Category: Brief Messages or Announcements

Easter Nest Hunt

Yesterday we drove over to see James Alan McPherson Park, and it was filled with people who were having a great time. Because it was crowded (partly because of the Easter weekend), we went to Terry Trueblood Recreation Area, where we typically go for walks. We’ll return to James Alan McPherson Park on a weekday. Ironically, the larger park seemed less busy than the much smaller one.

There seemed to be more birds than people out. They were out hunting for places to build nests. There are plenty of Tree Swallow nest boxes spaced at wide intervals around the trail. Competition was keen for them, or so it looked. It reminded me of house hunting humans.

What Does It Mean to be Fully Vaccinated?

See the gallery below about what it mean to be fully vaccinated and what changes afterward.

  • When are you fully vaccinated?
  • What changes once vaccinated?
  • Vaccinated or not (yet), keep up your safety measures
Click in the image and move left to right with the arrow key

COVID-19 Vaccine Jab Today

Today I got my first COVID-19 vaccine shot and I’m scheduled for the second one. This was through the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics (UIHC). It was a slick operation and a lot of people like me (in the 1b class) were getting vaccinated. There were very kind and efficient persons guiding me everywhere I needed to go, starting in the parking lot, all the way in the building, leading to the person who administered the vaccine. And from there, I was never at a loss for where to go next, which was to the waiting room for observation for 15-30 minutes.  I got jabbed. I stuck around for at least 15 minutes as required and had no worrisome reaction symptoms. I was in and out in a half hour.

I requested the vaccine through MyChart about a week ago. I got notified to schedule yesterday through MyChart. I kept getting a message that there were no available openings. I was just going to check back periodically, but was pleasantly surprised this morning when they telephoned me inviting me to come in today.

I also found out from a news item this morning that the Iowa COVID vaccine provider portal may have a glitch in it. Some of the counties were not able to post accurate data. Some are listed as not having available vaccine providers when, in fact, they do. The list varies from day to day. For now, I removed the web link from the menu on my blog until they get it worked out, which I hope will be soon.

But UIHC definitely did not have a problem getting the vaccine into arms today. There are two ways to request the vaccine: through MyChart or a web-based request form. Hang in there and keep trying.

The UIHC COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic gets the Triple Whammy Shout-Out for kindness, safety, and a great job.

First UIHC COVID-19 Vaccinations!

UIHC Historic Moments

The first supply of the COVID-19 Vaccination vials arrived at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC) this week. We couldn’t have wished for a better Christmas gift. As a recent UIHC physician retiree, I know first hand how hard everyone works there. They live the motto: We Stand Together. UIHC is making history—and they’ve been doing that for a long time.

You can find out more about the vaccine at the Iowa Department of Public Health web site.

Way to Go Iowa!

Kindness Alert!

This is just a brief announcement—a Kindness Alert. This past Saturday, we got our first load of snow of the season dumped on us, which meant we had to go out and shovel. Our driveway is pretty big. We don’t have a snowblower. This means we were out there about an hour and a half powering our way through a few inches of wet, heavy snow.

And naturally, that meant the city snowplows plugged in our driveway shortly after we went inside, foolishly congratulating ourselves on a job well done. I think there must be some kind of local ordinance requiring all driveways to be plugged with snow right after the homeowners finish clearing them. I’ve posted about this before.

But then as we watched from our front window, our neighbor interrupted his own snow removal work to clear off our driveway plug and then some. In fact, he used a snowblower and a shovel! He spent considerable time on the job. It was an impressive act of kindness. I remember wanting to rush out in the cold to thank him.

Little did I know that I would have the opportunity to return the favor. Shortly after our neighbor finished, another snow plow rumbled through and dumped more show in our driveway and even spread it around more generously in other places near the curb—and even shoved snow over the curb on the lawn. By that time, the stuff had frozen into small boulders of ice and mud.

I plodded outside again and cleaned it up. Then I noticed that the snowplow driver had also piled more snow on my neighbor’s side. In fact, I did return the favor—sooner than I thought I would.

A big shout-out for my neighbor’s act of kindness!

Wind and Wings

A couple of days ago we were at the Terry Trueblood Recreation Area and it was pretty windy. The birds were challenged just hanging on in the trees. Eastern Kingbirds didn’t hardly ruffle a feather. The Tree Swallows seemed to be pretty good acrobats high up in the trees. The Cowbirds, not so much.

Birds getting their feathers ruffled in the wind!

Kudos to the Goodenough Psychiatrist for Blog Post “The Perfect Balance”

I almost never write more than one post a day, but I’m pretty impressed with the blog post “The Perfect Balance” by The Goodenough Psychiatrist. It was very thought-provoking and the Stuart Ablon Ted Talk on Collaborative Problem Solving was refreshing.

A little over 3 ½ minutes into the video, Ablon says something interesting about conventional wisdom which helps cast doubt on blindly trusting it. When he remarks that conventional wisdom commonly fosters misconceptions including teaching that the earth was flat, it reminded me of a scene from Men in Black (I confess, one of my favorite movies). Agent K says, “A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that people were alone on this planet. Imagine what you’ll know tomorrow.”

His remarks highlight the challenge to those who break with conventional wisdom, which can sometimes be isolation.

It takes courage.