Double Vaxed

I voluntarily have gotten sick today--on Friday 13.  WTF was I thinking?  I went in for the double vax yesterday, and you know I got the stronger dose.  I got the shots at noon, and by 7:30 I was starting to feel achey.  I took an Advil PM and a Tylenol and went to bed early.  When I woke up this morning, I thought that I felt pretty good.  After being up for fifteen minutes, though, I knew I had "the vid."  And the flu.  The old double whammy.  Chills, aches. . . all of it.  

This is how I felt when I actually had Covid.  But it is a necessary precaution, I think.  All around me, people are getting sick and it is not just for a day or two.  They are down for a long time.  

Still, it feels dumb to get sick voluntarily.  This must be how steers and cows feel all the time.  They are constantly getting shot up with something to keep them from being diseased.  

I think of my old friend, Tommy, and the days when he lived in the trailer park with his mom and step-father.  They didn't drink during the week, but they tore it up Friday and Saturday nights.  On Sundays, they would get up and open a pack of Goody's to pour into a glass of water.  The old drunks preferred Goody's because it worked faster, I guess, and because it was a combination of pain meds.  When they were out, though, I remember Tommy's step-father chewing up the aspirin into a powder and swallowing it dry.  

Last night, as the aches were coming on, all I wanted to do was lay my head in someone's lap and fall asleep.  I was/am, however, bereft of such comfort.  No lap to lie in, no arms to hold.  I imagined being sick and homeless and deprived of comfort.  That made me feel lucky.  That is what I had.  I was not homeless.  

I don't have any Goody's, but I will be taking Tylenol today.  And sleeping to some gentle, soothing music. I need chicken soup with lots of garlic, but there will be none of that.  Still, I should feel better by tomorrow.  

Until then, I will lie around and wonder at the cruelness of the world.