Yes, I admit it, I was envious that everyone I knew had already gotten their first vaccine and carried around in their wallets a card with their second appointment! How was that fair? I kept my phone close and answered every single sketchy number that rang, (except for the only one I ignored, the one that came up “probable scam”; it turned out that was actually from the Covid hotline – with my appointment???)

It did no good to call them back. You might as well be telling Alexa what you think of her. There was that same, annoyingly pleasant voice asking me to pre-register. Of course, I had pre-registered weeks ago, the first time “she” called. She knew all she needed to know about me: born in 1944. The math is easy.

It hasn’t been all that awful this winter, staying in, seeing hardly anyone, wearing the damn mask, eating take-out lunches in the car. Scott’s is a favorite, with its out-in-the-open little crowd of customers, almost all masked these days, with only a few contrary young guys on lunch hour still holding out. They tend to stay in a gaggle, easy for the rest of us to avoid.

We’ve been at it for almost 11 months now, and it’s beginning to feel normal. But give us a little hope that it will finally end, tell us that we over-70s are next in line, and suddenly we can’t stand it another minute. (They say it’s when things start to get better in a society that revolution may be around the corner, but the extraordinary events of the past couple of months in Washington seem to make hogwash of that theory. They tried the revolution route, but what part of life was getting better for any of us??)

Yes, we old folks are pretty demanding. We came of age in the 60s; it’s in our DNA. We expect to get what we want when we want it. And to be fair, all the information we get about this disease says it kills old people. But unless we’re living in a “congregant setting” – an old people’s home for goodness sake – most of us have little trouble staying home. We figured out curbside pick-up – Rockland Hannaford and Walmart does it, ditto Home Depot and Heavenly Yarns in Belfast, in fact most of the places we shop do it. We wrangled our kids or neighbors into shopping for us, we’ve learned to wait in our cars at the doctor’s office until they called us to come in.

We take a lot of naps.

We zoom church, some of us. Some of us take a chance and go to in-person church. Some go to restaurants where the seating is sparse and distant, but many haven’t been inside one since March. The point is, few of us have to go to work; few of us have responsibility for anyone other than ourselves and spouses.

That’s because we’re old.

It was beyond fair that the first doses went to the front-line healthcare workers. I hope everyone in that category has had theirs. Next, those long-term care facilities (nursing homes!) were in line. It got sticky with some folks when prison inmates were being included, but then nothing is easy about this pandemic. The 70-and-over population came next here in Maine, and that’s where we’re at today.

A few weeks ago, my partner, Don, got the call and an appointment. More vaccine envy and a tiny bit of outrage that day – just because he’s five years older than me? And then came the friends younger than me. Where’s the fairness in that? It turns out, there really isn’t much of a line for this thing. You can sit by the phone and wait for the call, or you can go after it.

I went with Don the day he got his first shot, and the guy at the door assumed I had an appointment as well. Hopefully, I didn’t sound as sulky as I felt when I said no, I didn’t.

“Well, hang around,” he said, “they may have some extra doses.”

What?? It’s that loosey goosey? They take walk-ins? Yes apparently, they do, if you’re lucky. I wasn’t that day, but was told to try in two days. It was snowy in two days and a drive to Belfast to wait around to see if they had any left-over seemed like too much work. And like jumping the line.

Then out of the blue, weeks later, a friend called and said “try this number: 505-4048.” Of course, when I did, there was a recording to leave my number. Of course. But miracle, five minutes later the phone rang and a woman identifying herself as Angel asked if I wanted an appointment for the vaccine. Well, of course! And in two days!

Apparently, Maine Health, the corporation that now owns both PenBay and Waldo hospitals, has two big sites set up so far in our area, one in a former MBNA building in Belfast and the other in the Samoset ballroom. I went to Belfast and it was the slickest, easiest thing.

You show up at the door at exactly the time they give you and proceed through about five different stations where you answer questions (“have you had a fever, chills…..etc.”), sign a form, have a thermometer aimed at your forehead, then straight to one of five or six positions where the vaccine is given, roll  up your sleeve, shot-in-arm, then out to a big room with dozens of chairs set up six feet apart. You take a seat and someone puts a hand-written sticker on you “9:52” maybe, which is exactly 15 minutes after you sat down. This is to spot anybody having a reaction.

At 9:52 they come along and say you can leave. You walk out to another table where they schedule your second shot and give you a little card with your own barcode on it. It tells you which vaccine you got – Pfzier or Moderna. The whole thing has taken barely 25 minutes.

There were some 20 people working the day I was there, Waldo Hospital employees, and they’re administering 500 vaccines a day, two days a week they said.

After posting the number – 505-4048 ­– on the LBB some ten people have replied that they’ve got an appointment at that number. Her name really is Angel. One woman started crying when she heard her name; “that’s happened before,” Angel replied.

While most of the state’s covid cases are found in people in their 20s, most of the deaths from the disease are in those over 80. As long as vaccine supplies remain tight, Governor Mills says the state is prioritizing it on availability and how vulnerable a given group is to the virus.

As of this past Sunday, just 172,725 Mainers have received the first dose, with 70,757 getting two doses.  With a population of about 1,350,000 people, we still have a long way to go.

“I’d gladly have given my dose to a teacher if there was a way to do that,” Don has said.

Both of our spouses were teachers, and I second that thought. Teachers, bus drivers, custodians, cooks, all the people who run our school. What about, according to the BDN this morning, the “more than 65 people or groups representing hospitality, transportation, food sanitization, chemicals manufacturers and organ donor services”, ranging from ski patrol members to home health care workers, all who have appealed to the governor for the vaccine?

Meanwhile, the largest cohort of Maine’s population, its elderly, sit, for the most part, safely at home, and as its most vulnerable, at the top of the priority list. A conundrum indeed for the policymakers.

Yes we, the last of the WW II generation and the oldest of the Boomers, grew up to think the world was ours. We changed all sorts of rules, made protesting an art form, thought we’d make the world a better place, only to find out now, in our dotage, that the world is as screwed up as ever. Maybe worse. And it happened on our watch.

School

Winter break is this week, the February week that starts with Presidents Day and is traditionally the week of Maine high school basketball tournaments. Sadly, there are no tournaments this year, but there’s snow on the ground, ice on the ponds and the temperatures are bearable: a good week to get outside and play.

And for all you parents, grandparents, and everyone else interested in our school, sit down and read Lynx Tracks, the school newsletter. There are several interesting articles and photos of school projects, including homemade models of woodchuck burrows. So good to see the Lynx back, almost feels like normal!

Union 69 (Appleton,Hope, and Lincolnville) superintendent Kate Clark is holding virtual coffee via Zoom on Tuesday, February 23 at 6 p.m. to “address specific questions, or just chat. These are unusual times, and we are certainly all in this together! The best way to work together is to get to know each other a bit more. So, if you’re available, come meet Mrs. Clark and let her get to know you!

Chowder Take-Out

This Wednesday, Feb. 17, is the deadline to order this Saturday’s Corn or Fish Chowder Pickup-Takeout meal at the Beach Schoolhouse. Contact Chris Leary to place your order, a choice of chowder and whether you want regular or GF cornbread and cookie. The meal is $10 with proceeds going into the Beach Schoolhouse Renovation Project. Pick up your meal between 1 and 3 p.m. at 33 Beach Road. Thanks to all who are supporting the Lincolnville Historical Society’s efforts to repair and maintain their building!

Condolences

John Krumein wrote this week to tell us that Ann passed away at their home in Florida this past week. Ann and John, who had settled down at Ducktrap years ago, had moved down to Florida for her health. Ann, a talented photographer, will be missed.