Today is a health day. Today, Anne and I have appointments to get vaccinated at the local CVS. We are getting both the new bivalent Covid booster, and our annual flu shot. They are supposed to be safe to take together, but I wonder if they will put one in each arm or just gang up on just one? This will be our third Covid booster. Neither of us have had Covid, at least as far as we know. We’ve both all but given up the wearing of masks, except for where they are still required, which is at fewer and fewer places. We are seniors and recognize our continued vulnerability to these diseases. Hundreds of Americans are still dying daily from Covid and with winter coming, this morbidity is sure to rise. It hasn’t gotten us yet and I aim to not let it get us now.

I am surprised by some other senior’s response to these boosters. In that they have already declined them or are at least contemplating this new one’s decline. Even the biggest Covid coward I know surprised me when they said that they had not had any of the boosters. Then there was President Biden’s announcement this week that the pandemic is over. It is not. Just because we want to be done with Covid does not mean that Covid is done with us. It will continue to ripple through society for years to come.

When I was little, in the 1950s, my dad was stationed on the island of Guam. I had to get lots of vaccines just to go there, but at the end of his tour, we planned a family vacation, a tour of south Asia, Thailand to India. To go on this trip, I needed to get about twenty shots. I kid you not. Back then they didn’t have any of the bundled vaccinations, like DTAP, that they have now. So, each disease got its own shot and south Asia had loads of horrible diseases to choose from. Anyway, I eventually sucked it up and relented to become a human pincushion. It was a great trip that I still hold vivid memories from. So, I guess that I have been conditioned from an early age to accept vaccines and can now add Covid to the list of diseases that I have been inoculated from.

This summer, the news was reporting that researchers have found that people who couldn’t stand on one foot for ten seconds were nearly twice as likely to die in the next ten years than people who could. Anne and I were able to still pass this test, but at least for me, just barely. As we continue to get on in years, it is not hard to see that eventually, we might not be able to still pass. Falling is a major danger for the elderly.

To address this concern, we have returned to the Gyrotonics lab that we had not visited since before the pandemic, but instead of doing Gyrotonics per se, we are taking a balance class. Last week, only Anne and I were in class. This week a third person joined the class. Covid sensitive people can participate over Zoom. Marcia, our instructor uses a piece of equipment called a Beamfit beam. Unfortunately, that company has gone out of business, but still lives on, on the Internet.

Here is a video that features their equipment. It is a gray trapezoidal column that lays flat to the ground. It is somewhat squishy when you step on it, leading to the need for some balancing to stay upright. The level of exercise in this first video is way above what we have been doing and may not be ever obtainable by us, but it shows the beam being used. Occasionally, you can detect a wobble though. This second video is closer to the level of exercises that we do, but I feel that we are more advanced than what is shown there. We do use a stick, but mostly have both feet on the beam. We have only gone twice so far, so it is still too early to notice improvement, but hopefully our balance will get better and not worst. 

Dan and Britt couldn’t join Maren and David and us in Boston, because of Covid. First Britt tested positive and then when she was on the mend, Dan finally tested positive. Now, even Inky, their cat, shows signs of having Covid. Throughout most of the pandemic no one who I personally knew had caught the Coronavirus. I still don’t personally know of anyone who has died from this disease. Our family is all vaxed and boosted. There have been more than a million victims from the pandemic in this country. Some died before the vaccines were available. Many died after refusing to take the jab. A few have died even after being vaxed. Now, we are in the mist of another surge that is powered by yet another variant. Nationally, more than 100,000 Americans catch the virus every day. Thankfully, little more than 300 a day die from Covid, but that is still 300 every day, day after day. Most of us have come to learn to live with the Coronavirus. I myself have relaxed my precautions, relying more and more on my vaccination status, but as the virus continues to mutate that status continues to wane. I suppose catching the disease is inevitable, but I will continue to resist it as best that I can.