Month: February 2021

Posted in R Thoughts

Virtual Treasure Hunt

Posted on by Notablerose

If you are shopping for a vaccine appointment in Massachusetts -pack your sense of humor, lower your expectations and bring a six pack of patience along, as well. This is a treasure hunt where the clues and rules change daily, sometimes hourly. If you like games where you are led around blind folded and try to figure out where you are going – you’re going to love this one.

It’s bedlam out there. Misinformation, buggy technology, and multiple contractors and platforms are contributing to the chaos.

It’s like looking for a prize in a box of cracker Jacks or Willy Wonka’s golden ticket.

I have been receiving emails since the end of 2020 urging me and reminding me to be vaccinated. None of these emails direct you on how to actually obtain a vaccine.

Here’s one scenario – When I called my cancer center in January to reschedule a radiology appointment, they asked me if I had been vaccinated yet. No. They gave me a number to call to schedule an vaccine appointment. When I called that number, the receptionist told me I had to email and ask for an appointment. When I emailed to ask for an appointment I received a reply that they weren’t making appointments anymore:) You can’t help but laugh out loud at that

Next, I started receiving emails from hospitals who had been urging me to get it vaccinated in 2020 that they weren’t getting more doses come February 11th. Way to start a panic – Governor Baker. The email directs you to Mass Gov link and then this happens:

🤔

Again, I laughed out loud when I got this message – The fun never stops:)-

Every website has their own set up- with names like PrepMod, Curative & Color. Then there are the pharmacy chains and grocery store pharmacies. Some tell you they have appointments available and then you fill out your information and when you hit the schedule button, you’re told that there are no appointments available. Other websites direct you to this big map of the United States and you select your state and they list all of the places in your state that will be offering vaccinations but they are all fully booked. It’s sort of informative to learn about where sites are located.

It was so bad, that programmers at home started creating sites showing availability just for kicks.

For whatever reason the appointments are released on Thursdays at 8:00 am and this past Thursday the state site crashed at 8:01 AM. Seriously, who is running this show?

This little squid/octopus scratching it’s head on a cloud, let’s you know you are out of luck, better luck next time 🤣

It kind of reminds you of trying to buy tickets to a blockbuster show or concert. You just keep hitting refresh and try again, refresh and try again, try different dates, refresh and try again until maybe you have success and maybe you don’t. I don’t think we are competing with scalpers – yet. I don’t play the lottery or slots machines, but obviously whoever designed this system is a fan.

Monty Python or SNL could not have made this stuff up.

When you start hearing about people getting the wrong dosage, you start to wonder if really the state is doing you a favor. Why not wait until everyone is up to speed and knows the difference between the different vials? Coronavirus to date has proved to be a sort Russian Roulette – some people die, some people don’t even know they have it, while other end up hospitalized for months, – so I don’t know why I expected the vaccine distribution to be less chaotic.

Massachusetts is now telling eligible residents that they can expect to wait up to a month to be able to make an appointment which should be plenty of time for everyone to figure out a better plan

For now, I am filing this under problems we are lucky to have.

With thanks to all the Marines, the National Guard and all other medical volunteers, as well as the state administrators – even you, Governor Baker (did you really run Harvard Pilgrim?) – that are working frantically and tirelessly to put needles in arms. I appreciate your efforts despite the comedic roll out.

A special shout out to Council on Aging volunteers helping seniors navigate the technology disconnect between access and end user.

February 25 update

Today the sites have set up queues. At Curative there were 99,976 people in line ahead of me for 2500 spots. Wait time -over an hour:). Disclaimer “due to high demand and very limited supply, there is(sic) only a small number of appointments available.”

The Natick Mall – showed availability, but when you clicked on the slots – the appointments were no longer available.

Over at MassVax – Waiting times jumped around 28 minutes to 10 minutes to 8 minutes back to 28 minutes and so on – and then all the slots were gone – I think they might be confusing minutes with months……

I had three devices going – computer, tablet and phone – hoping one might be a winner – but not today….. I may need to find another six pack of patience and humor….

February 27 update

SCORE!!

Finally found an appointment through CVS.COM. When I entered my ZIP Code it said there were no appointments available. When I just entered MA as an abbreviation for Massachusetts – a site popped up and I clicked and assume I snagged a cancellation. It’s funny to be this excited about getting a shot. For the first time in 11 months – I am feeling like I might be seeing light at the end of this tunnel.

The other good news is that hospitals are going to be receiving vaccines again. I had an email this week from my hospital that they would be calling texting or emailing me with an appointment in March.

So perseverance finally paid off for me. I wish everyone out there the same success. Here’s hoping the state site improves so others going forward will be able to sign up with ease.

Keep staying safe out there

Posted in R Way

Taking Notes

Posted on by Notablerose

First, I fell in love with Steno Pads, and later erasable pens. Note keeping apps meant that I didn’t have to lug my notebooks around anymore. Then along came Rocket Book – the trifecta.

I remember discovering erasable ballpoint pens in the 80s and being instantly hooked. I used Eraser mate by Papermate. (The maker of our beloved Flair felt markers) They came in blue and black and I used them to do the crossword and for Rite in the Rain field notebooks that I kept in my car for rainy day bird sightings. I stocked up on eraser mates when I could, as they weren’t in many stationery stores (remember those?)

My first boss out of college had given me a steno pad to keep on my desk for to do lists and telephone notes. Top Ten best suggestion anyone ever gave me. With a steno pad you can flip the pages easily, unlike a legal pad, and the wires are at the top so they don’t get in the way of your hand. Steno pads are handy simply for their size and portability. I started keeping one at home and in my bag. I keep several and use them daily. The line down the center of each page was designed for shorthand, but I like it for pros and cons of ideas.

When my stash of erasable pens was depleted and I checked to see if Amazon carried them, I discovered Frixion by Pentel an erasable gel pen in every color of the rainbow. Be still my beating heart. You know what happened next. With Frixion in my shopping cart, Amazon’s algorithm suggested Rocket Book . Each reusable Rocket Book comes with a Frixion pen. I was intrigued. When I clicked, I found the steno pad style- sold.

While I have been congratulating myself on figuring out zoom on multiple devices, a whole generation has been digitizing their hand written notes and forgot to tell me.

If you want to feel like a magician, scribble your notes and scan the QR code to see your notes appear in your app notebook. Then erase the page and use it over again. So cool.

When I tried it for the first time, I was amazed. Turns out reusable notebooks have been around for years – everyone knew about this technological advance but me. It’s a little like arriving in Oz and seeing everything in technicolor instead of black and white – What a wonderful world. I use Evernote and One note, but there is a whole list of compatible applications.

Thank You Frixion & Rocket Book for combining two of my favorites and taking them to a whole new level.

Get Your Rocket Book here

I haven’t tried Rocket Book out in soggy weather yet. I am pretty sure it will work, if not, here is the link to Rite in the Rain products, also

Rite in the Rain

For more reusable paper fun, I was recently introduced to Swipies. That work with non permanent markers and rinse off. This list makers dream

SWIPIES WEB SITE

Posted in R Memory

A sister who watched over me

Posted on by Notablerose

My sister and I shared a childhood filled with privilege, sorrow and loss. We went to the same K-12 school(which she loved) and summer camp ( which she hated). We danced in our living room to Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass. We played recorder duets. We shared the third floor of our Brownstone – she had the garden view, I had the street and The Barbizon. We travelled and went to museums and shows. We knew all the words to every Flanders & Swann album and all The Gilbert & Sullivan operettas. We sang in the church choir together, but we were as different as night and day. She wanted to stay home and read. I wanted to go outside and look for birds and see what was growing. She played the guitar, I played the piano. She was serious and studious. I was silly with a nervous giggle. She created works of art, I colored outside the lines.

She was seriously brilliant. Four years older than I was , but six years ahead of me in school. She had a November birthday, so she was young for her class and then she skipped her senior year of high school and went to college at 16 with a perfect SAT score and moved to England. I stayed close to home.

She was always Mary in the Christmas Nativity, beautiful and serene, her hair so long she could sit on it. I was a shepherd in a burlap costume, with self trimmed bangs, pulling up my socks and being shushed by the pageant director. She taught me sign language to keep me occupied in the choir stalls.

I was an annoying little sister. Constantly peppering her with questions and seeking her company. I had the advantage of youth and resiliency. I never really knew or could remember, the parents we lost. I had snap shots. She had full length movies. The toll on her psyche was much harder to bear than mine.

She slammed a lot of doors in my face on her search for peace and quiet. Often on our way to school or church, she was so irritated to have me tagging along, we would walk uptown on opposite sides of Madison Ave, screaming at each other across the street, turning the heads of our fellow pedestrians, the way that only city sisters who love each other can do:)

As an adult, she became an episcopal priest. I stopped going to church. She was usually late and did things at the last moment. I liked to be early and plan in advance. She listened to Gregorian chants while I turned up James Taylor and Carly Simon. She read patristics, the early church fathers written in Ancient Greek and received a PhD from Oxford. I read Victoria Holt and Daphne Du Maurier. I could go on and on.

We found common ground in the summers, taking our children to the beach and blueberry picking. We made a meal out of drink and talk time, we knit and played with watercolors. We shared the long goodbye of caring for our stepmother as Alzheimer’s eroded her memory. We each survived multiple surgeries. We emailed, texted and talked on the phone. We played Words with Friends. We read Louise Penny, Roz Chast, Motherless daughters and all the Mapp and Lucia books. We watched The Crown, Doc Martin,and Downton Abbey. We shared New Yorker stories and cartoons and Metropolitan Diary clippings. She checked on me during hurricanes and blizzards.

Despite all our differences we shared an atypical family history. While it often was embarrassing to tell people about our parents- were sort of proud of our orphaned heritage, the survivors that we were, and eventually it became our badge of honor. For the longest time she was the only other person I knew without parents. She was the only one who had been where I had been. She knew all my faults and fears and loved me anyway. I don’t know what I would have done without her. Now there is a void.

I was lucky to have her as a sister for as long as I did. We forged decades of happy memories in spite of our loss. As the word of her death spreads and old classmates are reaching out, I want to dial her number and let her know who called.

She had had the first vaccine shot and was looking forward to being able to travel to hold her first grandchild, who was born in August. This is what breaks my heart the most – All that joy that will be missed.

Like so many families who have lost a family member during this pandemic, all we can do now is cherish her memory, smile and let it live on.

Thank you, Lydia, for being my sister.

How I will miss you