flemmings | Suddenly the night has grown colder

Hard to say if I had any side effects of the shot aside from the indubitably sore arm. Fuzz in the aftermath could as easily have been caused by afternoon nap, mild intestinal protests are a common stress reaction, mild headache goes with newly revived allergies, and I actually hurt less Friday morning than I did pre-shot Thursday. Certainly no chills or nausea, which were the two things I very much wanted to avoid, and no pain in previously broken bones either. So I count my blessings, and the general feeling of offness that I've had for the last three days... well, could be seasonal ennui, or if it's jab-related, will be gone tomorrow.

But FB suggests people to friend and one of them is the Mighty Helen's younger sister. I go look at her page and someone has posted a film clip from, by the looks of it, 2005. Copper-nob S and a four year old Helen singing happy birthday to a friend in English and French and a scatalogical version from the four year old in the company and oh gee gosh I remember them at that age why do kids grow up? S turned 18 yesterday. It seems all wrong that 2003 was only eighteen years ago and then it seems all wrong that eighteen years registers as 'only' and not 'several lifetimes'. For sure, 1985 to 2003 was several lifetimes for me. The telescoping time sense is one of the less pleasant aspects of aging. Ten years doesn't last as long as it did when I was thirty-five or even forty-five.

In minor annoyances, my online Japanese bookstore will no longer ship abroad but uses an intermediary company. Intermediary is in English but it's still a two-step operation and clunky. (I don't have a handle on what's going on with the Japanese PO but I seem to recall that they stopped shipping to NAmerica completely.) And they cancelled my order for Reload Blast 3 because apparently it's out of stock and not expected to be in. Amazon.jp has the three volume set for big bucks and Hurry while supplies last only two sets remaining! butamazon.jp is even more of an evil empire than the homegrown version. (And money sink: exorbitant shipping costs plus exorbitant paperwork at border fees plus Canada Customs stops all Fedex parcels and charges duty on them. Very not worth it.)

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Glad to hear that your "side effects, such as they may be" were generally mild. The range of symptoms that I hear about from my friends is amazing: some people, absolutely no reaction, not even the sore arm. Others, laid out for days with a fever and puking, etc.

I had Moderna and ended up with a surprisingly strong reaction for just the first shot. But then again, my immune system has had little to do lately, so maybe it saw this as a "big deal".

Anyway, good job getting the shot!

The more I read, the more it seems that us Olds have a much easier time of it. I'm sorry your own reaction was so strong, though if you say 'it's a mere bagatelle compared with the flus I've had', I'll believe you-- and be very grateful I never had a real flu.

But anyway, that's us partially taken care of.

Yes, I've heard that too. That's a good thing for sure, fewer symptoms makes the whole process a lot more tolerable.

Gosh, if you've never had a real flu, count yourself lucky!
As an adult I haven't had many either. But there was this one time the circus was in Brooklyn, 2015, and my boyfriend and I both got it. Possibly because we were walking about two miles to and from the arena each night in -15F through several inches of snow/slush. I don't think I've ever had fever, body aches, chills, nausea, cough, snot, and all other fluids and bodily agony that bad in my life, or at least not since I was a toddler. And we still had to do our shows, as there were no substitutes for us.

So compared to that yeah, the vaccine response was nothing. I was achy with a "fever" of 99F, nauseous enough to eat simple foods but not to actually stop eating, and I was extremely tired. And it only lasted 24 hours. Absolutely nothing, and the proof is I'm still going to get the second shot haha.

Best wishes on your second shot, I hope you have minimal symptoms with that as well!

The worst I've had was a reaction to a flu shot that hit the body aches and fever buttons, and that was quite sufficient for me. Have not had a flu shot since, nor the flu, possibly because +-40 years in childcare has ramped up my immunity. Though not to upper respiratory infections somehow. Last year was the first year in... decades? that I wasn't coughing up a lung.

Why did you have to walk so far in the middle of winter? I understand the no transit thing, but couldn't someone have given you a ride?

Ah yes, flu shot reactions are a like a tiny little flu. You definitely don't want the real deal. Which still kills a lot of people each year. And is completely awful. Don't blame you at all for avoiding the flu shot, I also avoid it.

We had to walk because before we knew there was going to be a massive blizzard plus negative windchill, we made arrangements to stay in a friend's house near the arena in Brooklyn. Uber was fairly new at the time and still quite expensive, and it was only about 1.5-2 miles, which was nothing to us since we regularly had to walk that just to exit the train yard after arriving in most cities. Plus we were there for two weeks, we couldn't afford two weeks' worth of Ubers. Most circus people did not have cars, and even if they did they weren't stupid enough to drive them into New York City. The train was parked in Secaucus NJ. So, we kind of set ourselves up for failure, though we did save ourselves a really rough commute all the way from freaking Secaucus every single day.

it was only about 1.5-2 miles, which was nothing to us since we regularly had to walk that just to exit the train yard

Blenches at the thought. Did they have you parked off to a siding or something, that it was so far?

But put like 'Secaucus to Brooklyn every day' I can see why you walked, New Jersey being basically one state-wide black hole.

The train was a mile long.

If you lived on car 1, and car 32 was at the yard exit, that's a mile you have to walk.

If you use google maps to view any train yard, you will see that some of them are huge (Cincinnati or Kansas City MO or Atlanta) and if our train was parked "somewhere" in there we'd have to find our way out. There was a company bus, but it couldn't drive EVERYWHERE in a train yard.

Go to Google Maps and search "Croxton Intermodal Terminal, Jersey City, NJ". That's the train yard where we stayed when performing in Brooklyn. From there, search for directions to "Secaucus Junction", and make sure you select the "Walking" icon. Now you can see how we got to the train station to get to Brooklyn each day. And try to see all the lines of rail that are in the Croxton yard. Our train might have been parked somewhere else in that yard entirely, and we'd have to walk from wherever it was. There were 200-some people riding the train, not even a fraction of us had cars to drive to the entrance. And even if we did, then what? We couldn't park at a train yard entrance. Park at the train station all day and pay for that parking? Drive all the way to Brooklyn?

But it really was nothing. I'd do it again right now today. I'd still be doing it if the circus hadn't closed.

Some of the lighting and sound techs would sleep at the Brooklyn arena because they had to be at work early and went home late, and with a 1 hour plus commute by the time they got back to the train they'd only have 2-4 hours before they'd have to turn around and do it all over again. The band wasn't as unlucky as that, but still, to have to account for an hour commute on each end of a three-show day, plus a 1.5 mile walk to get into the train yard, for a lot of people it just wasn't worth it.

A mile long? Sounds like the train in A Hundred Years of Solitude that took a week to pass through the village.

It took some doing with my version of Google but I think I see what you mean. A half hour's trudge from Croxton to Secaucus Junction, they say, and going under? Over? the freeway twice. That's a state made for cars, for sure.

And yeah, those railway yards are huuuuge.

Lol! Most trains are longer than that. But being that long does mean either it gets broken up in pieces in the train yard in order to fit, or left in one big line that you have to walk all the way down. Pie Car was conveniently located in the center of the train so that no one had to walk the whole train length just to eat. The generator car was centrally located as well.

Ah, sorry Google Maps wasn't much help :/
Yes, I remember that walk well. Getting out of the yard was special because it was not a paved route to get in, so walking back at night was prime twist-your-ankle turf. And during the day there was snow to trudge through on that walk to the station, then the ride itself, another walk through Penn Station to grab whatever train it was that went right to the Barclays Center. It was at least an hour, probably more with all the walking. We did it the first year but the next we decided to take a friend up on staying in their apartment.

And then we both got the Real Flu, and what was supposed to be an "easier time of it" became hell on wheels. But anyway, we can look back on it and laugh :)

My favorite yard for getting lost was the Atlanta yard. In most of the other large yards we had sort of a designated spot or area where we could expect to find the train. Atlanta was very "f*ck you" and just put us wherever, meaning a scavenger hunt any time we were in that city.

Suddenly the night has grown colder

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