I'm sorry, Sophia.

I can report a slightly sore arm and throat the day after being vaccinated; just enough to tell me it's working without being too much of an inconvenience. No X-Ray vision or Carrie-like ability to wreak havoc so far.

I can also report that I've killed so many flies since the weekend that I now know what they smell like. Spoiler alert: it ain't good.

I'm so sorry, Sophia. Maria is fortunate to have you with her.

Any public vaccine administration I've heard about in NY has been shockingly efficient - mine each took under half an hour. The frigging Javitz Center is quick. The National Guard and FEMA seem to be staffing and organizing very well. I cannot speak personally to drug stores, but have heard nothing bad. Rescheduling is probably unnecessary.

I’m going to Javitz in an hour for my second shot. The first time I had to wait over an hour; I hope it goes faster this time.

I did it again! Hit post instead of Read New. This just started happening like a week ago, so I can't blame it on the board change. My fingers just clicking where they please on their own! So editing to actually say something.

Anyway, all things are okay here. Busy. Doing construction. Working on increasing my step count, which is now targeted at 6000 a day, which I often beat, but started at 2000 a few weeks ago. Feeling positive and hopeful, yet still find myself gritting and grinding my teeth during the day. Wondering when I'll feel calm again totally. It's been a long time.

Working on increasing my step count, which is now targeted at 6000 a day, which I often beat, but started at 2000 a few weeks ago.

Excellent work! That's great progress already. I average [checks phone] 7,642 over the last year, but I'm usually close to 10,000 on most days (I don't run on the weekends which pulls down my average).

Feeling positive and hopeful, yet still find myself gritting and grinding my teeth during the day. Wondering when I'll feel calm again totally. It's been a long time.

We're seeing Emmett tomorrow for only the fourth time in the last year. And two of those times were in a parking lot for Thanksgiving and Xmas. I'm also hopeful. When Matilda can go back to school in person, and they re-open the Muni trains it will begin to feel normal again.

Unfortunately, Matilda is not going to be back in school this year, but she's starting to make friends from her Jewelry class and starting to do things with them out of class.

I’m going to Javitz in an hour for my second shot.

Hell yeah! In two weeks you can get back to the doorknob licking you've been missing.

I'm glad Matilda's made some new friends!

My first shot was scheduled for 9:15 in the morning. I got there around 8:45, had the shot before 9:00, and left around the time I was schedule to start. There were a number of people there, but they were moving us through pretty quickly. I hope things go as fast next Monday, when I'm getting my second shot.

I'm sorry, Sophia. I'm glad she got to see and approve the dress. I hope Monday goes smoothly

I'm so sorry for your loss, Sophia.

That's what we (Irish Catholic) call the wake, or viewing--where the person is laid out and people come pay their respects in the couple days prior to the funeral.

We Protestants (the ones I grew up with) call that the wake, too.

I always thought TV writers were just being stupid, when they called the post-funeral gathering a "wake." I didn't realize real people did that (exception: "Irish wake" is often the description of the post-funeral gathering, if there's alcohol involved, but that's more adjectival, than what we really call it, which is sometimes, "collation" but usually just spoken of as, "Where are we going after?").

In other words, I thought the TV usage of "wake" for the after-gathering was like Christmas Eve is often show on TV, as if that's when most people buy, put up, and decorate their trees.

Matilda just got back from a 3-person jewelry class coffee date and plunged right into her first class. There's one more jewelry class kid living somewhere in the neighborhood, so the goal for this coming week will be to lure him out for morning coffee too.

Sophia, I'm so sorry for your and Maria's loss, but glad that her mom is at peace--and I'm absolutely certain that you gave her a tremendous final gift. My great-grandmother died at 96 just exactly two days after my mom took her on a trip away from her rest home to visit the hairdresser. She came back, looked at herself approvingly in the mirror, and said, "I look so nice! Now I'm ready to go." And two days later she did, peacefully, in her sleep. These things just *matter* sometimes.