Nobody Wins!

If you are a friend and don’t believe in vaccines, don’t read this as you may get upset. If you aren’t a friend, I don’t care if you get upset.

 

Today, this afternoon I will get my second dose of the Pfizer vaccine. I am pretty excited about it. After today, well in a few weeks I will have as much immunity as it is possible to cram into my blood stream. It doesn’t mean that I will never get Covid, it just means that when I get it I will be sick for a while and not dead for ever.

 

For the most part, I have had little impact from this global pandemic. I am a retired, old guy who didn’t go anywhere much even in the good times. I like home and I feel that those people who can improve my life will somehow find me when I need them or they need me. I have lost a friend who passed due to Covid and I have another friend that has been in the hospital since late April. His prognosis is guardedly good for recovery but he will have to relearn how to walk and talk. For a guy that spent his life walking and talking it will be a struggle for him at first, but he is strong and I know he will pull through.

 

I know there are people out there that are hesitant about getting the vaccine but I just don’t really understand why. It may be that they just have yet to be touched personally by the disease, it could be that they believe the governments of the world are using this opportunity to gain control over their populations. Maybe, they don’t feel they should be putting foreign substances in their bodies. It could be that they never get sick and figure that Covid is just another flu which their superior genes will defeat as they always have. It could be that they have been listening or watching right wing wacko personalities and embrace what they have been saying. Perhaps the world they live in is so small that any change is immediately suspect. Maybe they just haven’t given enough thought to the issue. I don’t know…

 

The governments of the world are not that subtle. If they want to control the population there will be tanks driving down the streets and soldiers with machine guns on every corner. Most of us put foreign substances in our bodies every time we eat store bought or restaurant prepared food. The virus is a foreign substance that doesn’t belong in our bodies and the vaccine is the only way to get rid or it unless you are lucky enough to be one of the few with a natural immunity. Do you feel lucky? Those right wing DJ’s you listen to have read a bunch of articles on viruses whereas the doctors have spent a lifetime studying immunology and more than likely are much more intelligent than you or I. If your world is that small, come out into this frightening world and be assured that for the most part you will be looked after. ( At least here in Canada)

 

I have always believed that modern medicine improves my life. I have received shots for Polio, rabies, tetanus, tuberculosis, influenza, measles and other diseases that I couldn’t spell or pronounce. So for in my nearly seventy years of life I have not been sick to death from Polio, rabies, tetanus, tuberculosis, influenza, measles and other diseases that I couldn’t spell or pronounce. I am sure there are other seventy year old people out there that can say they are still alive and they never got any of those illnesses either. True, but there are far more of us that did get inoculations still alive than those that didn’t.

 

Get the Covid shot or don’t get the Covid shot, it seems as if it will be your choice. If I were running the world you wouldn’t have a choice, but I am just a retired old fart that wants to see his grand kids get married and have children of their own. Most of the time when I disagree with someone it is just a disagreement and at the end of the day they go their way and I go mine with no one convincing the other that they were wrong. With this particular issue, I don’t have to win the argument, I just have to cry  when they die.

 

Nobody wins!

Anything to Worry About

I can remember the difficulty we had in picking names for our yet to be born children. Out of the millions of names that are available there are only so many that you like the sound of and lets face it, you are going to be yelling that name every day for at least 18 years. You may not know what names you like, but you are very sure about the ones you don’t like.

 

Part of the problem is that sometimes you are absolutely positive that the baby will be a boy because all of the signs point that way and the indications from all the old wives tales point one way or another. It turns out that babies can’t read the signs and aren’t old wives. Even if you guessed right, often when that little darling shows it’s face the name you picked just doesn’t fit the personality. Oh, I forgot that also into the mix is that you can’t pick a name that kids in the school yard will make fun of so shorten into something approximating a swear word. We ended up picking names that probably got the kids beaten up or at least ridiculed. I was a fan of Lord of the Rings!

 

I don’t know why I was named Kenneth, I guess I should have asked mom or dad while they were still alive. The biblical meaning is handsome and “ken” means to know. I’ve seen new born babies and although somewhat cute there is no way you could say they were handsome. I just did a Google search for famous Kenneths from the fifties, but no one is really a standout. When I was in grade 3 or 4 there were five Kennys in the class so I have to assume there was some famous Ken and I will never know who it is.

 

I was born Kenneth but for most of my childhood and until mom passed away I was known as “Kenny”. The banks, my employer, lawyers and all government departments know me as Kenneth. For the rest of the world I am Ken. There was a time in my twenties when a guy I worked with called me Dave and I never bothered to correct him. About three months passed and one of our coworkers asked him why he called me Dave and not Ken. He was a little miffed that I just let him go on, but we both knew who he was talking to.

 

Or current Premier in Alberta is Jason Kenney and I don’t think I will get much of an argument when I say that he is a humungous asshole. Well, I might from other right wing assholes, but not by anyone that I respect. I tend to live and let live, just hoping that the son-of-a-bitch will be assassinated, get sick and die from Covid or just stare up into the sky when it’s raining and drown. Yep, I a glass is half full kind of guy.

 

A couple of weeks ago my wife got a package I the mail with a cup inside. On the cup was the slogan “FUCK YOU KENNEY”.

 

Now, I know that my name is spelled Kenny and Louise always calls me “Ken” or “hey you” or “stupid” or “my first husband”, but is more than a little unnerving to walk into a room and see her drinking from a cup that says “FUCK YOU KENNEY”.

 

I am sure I don’t have anything to worry about.