pies and chalk ink

It seems like everyone’s getting covid. Dante got it from poker night with the guys. newbie got it from an irl work meetup (“An irl work meetup,” said HGR, investing every word with as much scorn as possible) and nearly missed the Uganda trip because of it. Now numbers has it. He’s powering through with industrial strength cough drops laced with lidocaine.

Maybe it’s just a matter of time before I get covid on one of these weekly downtown work trips. But it’s hard to be resentful when it’s so good to be here. For lunch today I happened to walk by an Australian pie shop and decided to check it out. I got a peppered mushroom pie and a cheese roll and both were great. It’s not just about the food; it’s the fun of wandering around, seeing something new, being spontaneous. It’s about the big city atmosphere.

I’m not double boosted. My last booster was in December. I mentioned this to my parents a couple weeks ago, expecting them to chide me for my lack of preparedness, but they said it might be more strategic to wait until fall to get a booster tailored to this year’s seasonal strain. (Does it work that way for covid? I know it does for the flu, but covid is year-round and seems to pop up variants whenever. It would certainly be convenient to wait for fall because my work does a fall flu vaccine clinic, and I’m sure they’ll add covid boosters to that too.)

I’m participating in a TCC photo scavenger hunt and got a bunch of great pics. For “chalk or a chalk drawing,” I made a lucky find at Starbucks of “chalk ink” pens for customers to write their answers to the question of the day. For “a ball,” I saw a lady with a basketball purse (like, literally a basketball with a zipper and handles) and snapped a quick shot. I also took a classic Main Street photo for “a dirt or street pathway,” and a graffiti’d mailbox for “something painted.”