Fourth time around

Today was a crisp winter day: at 6 am, the skies were clear (although the sun wasn't up) and the temperature was a sprightly 11°C. By lunchtime the temperature had reached 22°C, making our afternoon walk very comfortable. Now (4 pm), we're starting the descent into darkness and lower temperatures. If only every winter day were like today.

But I'm not here to write about the weather: today I had my fourth Covid-19 vaccination, or my second booster, if you prefer. The announcement was made at the beginning of the week that over-60s would have the vaccination; via our health fund's website, I made an appointment for the next available slot, which was Friday morning. A minute later I logged on again to make an appointment for my wife - next Friday! Needless to say, I didn't make an appointment for her.

As I have probably written before, the vaccinations are done at the health centre in Bet Shemesh, which is sited at the end of a one way street with little parking. As a result, the road was almost impossible to traverse or park; as my wife still has an invalid badge on it, she felt entitled to take the vacant invalid parking spot in front of the building (if it had been me on my own, I would have parked a distance from the centre and walked).

Inside we saw about ten kibbutz members along with a similar number of town residents. I went to the ticket machine to get my reservation - R6 was my number. My wife received A35 - different queues. I was one of the few kibbutz members who bothered to book an appointment so I entered well before most of the others. Afterwards I had to wait about twenty minutes for my wife to come out.

So: yet another vaccination. A quick wipe of the shoulder, a prick, the muscle tightening, and then it's over. 10 seconds of exceedingly mild discomfort (and so hardly a discomfort: a light punch to the shoulder would have hurt more). Out of the three previous vaccinations, the only side effect that I had (twice) was a sore shoulder for maybe 12 hours, starting in the evening of the vaccination, so I'm not expecting anything more.

Of course, I'm hardly a person at risk of catching the omicron variant of Covid, as I stay at home most of the time, but one can never be sure. I do go out of the kibbutz every now and then, mainly for medical appointments (new sleep doctor next Tuesday!), so there does exist the small possibility of being infected. I believe that we'll all get infected at some stage, but that it will be a virus that causes almost no symptoms.