So I have a decent amount of experience with Walmart's website... it's a long story but I was using it to buy stuff that I would review and get reimbursed for... anyhoo Walmart's site works differently than a site like Amazon because they are still stuck in "which store are you nearest to" mindset. So when I heard that Walmart had vaccines available I was well prepared. The vaccination locations in St. Louis were heavily overbooked and I gave up on that pretty quickly. Demand was vastly higher than supply. So I found a list of Missouri zip codes and began entering them into the Walmart website and checking each store for availability. I may have tried 20 before I found availability. It turns out there is a magical place called Poplar Bluff, Missouri where the vaccines flow like honey and the locals... are diabetic? Anyway there were a ton available so I told everyone I know to check it out.
I was adamant on getting the shot immediately after suffering through a year of torture so I booked the very earliest slot, even though that slot was 6am tomorrow and Poplar Bluff is three hours away.
Lydia signed up, got scared, canceled her appointment, and then spent a lot of time going through a jealous rage.
We had fondue to calm her jelly jelly anger.
To make my impending journey even more fun it snowed a bunch and the roads weren't cleared yet.
The state assured me that the roads were nigh impassable. I was going to get that shot one way or another so damn the roads!
I left early to account for the snowy roads. It was pretty tough traveling out there.
When I arrived at Walmart they informed me that the pharmacy would be opening hours late because the roads were snowy. You don't say!! I slept in my car until the sun rose.
Entering the store was very uncomfortable for me. I'm not sure that I've been in a store in the past year, and it sure as hell wasn't one as big and full of inbred unmasked yokels as a rural Missouri Walmart. There were two other couples getting their shots as well. I think both of them were also from the St. Louis area. I believe they arrived yesterday and booked a hotel in order to be here in the morning when the pharmacy opened, to give you an idea of how important this was to everyone. One of the four was a flight attendant and was talking about how when he flew to Australia the flight staff was escorted to a hotel and kept in quarantine until their return flight home.
I still had my pillow's imprint on my noggin and was half asleep. I ended up getting the Moderna brand shot. There's been a lot of talk about how the one from Pfizer is better but at this point I would take one made by Nabisco.
After the shot they wanted me to sit in this chair for 15 minutes in case there was any adverse reaction. Every minute I was in this hillbilly pit of mouth breathing felt like it would give me a reaction by itself. I agreed to sit then politely walked right out the damn door. Nice try covid!
Luckily the sun had come up and melted much of the snow, making the return trip to St. Louis much less harrowing.
My queen ant Lil' Hank finally laid some eggs in her tube back at home!
