The weather was so nice yesterday but today I woke up to a bone-chilling 46°. When I arrived here at the office the weak sunlight was only able to raise the temp a couple of degrees so I turned on the heater for a little warmth and kept my working jacket on over a long sleeved shirt. We hope it will crest 60° today but nothing is certain where weather is concerned.
It's been a fun game lately, trying to track down a vaccine. In Texas we're allowing everyone over 65 to line up and get one. The problem is we don't have good information about where to line up and the supply of vaccines is spotty. Real spotty. Couple that with one of the worst internet sign-up apps imaginable and you've got....a lot of people who would love to get jabbed in the arm but who are side-lined until supply and internet savvy are improved.
I spent an hour last night hitting the refresh button on the Austin Public Health/Covid website sign-up page. I've already registered an account, been approved and sent to the scheduling page but when I get there the wheels spin for a long time before and error message pops up and kindly tells me "It's not you, it's me!" and advises me to refresh and try again. It's kind of like playing a bad slot machine that never pays off. I can't imagine how people with marginal computer skills are managing. I can imagine how people with very short attention spans are managing...and it's not a pretty thought.
I'm sure I'll eventually get through and get immunized but until I do we're masking and avoiding things like: work. work. or work. It's not that bad. At least, when masked, I can walk outside to my heart's content.
I hope wherever you are that even if your weather is more treacherous than ours that your state's vaccine plan is worlds better.
I'm currently reveling in the added space in the office. It's not actually "added" as much as "recaptured."
I've moved out a ton of gear in the last week and I can see the floor and walls again. In the past I went through past purges like this in preparation to make changes and new additions to the "toy box." Now it feels different. It feels like I'm downsizing in preparation to make more photographs out in the uncontrolled world instead of inside my controlled space. I am also now considering retirement to be on a spectrum.
At one end is 5% less work and the retention of almost all the worry while at the other end it's a total abandonment of work and an immersion into free time and personal projects. I'm still closer to the work end of the spectrum. But quickly working my way toward middle ground.
Tomorrow I take 6 generations of laptops to be recycled or (not by me) re-purposed. It's amazing that I let them stack up for so long. I'm keeping the Blueberry MacBook. It's too cool to be tossed.
I saw a quote today that I liked: "Pay more attention to what you're are paying attention to."
Seems like a good idea in these days of information overload.
Phasers on stun. Kirk out.
22 comments:
I know what you mean about bone-chilling. The current temp in Detroit is 18 degrees after a balmy 34 degrees yesterday.
Ouch. That's too cold.
Hope you get the vaccine soon Kirk. Here in Israel, due to our socialist legacy of HMOs, I was able to sign up easily for the 1st shot using my HMO phone app. After I got the 1st shot I was worried not to get an automatic invitation for the 2nd one. So I called them and they immediately scheduled me to exactly same place and same minute 21 days from the first shot.
We surely have our own share of bureaucracy and malfunctioning institutes. But in health-care the US can certainly learn much from Israel and western Europe.
Health care in the U.S. is on par with.... ( fill in the blank. suggestion: the worst of the third world)
Finding and signing up for a vaccine has been a bit of a mess* -- but is an order of magnitude better than it was just two weeks ago. The number of vaccines and locations has increased substantially since then. We finally got on the schedule for our vaccine next week.
*Neighbors have been helpful with information sharing on where/when. Yay for good neighbors!
DavidB
... on par with the proverbial "sh*thole countries?" In some regards, they are actually handling it better than us/US.
Pennsylvania so far isn't doing it well, but a large part of that is both lack of supply, and random pull-back of doses. For example, where I live in Montgomery County, one county commissioner is also an MD, and she reported yesterday that their mass vaccination site at the community college was, without advance notice, shorted over 3 thousand doses. I pre-registered with the county about a month ago, both my wife and I are in the first block or two registrations, but so far no contact.
OTOH, just this morning I received an email from one of several health groups I have an account with, notifying me of a "scheduling ticket." (???) I was on my computer in minutes, signed in, and secured a time slot for Monday evening, for the Moderna vaccine. So, things are happening.
Live long and prosper, Captain.
According to state-by-state data I saw earlier this week, the vaccination rates across the country cluster around 8% of their population, with most states between 7% and 9%. NJ, where I am, was right there, as was the national average of 8%. Also apparently common across the country is the reservation system being a nightmare. Endless refreshes of web pages, followed by “No appointments available” messages.
Despite all of that, we got our first shots on Wednesday at the other end of the state, about 110 miles south of us (yes, I know we’re not as big as Texas). We got appointments for our second shot on the spot, exactly 21 days later.
I won't bore you with the weather here in the frozen north. Let's just say it's freaking cold! In the olden days I could take my Nikon F out for an afternoon of photography. Not so with our precious digital cameras. Maybe with the REAL pro models but I wouldn't chance it. Keeping batteries in your pocket, dealing with moisture due to condensation, just not worth the hassle. Plus just try and deal with all those small buttons when you are wearing a double thickness of gloves.
The heater is on in the darkroom. The stereo is ready to go and I have a new bottle of great single malt scotch. A much better way to spend my afternoon I'm thinking.
Now that the camera closet has seen the likes of a Russian/Chinese/North Korean government purge what are you left with?
Eric
-8 fahrenheit here. But the vaccination speed is slowly going up. Looks like we might have a lot of people vaccinated by summer. Albeit I am by age and health in the last spots to be vaccinated. Here in Finland they started with the older people and health professionals. But i am happy to live in a country where testing is free and healthcare has handled things properly. Of course its tax money so not really free.
New Mexico handled things as it usually does. It started by setting up a very clear, structured website, which explained how the vaccines would be given out by groups, 1A, 1B, etc., and that you'd be assigned a time slot and location as soon as it became available for you. Then, the vaccine was distributed on the basis of "knowing someone." This has been widely discussed in the newspapers, and everybody understands that this is simply how it's done here -- politicians first, then their friends, then friends of friends, etc. Illegal immigrant? Good luck -- of course, you've already probably had the disease, which has raged through all the low income immigrant jobs. Two friends of ours, both in very early 60s, in exceptional health, with good connections, got their first shots in December, and have already gotten their second shots. I signed up as soon as I heard about the state website, in early January, and still haven't been called, and I'm 76 with a previous heart attack and two stents.
A hairdresser friend reported that one of his wealthy clients has a 19 year old daughter who got her first shot was *so* relieved because now she could go and hit the speakeasies and feel fairly safe. That's right, we have speakeasies, black-out bars just like in the Prohibition era. This is just...New Mexico. We all understand that, though some newcomers are a bit confused.
To answer Eric Rose's ?? = "Now that the camera closet has seen the likes of a Russian/Chinese/North Korean government purge what are you left with?"
S1, S1R, S1H, Leica SL2, 20-60mm, 24-105mm, 50 S-Pro, 70-200mm S-Pro, 90 Leica Elmarit, 50mm Summicron, 35mm + 65mm Sigma contemporary lenses, Zeiss 28, 50 and 135mm lenses, New version Sigma 85mm Art, and two Fuji X100V's. That's about it. Less than a 1/3rd of what I started with about a year ago.
Lights: three cheap Godox monolight flashes. Five Godox LED fixtures. Some light stands. First time in my life I've had more hard drives than lenses. But it's nice. Fewer choices = Less screwing around trying to decide what to use.
JC, sounds a lot like most of Texas.
Sounds like the Texas vax site was created by the same nincompoops as Arizona's. The AZ site requires you to check date by date to see if appointments are available, and insists that you reenter all your personal information (address, age, etc) before each date check. To add insult to injury, you can't schedule more than one person at the same time (or at least we couldn't). The site is a time machine that takes you right back to the 1990 internet.
Have you tried your county's website? I'm in Wood county, and it's site says I can sign up for vaccination in neighboring Smith County (Tyler, TX)
My county website asked for (but didn't require) my sex (with a half dozen choices), my sexual preference and my preferred pronoun. The bureaucracy apparently needs more reams of data to misinterpret. Northern CA...sigh.
KT, I will say Ohio doesn't always do everything right but they are doing the distribution of the vaccine correctly. I am 74 and had my first shot this week at Ohio State's Arena. Great process and very efficient in and out in 30 minuets. This week they are doing the teachers so they can get the kids back to the classrooms safely. My wife is a little younger so she will have to wait. I will say I am not anxious to go to restaurants or theaters yet. We both want to see if the vaccine actually works to slow the spread? Good luck with your effort. Eric
We are expecting 27 below tonight and 35 below tomorrow night. Farenheit, not Celcius.
Hoping for wind at least 20mph in the morning so a Bison herd I have access to will be frost covered, breathing out steam kn blowing and drifting snow. Early morning light will highlight the breath and the blowing snow should blur a bit for a decent image.
You take your shots where you can get them and we're lucky we have good winters for images. Just... send us more snow. We can use it. Most of the big storms have missed us up here right on the US/Canadian border.
Kirk,
Lucked out. Got the vaccine today. Learned a bit. Vaccines appts are releases Tuesday and Thursday. I got notified by a friend Thu at 6:00 p.m. There are a couple of neighborhood FB pages that do a great job keeping up.
Logged in, booked an appointment and then had to sit there for an hour hitting the Next button on the confirmation page, over and over. Eventually got confirmed.
I will say the process and experience of getting the vaccine was much better. Drove over to the vaccine center. Was guided to a parking spot and told to wait in the car till 15 minutes before the appointment. Got out when they said, got in line. The line looked like a long Disney line but moved much faster. Everyone was super friendly and helpful. Was in and out in an hour. 15 minutes of that was sitting around after the vaccine to be sure I didn't have a reaction. Grateful for the super friendly workers.
Thanks Sanjay! I'll hit it hard on Tuesday. Start early and hit the button as often as possible. Much appreciated. What do people do who don't have time to spend hours trying to get through?
I never would have expected it to work out this way. Piedmont Athens Regional Hospital in Georgia — which also owns a network of formerly private physician practices — scanned its patient records, notified elderlies like my wife and me by email when we qualified, provided a simple website appointment scheduling form, and flawlessly shepherded us through the process starting in January. No lines, no waiting, no confusion. Our shots were administered by well-trained personnel in a spotless facility which the week before had been an empty building.
Dates and times of second shot appointments were made and confirmed in the same manner with email prompt reminders and daily tracking of vaccine reactions through a smartphone app. All done by February 2. Turns out it’s perfectly possible to carry this out in a sane and professional manner.
Here in U.K. I got a text message from the National Health Service with a link to book online. Logged in booked & first and second appointments with no delays at a vaccine centre 10 miles away, first one the next day. Two days later got another text from my local Doctor Practice offering a vaccine one mile way but in a few days time (again no problems logging in etc). So you could call that a snafu, but it was in a good way :).
I live and work in the UK and was vaccinated about a month ago, together with my staff, (we are frontline healthcare workers), and it was super efficient, in and out in twenty minutes.
As a result, I am feeling more positive about being around to buy a new camera, (I use Canon), and have a free loaner of an R5, 24-105mm, 35mm f1.8, 85mm f2.0 and EOS-R adapter winging its way to me at the end of February.
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