Today’s Daily Stoic writing prompt: Am I expecting the possible, and not just what I want?

As I’m writing this, I’m about four hours post vaccine. What I want would be just a mild set of side effects—enough to tell me it’s working, but not anything nasty. But I’m expecting the possible, which—given what friends have experienced—will probably be a little harder than that. Already I am starting to feel a little dopey, and my arm is sore. We’ll see how this all goes.

*****
Today: Fastest medical appointment ever. I got to the place for my annual ultrasound about ten minutes early and ended up getting in about five minutes early. I was done about ten minutes later, and then down the stairs to see the doc. Waited only a couple of minutes. Turns out what I call “my little friend” — an ovarian cyst I’ve had for several years–had actually shrunk a bit this time. Since I was coming due for my Pap test, we went ahead and took care of that as well. Total time elapsed: about 35 minutes.

My midyear review also went well. People said nice things about me.

Second dose of vaccine went very well. This time, it was at a mass clinic that was just cranking people through. We got Pfizer. While I was waiting the 15 minutes after my shot, the notification that the jewellery I ordered from Belgium? Arrived today. (it was originally supposed to arrive Monday). The two things I ordered were an mRNA strand and the letter Phi (as in the Golden Ratio, the first letter of Phi Beta Kappa, and–sort of — the sound you’d make to say the world “Pfizer”) so the fact they came today was particularly auspicious. Here I am while on a Teams call confirming this weekend’s deployment is a go.

On the way back to the car, we stopped in the Hamilton Farmer’s Market to visit the British Baked Goods stall, and I now have Welsh cakes.

I think I’ll keep this update short today and let my immune system begin to do its thing.