The weather is still fall perfect. The high will be 68˚. The sky is partly sunny and party cloudy. I’ll try to stay on the sunny side. Gwen is hiding. She is usually sitting on the floor waiting for me. I did find her under the bed, but I didn’t pull her out. I have to give her insulin so I’ll try again in a bit to get her to surface, but I don’t want to stress her. I suspect her hiding is because of my having taken her to the vets yesterday.

This Friday I am getting a plethora of shots: flu, pneumonia and shingles.

I remember getting the smallpox vaccine before I could go to school. My doctor gave it to me close to the top of my left leg. He said he didn’t want for me to have a scar on my arm, the usual spot for the needle. The vaccine was not a shot; instead, it was on the surface. The needle pricked the skin. I remember it bled a bit, but what I remember the most is part of my scab was torn off by a branch while I was playing. I cried. I thought I’d have to get it again. I didn’t.

Before we left for Ghana, we were given yellow fever shots. In Ghana we had a medical day not long after we arrived. Table after table had, I think, nurses ready to give us the shots. I didn’t know so many shots existed. I thought they’d run out of spots for the needles. We also drank polio vaccine and got a gamma globulin shot on the butt. The only medical pieces we were responsible for taking were anti-malaria pills every week. We took Aralen, chloroquine. I did stop taking it during the dry season as there were no bugs. Peace Corps would have been unhappy bugs or no bugs.

While I was in Ghana, there was a cholera epidemic. I had two cholera shots but got a mild case anyway. By mild I’m talking lying on the bathroom floor close to the toilet hoping for only one problem orifice at a time. That was as sick as I’ve ever been. I was in Niamey, Niger by the Sahara.

My dance card has only a couple of events: CVS on Friday and Hyannis on Sunday with the uke band. I have uke practice today and a lesson tomorrow. Without my uke, I’d seldom leave the house. My sister’s birthday is today, and I surprised her by playing Happy Birthday, picking the notes on my uke. She was delighted that I had learned it just for her.