Couch 224: 2day, 2morrow, 4evah!

Same. I know a couple of people who have gotten both shots and they said it took a couple of days after the second dose but then they felt okay. They were fine after the first dose or maybe had mild discomfort in the arm but nothing like what they experienced after the second dose. I am hopeful my parents can get the first dose on Tuesday. They have an appointment on Tuesday in our town and one on Wednesday in a town about an hour away so if the one on Tuesday falls through (like if the hospital doesn't get the vaccine or something) they have a backup plan.

I gave a speech in speech class on mercury poisoning in 11th grade.

Im thinking Diagnosis Murder episode where a convict shoots up the barbq. BRB.

Nope, wrong episode. I was gonna say there was a russian involved (honest!) And there was!!! Murder in the Courthouse.

The meatloaf is starting to smell delicious - it has 34 more minutes (maybe more, it's kinda big!)

I've never seen that show. Wasn't that **** Van Dyke?

oops it starred out his first name. Short for Richard.

Yup.....

All the teachers in my hometown got vaccinated today. That was pretty cool to see on the tv news.

I enjoyed Mary Poppins and Bye Bye Birdie, but in general I am not much a D van dyke fan. He always over-acted in my opinion.

I did something I very rarely do - I ordered take out last night and brought home enough food for leftovers through the weekend. Delicious middle eastern Lebanese food.

I just had my 2nd dose today (I qualify for a health condition). Texas teachers generally aren't "up" yet for the vaccine but they need to be, particularly teachers of secondary level students who ARE shown to transmit and have symptoms more so than elementary aged students. We have more secondary level students and teachers with positive COVID results by far than in the elementary schools.

So far my arm is sore and I'm starting to get a little achy, but nothing major. With the first dose, it was day 2 and 3 that were harder so I fully expect it will come.

I was more concerned about driving to the vaccination location. That 130 car pile up in Fort Worth you may have heard about was just a few minutes south of where I had to go. Fortunately, roads are temporarily better today. They actually have our weather forecast for the next week described as "near blizzard conditions." Excuse me? This is Texas. What's a blizzard? (It's that yummy ice cream confection from Dairy Queen for Texans by the way. LOL).

My husband is still in ICU and will probably be moved to a long-term acute care hospital in a week or so (all is a bit up in the air as we wait for approval, but he's not ready to move quite yet anyway).

Our state is so effed up no one knows anything and the two largest populated city areas haven't had any to give out to anyone in a week. Our governor is an idiot.

I ate at a gf breakfast place on my way to the second shot yesterday. It was great...but the mask bit is definitely weird.

That's frustrating. Our county is doing a fantastic job, but it varies from county to county. I've never had to the process of getting the vaccine take longer than 45 minutes, but my sister in another county waited in line 5 hours to get her first dose. That's ridiculous.

Our county has an online portal you sign up on - have to qualify, etc., - and then they send appointments as they have vaccine come available in order of registration. They tell you what number you are when you get registered, and they announce what number they are starting on, etc. as soon as they have a confirmed shipment of vaccine. They are pretty consistently vaccinating 10,000 - 30,000 each week now in our county, and I just saw next week they are starting about about #85,000. They have a massive vaccination site at the Texas Motor Speedway and it goes pretty fast once you are there. But bless those volunteers for standing out there in this crazy cold weather today. Brr!

Artley, i thought i remembered you were by fort worth. I know these pileups did not happen when we were young, and we had just as much snow and ice. Altho of course its odd that there is so much snow down south. But for all the gps and fancy braking systems, people dont know to slow down. They showed an older couple searching and finding their 20-something son, all walking away from the crash. Im just amazed with that number of vehicles involved that there arent more fatalities.

There were some pictures of a giant pile up in texas on our news. It looked really bad.

My university/hospital is approved to give the vaccine along with 2 other hospitals in the area but we don't have any to give out and they keep telling us not to wait for them if we can find it someplace else. People are driving their elderly parents all over (I mean 200-300 miles across the state) to get a shot if they hear some small town has some

*carefully edges off una’s lawn*

How did your car get ON my lawn?! See what im saying?!

Not exactly in Fort Worth, but in that vicinity.

That particular stretch of interstate is fully elevated for about two miles, so it was an accident waiting to happen in freezing, icy weather. (This is also a newly constructed area that hasn't been tested in this kind of weather before). People coming in weren't encountering any problems on the regular, ground-level highway, and you honestly can't tell that section is elevated, particularly in the dark (it's not high, just elevated from the ground). They came over completely safe highway and hit that "bridge" and black ice at full speed and there was no stopping. The videos of it as it was happening are horrifying.

My county is a mess, at least for teachers in the county school system. There was supposed to be this plan for them to each get the shot at their home school, administered by the school nurse. But the county hasn't been getting enough shots. So teachers are apparently just trying to sign up anywhere they can, getting up at 4 am to look for openings, etc. It's ridiculous.

I'm not a teacher, but I'm in some groups for our county schools, and it just sounds like a mess. Teachers have compared it to the Hunger Games. My daughter's special ed teacher managed to get her first one a week ago, so I'm glad for her. In person school starts for some students (including my D, if all goes as planned--she's in an earlier group because of her IEP) March 1--been virtual so far--and people are really upset that all teachers/staff won't have both shots (or maybe even one) before that. Many conflicts in the Facebook groups... Feels like parents vs. teachers, which sucks...

Studies are actually showing that teachers’ risk of contracting the virus in the classroom is pretty much the same as when they’re not in the classroom. Primary and middle schools anyway.

And the CDC is correspondingly saying that teachers don’t need to be vaccinated for schools to be open.

Frankly I think any state that lets schools stay shut while allowing bars and restaurants to open has out of whack priorities, which means every state.

Agree. I'm in high school though. District has kept very open statistics. Our rate is higher in the high schools, partially because we are dealing with larger populations, partially because older teenagers do have a higher positivity rate than younger kids (as we clearly see in our county stats), partially because our students are often working out in the public and are more exposed than younger students in general, not to mention their general lack of personal space boundaries (LOL). The CDC also says students should be sitting 6 feet apart - that is definitely not happening in most classes - more like 2 1/2 to 3 feet apart if we are lucky, even with only about 50% of our population not even on campus because they have opted to be virtual. If we have 100% in person, that spacing will be down to about 2 feet in the classroom and pretty much zero in the hallways. The reality is not what the CDC imagines. The general public does not really understand that.

Thanks, Artie!

Shouldn't be. Teachers want to teach - in person - but safely. So far in our district, because about 50% of our students have chosen virtual, we've had manageable numbers in person. What parents/public don't always realize is that to go fully in person negates pretty much all real safety protocols at this point. That's the problem.

We are seeing teachers, administrator, staff, VERY ill with COVID. It's been particularly a problem since Christmas. We also have teachers with their own health issues, or with elderly family, or other family with health issues, and the fact of the matter is that our health and the health of our families absolutely are our first priority.

But without the option to work from home (in our district very few at home work permissions have been granted), we, just like any other front line worker, do put that safety at risk. The main difference, though, is that we may spend 90 minutes or more exposed to a covid positive student sitting too close because our classrooms are not very large. It isn't brief exposures or distant exposures. That's where we end up getting exposed or taking it home to our family members (which may very well be how my husband ended up exposed despite how careful I was about stripping off my clothes and showering right away as soon as I came home.)

All of this gets lost in the debate. Teachers just want to stay safe, but often districts are woefully poor at mitigating those safety protocols. We know that reality; the public doesn't always get that. The CDC definitely doesn't get that.

Artley - re ft worth and elevated roadway. THAT makes sense. They dont tell you that on the national news. Thanks for sharing that.

Hugs. I do think reading here helps. Because even if I just leave hugs and don't say anything, I feel like part of a community.

T made the point alters have limited life experience and T is right. One alter hasn't been around a long time and she is really surprised I've friends both online and offline. Eg when I'm on WhatsApp or having socially distanced and masked gatherings within the guidelines of my government. Like she's watching as I type and I'm feeling the sense of community and she's quietly thinking we aren't isolated by our parents anymore.

I also had to tell and show her (brains are weird) it's almost a year since I left my abusive family, introduce her to T etc etc.

@SlumberKitty , I'm someone who gives generous gifts to friends and loved ones but struggle to spend even a dollar on myself. If you have debt, especially credit card debt, it's better to pay it off first. And gifts don't have to be expensive to be thoughtful... friends and loved ones who love you wouldn't mind less expensive gifts considering you have little wiggle room unless you reduce the gift budget.

I like giving gifts too and have spent thousands to help friends out, pay for other people's therapy like my younger brother etc but like my T told me, don't set yourself on fire to make others happy. Hugs.

I have never seen so many people freaking out about having to raise their own children. I suppose it is good for people to realize they need teachers but it still often sounds more like they want school back for babysitting. In my state, parents have been more up in arms about not having their kids play school sports than any voiced concern that their kids are falling behind in learning. It doesn't seem like as many care a lot about the teachers but more about getting their kids out of their hair.