Waiting in Wal-Mart for my covid shot

Whenever I go to a Wal-Mart to pick up a prescription, I am reminded that what you save there you eventually surrender in dignity. But it happened to be the first place with available appointments for the Covid vaccine, so my vigilant wife arose early and booked it online.

When I arrived at the appointed hour, a number of lines had already formed in front of the understaffed pharmacy counter. In the middle were eight chairs arranged in parallel rows, like a pretend bus. 

These chairs were supposedly reserved for those who had just gotten the vaccine and were waiting the required 15 minutes to see whether it would kill them or not. But I am a cynical man, and I suspected most of the sitters had been there awhile and were just taking a load off. 

The standing lines were comingled with people dropping off prescriptions, or picking up prescriptions, or waiting for the vaccine. No one seemed sure which line was which. 

My personal rule of thumb is that whenever there is more than one line, I am standing in the wrong one. And so it was today. But eventually I was called forward, made to show documents and fill out other documents, and then was asked to follow a woman to the area where the shots were being administered.

I had expected a maze of orange cones and strict distancing protocols, but I was shown to be the Ladies Intimates section. The fitting rooms, closed for Covid anyway, had been repurposed as vaccination stations. 

Here were more plastic chairs, significantly less than six feet apart. The lingerie displays hadn't been moved, so I was seated amid the plus-size bras, between a couple of women aboard their motorized shopping carts. These women were friends, and pulled down their masks to exchange loud pleasantries. Behind my own mask, I gritted my teeth.

The actual shot was anticlimactic. The nurse wasn't wearing a Wal-Mart tunic, which was reassuring. The shot didn't hurt much, and afterward I was given one of those vaccination cards that we hope will be a passport back to the nation of Normalcy. I'm supposed to get the second dose in a month.

What a year it's been. Exactly one year ago my kids and grandkids were all here, having arrived from Montana and Virginia. We dined out and did tourist things and had generally a great time. We were vaguely aware of the coronavirus, as we all called it then, but figured it might not turn out to be a big deal.

Well, it was.