The week gone by — Dec. 5

It was a room that had probably heard a million stories, and more than a few lies.

At least that’s what I assume. I’ve never been to an Elks meeting — although the local chapter sponsored a team when I played Little League — but those are the kind of things that happen when folks get together socially.

But on this day, the former Elks lodge was a vaccination clinic. Two tables, one outside the room and the other inside, were set up to handle logistics. People got their shots at a group of tables, then sat in chairs on the other side of the room to wait their 15 minutes.

As I walked in, I heard a little girl crying that she didn’t want her shot, but her mother told her it would be over soon, and it was. I didn’t see if she had a lollipop, but she looked pretty happy as she walked away.

I’m guessing the girl was getting her first shot. I was getting my booster. Suzi had gotten hers earlier in the week, since there weren’t enough appointments available for us to both get ours at the same time.

Even though I’m getting used to it, I’m still not wild about needles, so I’d be perfectly happy if the day comes where I don’t need an extra protection from COVID.

But if I need to keep getting them to keep from dying and to keep on living, then I’ll keep rolling up my right sleeve.

What I wrote

Since you’re reading this, the prediction that the internet was ending didn’t come to pass.

“Sure, all the crap that goes along with the internet is no more — a**holes will have to be a**holes in person instead of social media — but we’d have to physically look up things to do research, including looking through books or something.”

Stuff I read

Renata’s traditional approach to Black Friday is … what’s the word I’m looking for? Oh yes … “nuts.”

“We treat Black Friday like our own personal Super Bowl. We’re in the big leagues now.

As shopping is my favorite sport, I train all year for Black Friday by buying copious amounts of things that I don’t need so that I’m prepared.”

Pea Green had a detailed plan for her first son’s birth. Events said, “Yeah … right.”

“The very act of planning out how you want things to go sets you up for disappointment at best, at worst you’re going to feel totally out of your depth and overwhelmed by your inability to connect what’s happening to what you wanted to happen. Honestly, it’s pretty traumatic.”

What does a panic attack feel like? Unfortunately, Vee can explain.

“Panic attacks feel like my brain has swelled up to twice it’s size, like it’s ready to burst out of my head. Though, when it’s happening, I can only focus on one thing, one situation. I become so hyper focused that I quite literally cannot think about anything else. You could ask me what my name is when I am having a panic attack and I wouldn’t be able to answer you properly.”

Jeff gets excitement where he can.

“On a sidewalk I trod often, a couple of blocks from home, I spied a quarter. It lay shiny against the concrete. And it beckoned itself into my pocket.

Aha!”

Liz’s ceramic Christmas tree may not be “vintage,” but it’s still important.

“The tree once played snippets of several popular holiday tunes thanks to a little music box attached to the base. But that contraption went silent after a few years of little ones loving the goofy muffled tunes and not quite taking turns to make the tree ‘sing.’”

Ally’s mailbox attempted to flee. Yes, her mailbox.

“I immediately went running out the front door to chase our mailbox, WITH OUR MAIL IN IT, down the street.

On a cold late autumn day.

Without a coat or gloves on.”

Austin tells us that Detective Bruno is on a new case, and he has some familiar help.

“‘So we’re really looking for an inflatable Santa Claus?’ Wally asked cautiously because he still thought that Bruno could be pulling his leg.

‘Apparently whenever a corpse or a Santa Claus vanishes, I gotta partner up with you,’ Bruno quipped.”

It’s almost like Rosie had one very big, very important thing happen last month.

“Favorite memory: Getting engaged, duh!”

What makes me more of an old — not having Spotify at all, or not knowing what Spotify Wrapped was until the other day when people like Becky started sharing theirs?

“I know some people don’t care about other people’s Spotify Wrapped, but I love seeing stats from the people I follow. So I’m subjecting you guys to mine!”

Giggles resumed her love/hate relationship with yoga.

“I haven’t done any yoga since last Christmas break, so there were a lot of ‘ugh this sucks’ and ‘oh my gosh stop talking so we can switch poses’ and ‘ewww I need to repaint my toe nails’ and ‘how on earth did my feet get so dusty?!’ but overall I loved it. And I’m happy that I now get to add a little bit of something that I enjoy back into my life.”

Jim crossed something off his bucket list.

“It started sometime during COVID, I think when we switched to YouTube TV this past summer. With YouTube TV, you just have to pick the show you want to be recorded, and it will go out and find what station(s) the show is on and record it. It then offers the episodes by season for the viewer to watch.

There are lots of TV comedy series that have had better ratings than King of Queens, but for whatever reason, the show resonated with me, and I always found something to laugh about in every episode.”

River can help with your horrible Christmas gift needs.

“Do you have that certain someone on your Christmas list? The person you feel obligated to buy a gift for even though deep down, you’d rather not?

I may have the solution…”

BosssyBabe used to put off Christmas shopping as long as possible, with some pretty dire consequences.

“I was by myself in a Hallmark store painfully inching my way up to the front of a long line to pay for a $300 card when I started feeling the telltale signs of a blackout creeping on. Aside from temporary vision loss, I started cold sweating profusely.

Do they make cards for that? ‘So sorry you fainted in the middle of Hallmark. Be well.’”

Tweets I liked

Always a good goal.

Off to my work Christmas party. If I’m still employed by Monday I’ll deem it a success.

— Dating Dad (@aDatingDad) December 3, 2021

Wondering how I got there, followed by … seriously, how in the world did I get here?

What would you do if you woke up naked and alone in a 5-star hotel room in Paris, France?

— Helen Hensell (@hhensell) December 3, 2021

Like guys in a public restroom, minus the leashes.

the dogs do this thing where they pee as far apart from one another as the leashes will allow and it is very funny to watch us have to hold them both while they do it pic.twitter.com/NKDnOx68I0

— matty light® (@matthoff_) December 1, 2021

When we were kids, friends of our parents had a vent in one of their kids’ rooms that was right over the kitchen, so we could hear what the adults were saying. In our kid way, we thought that was pretty cool.

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