in September again. I am really glad I had my camera off for this meeting. Well, no one got laid off this round, so that's a good thing

Your job really loves a reorg, -t! I thought mine did, but you really have us beat.

Go to this page, and click the link for your state:

So in MA it's generally been impossible to get an appointment at any normal time, so the word on the street is to pick a different state that has appointments available, which gets you into the signup system. You can do that part in advance, so you are ready at 12:05 or 6:05 to click the search button. I do not understand how this helps! But the local vax mavens swear by it.

Ugh, -t, that would be infuriating. I mean, yay for the no-layoffs part, but otherwise just irritation.

The DH gets his second shot this coming week, and we plan on our first meal out in over a year for a couple of weeks after that. We rarely go out to dinner, but we do go out for brunch at a diner each Saturday and Sunday and have done so for the last 27 years. In all the places we’ve lived, we find an awesome funky joint and become regulars.

How exciting! Myself, I can't wait to go anywhere that is not within walking distance. I haven't wanted to take transit since shelter-in-place went into effect and, aside from getting my Christmas tree this past December, I haven't been outside the city limits since January 2020.

So in MA it's generally been impossible to get an appointment at any normal time, so the word on the street is to pick a different state that has appointments available, which gets you into the signup system. You can do that part in advance, so you are ready at 12:05 or 6:05 to click the search button. I do not understand how this helps! But the local vax mavens swear by it.

That actually makes sense to me. Any time you can avoid yet another page before actually seeing whether anything is available is a win.