Day 3793

My annual physical went well. I'm definitely getting older, but it appears that I'm just as healthy as I was last year. The only mildly alarming thing is that my doctor wants me to see a dermatologist. He thinks that some small scaly spots on my face that I always thought were keratosis might be squamous cell carcinoma instead. I hate having something removed that is so close to my eye, but I've learned not to ignore things like this. I'll see the dermatologist next week.

I enjoy talking with my doctor. In addition to being an excellent physician, he is also a history buff and loves talking about Texas history. He comes from a long line of Texas doctors that can trace their roots all the way back to the Republic of Texas. We talked about the Davis Mountains for a while and then I asked him about the coronavirus. He wasn't very confident that the pandemic would end soon. He said we were dreaming if we thought there would be a vaccine before the end of the year. "Just look at history," he told me. "It took decades to develop a safe polio vaccine. We failed to develop any sort of vaccine for SARS or other types of coronaviruses. Even the common flu vaccine we all take every year isn't always effective. You have to remember that a vaccine just helps speed up the development of herd immunity within a population. No pandemic since the Black Plague has been eradicated until herd immunity has been established and often that takes years."

This wasn't very encouraging. I told the doctor I was feeling fine but wondered why he was wearing a cast on his arm. He told me he was a Covid Casualty. When his gym closed, he started riding a bicycle for exercise. At some point, he lost control of the bike, flew over the handlebars, and broke both his arms. I never realized this guy was a badass. He fell in a remote area and somehow managed to reattach the chain to his bicycle with two broken arms and ride four miles back to town.

The nurse who did my EKG said that the past month at the clinic has been very weird. "We've been open the entire time," she told me, "but everyone canceled their appointments because they were scared of leaving the house." She said that there were many days when the entire staff just sat around with nothing to do. The phlebotomist who did my blood work said that even now some patients freak out if you even touch them. It's pretty hard to draw blood without touching someone.

I did have a mild fever last night after receiving the Shingles vaccine, but my temperature returned to normal this morning. Some people have a terrible reaction to these shots, but I've been pretty lucky. I felt a little tired today, but that might just be because it was hot and humid. At least I can cross this off my list. Hopefully I won't hear any bad news from the dermatologist.

There's going to be an all day virtual NASA Social for the Crew Dragon launch on the 27th of this month. It's definitely not the same as being there, but this was a good idea. I applied and quickly got accepted. I was pleased to see that many friends I'd met at previous NASA Socials were already there. I enjoy being part of the space/astronomy community. You can talk for hours with these people without ever mentioning politics or the coronavirus.

Haley is today's Dalmatian of the Day

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