Rant #2,622: Hit Me With Your Best Shot

How was your weekend?
 
This is a big week coming up, at least for me.
 
Our Passover seders were good this past weekend, and the holiday continues.
 
I am truly in my glory this week, with matzoh my go-to food.
 
I have eaten up half a box at this point, and there is no stopping me, as I plan to finish that box and start another one.
 
And so far, so good with matzoh stomach, which may or may not reach these shores as I plug away at the matzoh.
 
Let’s see what happens.
 
And then we have baseball, and nothing goes better with matzoh than our national pastime (cream cheese is actually my first choice).
 
Major League Baseball begins its season on April 1, April Fool’s Day, but unlike last season—which was an abbreviated 60-game season which was altered by the coronavirus—this season is at least planned to operate on the usual 162-game schedule.
 
I guess in retrospect, the 2020 season was good for what it was, but to me, it wasn’t the baseball that I craved, in particular with a pandemic and a lot more time on my hands as I was out of work looking for a job. 

I could not bathe my sorrows into a full season, because what we got was, to me, a Strat-O-Matic season, not anything that you could sink your teeth into.
 
The 2021 season promises to be the real deal, so I can’t wait for it to begin … and I think most baseball fans would agree with me.
 
And then we have Friday, April 2, which I hope is not a day that will live in infamy in my life, but based on past experience, I have to keep all options open.
 
On Friday, I am set to receive my second coronavirus vaccine shot, and again, based on past experience, I am dreading the experience …
 
Not the getting of the shot, which is a piece of cake for me, as I get shots all the time based on my monthly allergy shots.
 
I am dreading the experience based on the horror show I went through three weeks ago at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York, a place that is better know for horseracing than for vaccinations.
 
I kind of felt like a horse at this place, and during my time there waiting to get vaccinated—and then waiting to get out of there—I kind of felt like a horse that was waiting for his fate at the glue factory … it was absolutely horrible.
 
The place was mismanaged, truly overwhelmed by what was gong on, and nothing went smoothly, from check-in—they could not find my name, and found out it was entered in the reverse, with my last name my first name and my first name as my last name, even though my paperwork was correct—to the check-out—where the final interminable line we had to stand on was made even worse by some people on the line deciding that since they received their first shot, they did not have to wear their masks anymore.
 
It was a horror show, and at least I know that I won’t have to wait on another line to check out, since this presumably is the second and final shot of the Pfizer series, so this is it.
 
I have received some better reports about Belmont, so maybe things have gotten better there.
 
And then there is the aftermath … I am not expecting anything to happen to me after getting the shot, but I know some people who have suffered after getting their second shot, and others who have not had anything at all … so let’s see that happens.
 
I have until Friday to worry about that.
 
So what do I do in the interim?
 
Do my remote job, do things around the house, go on the computer and the Internet, listen to and digitize some records, take my son to and from work, make dinner once or twice this week, do the wash a few times, help my mom out … believe me, my day is a full one, and I might even have some time to watch TV a bit.
 
So this should be a very interesting week for me, personally, and as we take baby steps to get back to normal, it should be an interesting week for a lot of people.
 
This is the holiday break for a lot of us, the confluence of Passover and Easter, and a lot of people are off from their jobs and off from school.
 
They will have plenty of time on their hands to take a break from whatever their normal schedules may be, and look forward to their respective holidays, if they follow them.
 
Otherwise, it is time to just wind down and relax for a few days.
 
Me, I don’t really know what relaxation is.
 
I have a big week ahead of me, and I am looking forward to it.
 
And as for Belmont, as Pat Benatar says, “Hit Me With Your Best Shot.”
 
I am ready for anything, and I am certainly ready to get that second shot in my arm.
 
Once that happens, and I am out of that place, then I will know what the word “relaxation” really means ...

I think.

Fire away!