Last night the rain started. It is now a mighty storm with heavy winds. I saw branches on my deck and a spawn at the feeders. I’ll go out later to clear the deck and throw acorns at the spawn. I do wish I had a sling shot.

This is a busy week. Besides practice and a lesson, I have four uke concerts so I am going to adopt my sloth like persona until Tuesday, practice day.

Yesterday I had my four shots, two in each arm. The Covid hurt going down into my arm but was the only one which did. This morning my arm, the one subjected to RSV and the shingles shot, is sore. I did wake up with a horrifically painful back, the old question mark look, but I blame the dogs.

I have told this story before, but I was reminded of it yesterday. We, the Peace Corps trainees heading to Ghana, got a yellow fever shot before we left the US. In Ghana, the second day was shot day. We got shots protecting us from everything except Black Death. The table was long and L shaped. We got in line and moved from shot to shot. We chatted while waiting, but most of us were a bit nervous, and the laughs were forced. We didn’t know what we were getting so we asked at each stop. We got typhoid, parathyroid, diphtheria and the most painful shot of all, rabies. The guy in front of me barely flinched with each shot. At one stop his knees buckled. That was the rabies stop. I said I didn’t want it. I got it. My knees buckled from the pain. The guy behind said he didn’t want. He got it. We moved on to polio vaccine and gamma globulin against hepatitis, a shot we got every six months. That last one was given in a private room as it was a butt shot. We started taking Aralen, pills we had to take every week, to protect us from malaria. The next day many of us were sick. Red lines were moving up and down my arm. I also had a fever. I napped a lot.

We were given a medical case with pills we might need, bandages, salves to ward off infection and other stuff I don’t remember. We got a booklet explaining everything in the case and their uses. My favorite lines in the whole booklet were what to do if we got bitten by a dog. We should cut off the dog’s heads, put it on ice and carry it to Accra. That meant I’d have the dog’s head with me on a bus for about twelve hours. I didn’t even want to contemplate what that ride would be like.

I was pretty healthy for those 2 years. I never got bitten by a dog, and I didn’t get Black Death.

The morning is rainy and cold. I’m glad for the rain. This has not been one of my better days. First was the dentist. Luckily, that went quickly, and I only whined a couple of times. My next stop was to have blood drawn. I hate lines, and there was a line. The bank was my next stop. I seemed to have misplaced my checkbook and ATM card. Lost is probably the more accurate word. I checked my car. I checked the driveway. I called the 24 hour line. I got a new ATM card. Only one stop is left, but I’m taking a coffee break after which I’ll get my Covid and flu shots. The day can only go up from there.

When I was a kid, I never saw the doctor much, only out of necessity. His office was a front room in his house. The house was enormous, an old white house beside the entrance road to my school yard. I remember he had a skeleton right by his desk. He was a big man, big as in heavy, not muscular. His white coat was too small. He wore suspenders. I remember he did not have a gentle touch. One time I split my chin so my mother and I walked to his office. He cleaned the cut by roughly rubbing a cotton square across it. I remember the pain. He said it was infected so he couldn’t sew it. I wanted to cheer. He closed it as well as he could and put a bandage over it. I was glad to leave. I skipped home.

I love New England and its four seasons. Fall is the most spectacular. The trees are a riot of colors. The mornings are crisp, the days warm. The nights are cool, perfect for sleeping. On my ride yesterday, I noticed the bogs are red with cranberries. Harvesting usually begins in October. I check when bogs will be harvested as I like to watch as the berries are gathered. It is such a tradition on Cape Cod. The apples are ripe for picking. It is time for apple cider donuts. This morning I noticed so many houses already decorated with mums and pumpkins. I also noticed some ghosts hanging from trees, gravestones in front yards and a scarecrow or two. It is time to start embracing Halloween.