Life in The Slow Lane: January 2021

Here at Palmdale almost all of our 200 sites are now full putting the population at near 400 people all coming down from the cold north. That includes North Texans now as winter has moved south. And there isn’t a lot to do so people do a lot of walking about. Yes, there is golf and the beach is still open and SpaceX is doing exciting things to provide us with a distraction. I worry though about COVID coming here. Whenever I begin to join someone in lamenting all the things we can’t do around here, I try to stop and say something like, “If the worst thing that happens this year is that we don’t get to line dance, I will be so grateful. NEXT YEAR, I want us all to come back and dance to our hearts content.”

Some of us are beginning to get our vaccines. We are making an effort to get the county to come to Palmdale and set up a clinic for our residents but that doesn’t seem to be the preferred way for Cameron County to get the vaccine out. Because of Don’s regular contact with Cameron County Public Health, we got a heads up about a clinic at the Los Fresnos Fire Department about 5 miles away from here. We were able to position our car in the 14^th place of a long line of cars on January 12. We have 6 seats in our car so we invited my brother Dick and friends Rick and Karen to participate in tag team car sitting for all of yesterday and all night. Don spent the night. The rest of us came home and slept in our beds getting up at 4:00 in the morning so we could all be in the car at 5:00 to be counted for the 6:00 AM vaccine distribution. My first thought about this process was not positive. It is problematical in that it favors those who have resources and time. I thought it sounded “Darwinian”. On the other hand it was effective in getting a lot of people vaccinated safely and quickly. They had 2325 vaccines in people's arms before noon. We drove through the fire department.. about 10 cars at a time with vaccinators on both sides of the car ready with syringes to give us a shot and collect our paperwork. The five of us received our vaccine in about 5 minutes and we were out of there. They even had us park in a separate area for 15 minutes to make sure we didn’t have an allergic reaction with EMTs monitoring us. Our friends, on the other hand got in line at 4:30 this morning and were home by about 10:30. I don’t know which way is better but if one came late (4:30 AM) they may risk not getting a vaccine. It was well organized with workers handing out forms and counting vaccine recipients. As it is, we don’t know whether the fatigue we are feeling has to do with the Vaccine or with sleep deprivation. In a month, we’ll get our second shot and in 6 weeks we should be safe. At least that is the plan. And for the doubters out there, this feels better to me than getting the virus. I know that I am participating in an amazing public health experiment.

My brothers Dick and Ludwig arrived at Palmdale on December 30. Dick is staying in the Scamp across the street from us and Ludwig has been staying in our guest room. He will fly back to Minneapolis tomorrow, January 14. We haven’t done much of interest with them but have certainly enjoyed a lot of meals and a few games of 500. Last Sunday we drove over to Boca Chica to take a look at Starship SN9 which is on the launch pad. We had hoped to get over to the island to watch a launch with them but it got put off and now may go up tomorrow while Ludwig is flying off to Minneapolis. SpaceX has Nerdle Cam 4K that streams continuously on You Tube so we can turn on our TV and check on activity at the launch pad any time of the day. Sometimes … actually a lot of time… that is like watching paint dry. But other TV is so disturbing nowadays that watching a rocket sitting on a launch pad isn’t bad. If you look closely you can see the Gulf of Mexico on the other side of the dunes.

I spend way too much time with my device and I’m halfway convinced that contributes to a lot of anxiety and insomnia. That is one reason to sit down and do some writing, just to engage my brain differently. Someday, I will make a change there.

In the meantime, I continue to participate in 2 Zoom book groups with some folks who I have never met in person but who are part of the United Methodist Church in Anoka where I will go next year and meet them. That forces me to read so I can do my homework.

And I pray for our country. So much heartbreak and trauma.

Tomorrow is Edie’s birthday. She is 9 years old and I am not going to Minnesota for the first time in 9 years in January. It will be a Skype birthday I guess.

Kelly’s two continue to grow. Here are pictures.