In Search of a Vaccine Appointment

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YESTERDAY I bumped into a neighbor I hadn’t seen in awhile. Chatting about trivia, I asked if she had gotten The Vaccine. She said yes, about 10 days ago. I asked how, and she explained that her doctor’s office had called and said she was eligible because she is over 70. “Hey, I go to the same doctor and I’m the same age as you and they haven’t called me,” I whined. (I could tell I was whining.) She suggested I call the office.

Even though I’m ambivalent about the vaccine, still I was annoyed because everyone I know has already gotten it, except for my son and husband who are both too young, at least here in Maine. So I called. I was on hold for about 15 minutes listening to recordings of blah, bah blah, and finally a human showed up. She asked my birthdate and then said she would switch me over to the Covid appointment line since I am eligible, being such a dinosaur. (She didn’t say that but her tone of voice let me know she was thinking it.)

Once on the Covid appointment line, a recording welcomed me and said my wait time on hold would be approximately 60 minutes. Naturally I hung up.

Next I tried Walmart’s, since I had heard they had just received thousands of new doses, available at all Walmarts. There’s one about 10 miles from my home. So I called. The recording said to go online. So I went online. I searched for the Falmouth, Maine Walmart on Route 1 and the website said there was no such place. So then I put in the zip code and suddenly there was such a place. Only there were no open appointments, from now until approximately forever.

That all took about two hours and I still had no vaccine scheduled. I swallowed an extra Vitamin D pill and that was that.

—Andrea Rouda

Andrea Rouda blogs at The Daily Droid.