Weekly Ephemera #34

• I got my COVID bivalent booster and flu shots on Monday.  I feel safer now.  Coincidentally I received a call from a CDC pollster the same night asking about my vaccination status.  The Wife got her COVID bivalent booster on Tuesday (she got the flu shot a week or so ago).
• All my prostate biopsies (twelve samples were taken) came back "Negative for malignancy" which made me dance a happy dance (in my head).  I don't have to go back for another year.
• The elections on Tuesday were a mixed bag.  I'd been telling people for a while that the midterm elections would tell us where our country is going.  A decisive win by the crazy party, you know which, would have been a very bad omen.  Instead we had only a slight shift from the status quo.  Some pundits are saying this bodes well for the future and that Democracy has been saved.  Has it though?  The people who were trying to tear down our Democracy are still there.  They haven't gone anywhere.  They are just licking their wounds and declaring that they've been cheated once again.  The danger I was worried about has just been postponed.  We will now have to wait two more years to see where our nation is heading.  The encouraging thing was the youth and the independent vote.  They both came out and voted for Democracy and Rights.  This gives me cautious hope.
• Winter seems to have arrived a bit early this year.  The temperatures this coming week will barely get above freezing.
• You know what is nice when it's cold?  A nice hot shower.  We are getting a new hot water heater installed on Monday.  I think our current one was built in 1996 (our house was built in 1997) which might explain why our water isn't always as hot as it should be.
• I walked once this week for a grand total of 6.75 miles (10.86 km).  The cold weather was actually nice.  I didn't sweat as much.  I do need to walk more than once per week though and for longer distances.  I need to light a fire under my butt.