February 15, 2021 - Vaccine and Another Repair

Kelly and I spent our Valentine's Day driving to Tallahassee and back to get our first Covid vaccine shot. It was a 4.5 hour drive one way. We arrived early because it was a Sunday and there was no traffic even though we had to drive though multiple towns and dozens of stoplights. We easily found the Publix store which luckily was on the south side of Tallahassee. The system they set up for the shots couldn't have been simpler. You checked in at a table and then were given a seat near the pharmacy.

There weren't many people there upon arrival s0 I asked the young man manning the registration table two questions. Can I get my vaccine before my allotted time and can Kelly get hers right after me rather than us having to wait an hour after that for her appointment? We used his walkie-talkie to confer with the pharmacist and she answered "sure" to both questions. We had about a fifteen minute wait after that. Kelly didn't have her Medicare card with her so it took a little longer to do the paperwork but the pharmacist was really sharp and got it done using her SSN.  (They need the Medicare number to get reimbursed from the Feds.) We both had our shots and were waiting out the 15 minute observation period when the time for my appointment came up.  Here is a picture Kelly took of me waiting.

I'm hoping I can contact someone at Publix and tell them how nice and accommodating the pharmacist was to us. It was really a pleasant experience, which was a relief in itself. Nothing would have been worse than driving 4.5 hours and there being some type of glitch.  I started having a little arm soreness last night when we got home but it is nothing. We both feel fine this morning. Our second shots are scheduled for March 14th at the same time.

In the mail I the other day I received bobbins that I ordered.  I ordered a package of 20 for $4.00.  They even came with a fabric tape measure which is really handy to have at times.

Since I rarely sew on a machine and don't have a sewing machine here in Florida, you may wonder why I ordered bobbins. Well, I use them to replace the tie down strings on the day/night shade on every window.  The ones installed at the factory are plastic and, like all other plastic, disintegrates after several years. I can buy metal bobbins, which are about the same size, for less money than the plastic ones. (Not my idea, I picked this idea up on an RV website several years ago and used it before.)  Here is a picture of a couple bobbins up close ready to be put to work. They are a perfect upgrade because the holes give you something to tie the string to. 

Here is what the plastic ones look like on one shade. Pieces break off then the strings come loose and the shades fall down. The arrows point to the broken off areas and cracks.

Most of these tie downs are located behind the valance on the side of the shades. I may have to take each valance loose from the wall to get to them if my stubby screwdriver doesn't work. Today's project. Always a project.