24+ hours post-vaxx..

• We got our shots as soon as the pharmacy opened yesterday morning (9-9:30). By mid-afternoon, I was starting to feel kind of tired and a bit achy -- more so than I usually do with the regular flu shot. We were watching Ken Burns' (excellent) documentary on Hemingway on PBS last night (part 2 of 3 tonight), and I could barely keep my eyes open. Ached horribly all over, especially through my shoulders & torso. Dh got me a heating pad and I took some ibuprofen before I headed off to bed. That seemed to help. Slept OK -- not great, but not too bad. 
• I'm still a bit achy today, but still very tired. Dh felt fine most of the day and then just before bedtime last night, he started feeling crappy. Wouldn't take anything for it, though. I think he's feeling better today. We NEED to feel better, since we're looking after Little Great-Nephew for an hour or so while BIL & SIL get THEIR shots and his mom & dad go to the lawyer's about the new house. ;)  (I don't think he's ever been left with anyone other than his grandparents, so this should be interesting...!)  
• I hear the side effects from the second dose are usually worse than the first, so I'm not looking forward to that -- but I'm sure it still beats getting covid...!  
• My mother was NOT happy that we took the AstraZeneca. She is not an anti-vaxxer, per se (I can't imagine what she would have said if I refused to get a vaccine when I was growing up...!!) -- but the older she gets, the more persnickety she gets about her health quirks and what she is and isn't willing to do. She hasn't had a flu vaccine in years, there are certain medications she refuses to take because she says they upset her stomach, etc.  Neither she nor my dad (ages 80 & 81) have had their covid shots yet -- even though they've been eligible for a few weeks now, and both have some underlying health issues that make them vulnerable to covid.  Mom insists she wants the Johnson & Johnson "one and done" vaccine -- even though it is not available in Canada right now, and probably won't be until at least the end of April, at the very earliest. She wants it done at her doctor's office and she wants it in her hip, not her arm. My sister (who lives closer) has tried to reason with them but no luck. 
• I have told them that I can't come home until we're all fully vaccinated. I was hoping that might be Canadian Thanksgiving (in October)(if not this summer), but now I'm starting to think it won't happen until Christmas at the earliest, especially if they're going to drag their feet on getting their shots. 
• I have not seen them in more than a year (Christmastime 2019). And I am more than a little pissed off that that doesn't seem to be a motivator for them. 
• I keep wondering whether they'd be more eager and willing to get vaccinated ASAP if there were grandchildren in the picture that they wanted to see, since apparently I alone am not enough of a reason...!!  :(  
• And then, this afternoon, the announcement that "All Ontario health units not yet doing so will begin booking COVID-19 vaccination appointments for those ages 60+ Wednesday morning." In other words, if we'd waited a few more days, we could have booked into one of the big vaccination centres & received the Pfizer or Moderna shot(s) instead of the AstraZeneca. 
• Dh told me to quit second-guessing myself.  He's right.  Just because they're opening up appointments on Wednesday doesn't mean we'd GET an appointment right away...!  (I found out about the AZ program opening up in our area last Thursday night & put our names on several waiting lists then -- was contacted to book an appointment on Saturday evening, managed to book us both on Sunday morning and we had our shots on Monday morning.  That was a lot faster than I thought it would be, to be honest -- but there's no guarantee we could book an appointment that quickly with the big regional vaccine centres.) So we have almost a week's head start on building immunity over the people who will only start booking through the regional centres tomorrow.  And it's probably best that we got what we could, when we could.  The variants are running amok hereabouts, and new cases have been averaging 3,000+ daily for the past several days. Sigh...
• I reeeeeaaaaaalllllyyyyy hate this pandemic.  :(