Be Prepared

Many years ago, I was a Girl Scout. That’s 15-year-old me in the middle, with the long pigtails and sunglasses, on a troop trip to D.C. in 1969. (And no, the Senior scout to my right is not smoking a real cigarette!) All that I vaguely recall about that trip, back in the day when Girl Scouts wore real uniforms and I was a Cadette scout, was that it was incredibly hot and humid. I’m sure we had fun. By that fall, however, I decided I’d had enough of scouting, though I don’t think it had to do with the trip. I just wasn’t interested anymo0re.

But I learned a lot in the half-dozen years that I participated, first as a Brownie and Girl Scout in elementary school (my mom was the troop leader), and then as a Cadette as a young teen. I gained some important life skills, including how to sew my own clothes, how to build a campfire, how to camp in a snowstorm, how to run a patrol (team), and how to plan. Our patrol in elementary school was called the Martians, and we definitely put on the very best skits of the entire Troop 151.

“Be Prepared” is, of course, the Girl Scout’s motto—or, at least, it was back in the day. Same for the Boy Scouts. And, notwithstanding the (not PC) Tom Lehrer parody of 1953, that motto is very much a worthy goal.

Which is why (here comes the thematic hairpin turn) I was really glad to discover last week that the new Covid vaccine was available locally, because we are soon going to be traveling again. Al and I both were able to get the jab, which did not hurt at all. I began to feel the vaccine moving through my system within minutes, however, and was a bit achy and tired for 24 hours. And that was it. This version was by Pfizer, which tends to be easier for my body to handle.

Covid is still swirling around us, and the uptick in cases is not to be dismissed. We had already gotten Paxlovid to take along, just in case either of us got sick on our trip, (once a Girl Scout, always a Girl Scout) and I’ll still pack that along with some Covid tests, but I am much less concerned about that potential problem now. I hope my experience encourages you, Dear Reader, to get your own updated Covid vaccine sooner than later. Well worth avoiding the virus, especially for those of us with compromised immune systems.

I’ll be offline for much of September, back by early October with tales of our adventures. Be well.

Evelyn Herwitz blogs weekly about living fully with chronic disease, the inside of baseballs, turtles and frogs, J.S. Bach, the meaning of life and whatever else she happens to be thinking about at livingwithscleroderma.com. Please view Privacy Policy here.