Today’s Daily Stoic writing prompt: How can I refresh my mind today?

Today’s meditation focused on the refreshing nature of taking a walk–something I’ve always believed in, and found even more important in the last year and a hundred days. Alas, today was not a day I could take a walk — but just getting out had a wonderful salutatory impact.

What a difference a day can make. Yesterday, to be honest, was rough, but in a really petty kind of way. I look forward to my RPGs all week long, and in the second of these, I had a run of awful dice rolling while the other party members were spectacularly succeeding. Then, my tabletop sim app kept blanking out, including right in the middle of making a move. (I finally resolved the issue by switching to Firefox, but by then my patience was shot). There was all this time the kind of fun banter that makes these sessions completely enjoyable–but when you’re not succeeding plus your technology is cursed–well, it can really hit you in the gut. I pretty much went silent. I did what I needed to do in the game, and that was it.

Then, I was so riled up by the experience–and the thought of how busy and possibly stressful today was going to be–that I couldn’t get comfortable in bed, and ended up decamping to my office couch early on.

But then, getting up at my usual time, I decided to brave the wilds of Ontario’s provincial vaccine scheduling system, as I was becoming eligible for a shot this morning. I’d heard horror stories of no available appointments, and, of course, I had my own experiences in trying to track down an appointment last time. People have been calling it the Hunger Games, and they’re not wrong. Apparently, though, the odds were in my favour, because I logged in at 7 am and found ample appointments available at the FirstOntario mass vaccination clinic for later in the week. I had my choice for day and time–I picked Friday at 3 pm–and was able to get an appointment at the same time for my husband. Simple as that. We’ll be getting whatever mRNA vaccine they happen to be giving out.

What’s impressive to me is that a number of months ago, when things first started rolling out, I made a hopeful prediction that I might have my first shot by about now. Instead, it’ll be the full set. Canada really just put the foot on the accelerator when it came to the rollout and have not let up. I notice the complaints about us being “behind” have mostly faded, especially with predictions now that we’ll get to 75% by the end of July. For me, this means that “freedom day” will be on July 9–less than three weeks away now. Meanwhile, case count today was 270. Fingers cross that we can hold that line against the delta variant until we get up to critical mass on the vaccinations.

Back to the day’s events: we got to drive on the driveway! (Woohoo! Excitement!) Glasses pickup later in the morning was quick and easy, and they fit beautifully (they’re even lighter in weight than my current red titanium pair.) Then stops at Zarky’s, the pet supply store, and Sobey’s. Meanwhile, the issues in my work project are now getting lots of attention from the right people.

And I’ll get to take the delayed half-day tomorrow. We’ll have a nice walk, go over to the local driving range to thwack a few balls, and just generally enjoy having access to the car again.

I’ll conclude the evening with a little more embroidery and a little Russian practice. We’re just past the Solstice, and perhaps I might take a moment to step outside and let the beginning notes of summer refresh my mind.