4 | MAY 12 • 2022 

A

s verified by an 
in-depth look at my 
Google calendar, 
since Jan. 14, 2021, I have 
taken one flu shot, two 
shingles shots, 
two COVID 
vaccines and 
two boosters. 
 That’s seven 
shots in 16 
months — or 
more “shots” 
than I took over 
the course of 
my three-year junior high 
school basketball career. I 
didn’t even “do” shots in five 
years of college. But I would 
prefer my next shot come out 
of a tequila bottle than a vile. 
 
The COVID flavor of the 
day continues to be the BA.2 
variant. However, South 
Africa is now currently 
experiencing the spread 
of the BA.4 and BA.5. It’s 
beginning to sound like a 
weird variant of Bingo. Sure 
makes you yearn for the fall 
of 2019 BC (Before COVID). 
 
 
It’s only been over the last 
three or four months that 
I’ve ever so slightly dipped 
my toe back into the shallow 
end of the “normalcy” pool. 
I’m back having breakfast 
rendezvous with friends and 
occasional lunch outings 
during less busier times 
in restaurants. As I’m sure 

you can relate, handling the 
pandemic is now as much a 
psychological challenge as it 
is physical. 
While I continue to wade 
in the shallow end of the 
normalcy pool, it seems like 
most people around me have 
taken the dive back into 
the deep end. There isn’t a 
day that doesn’t go by that 
I don’t see someone posting 
Facebook photos of their 
recent Caribbean cruise, 
trips to Florida or Arizona, 
and attendance at sporting 
events and concerts.
Pandemic aside, I’ve 
regularly lived vicariously 
through other folks’ 
adventures anyway because, 
well, I’m a homebody at 
heart. Quarantining over 
the last couple of years only 
reinforced my natural desire 
to stick close to home. I’m 
as satisfied sitting on my 
patio listening to the rustling 
leaves as a gentle wind blows 
across my face, as I would 
be watching the wake off the 
back of a cruise ship. Which 
reminds me, I need to start 
having midnight buffets at 
home. 
The fact is, while my 
calendar has been peppered 
with vaccine shots over the 
last year-and-a-half, the 
truth is no other scheduled 
events pop up on my docket 

that would come close to 
eliciting a “yippee” by most 
“normal” folks. But the 
mundane has a strange way 
of satisfying me.
For instance, if you look 
on my calendar, you’ll see 
that this past Jan. 11, besides 
being the birthday of my 
wonderful mother, of blessed 
memory, was also the day I 
documented performing my 
every two-week nasal mask 
and filter exchange on my 
CPAP machine. A breath of 
fresh air, if you will, during 
COVID.
I have done some light 
traveling. On Feb. 22, I 
ventured out to a podiatrist 
appointment, on March 14 
I had an excursion to my 
urologist’s office for my 
annual prostate exam, and 
on March 28 I picked up my 
taxes from my accountant, 
which, by the way, left me 
with a similar sensation 
as I had when I left my 
urologist’s office. 
Yep, I’m all over the map, 
which is why it’s a good thing 
on Feb. 1 my wife and I drove 
to Livonia for an appointment 
to sign up for … TSA Pre-
Check! We haven’t flown in 
in more than two years, but 
the next time we do, which is 
not in the foreseeable future, 
we will breeze right through 
the gates!

Oh, I’m not through. On 
April 2 I went to Costco to 
renew our membership, and 
on April 4 I had a tele-med 
appointment with my sleep 
doctor. 
But two events that I wait 
for every year with great 
excitement were yet to come 
— West Bloomfield’s Annual 
Household Hazardous Waste 
and Shredding Collection 
events on April 9 and April 
23 respectively. I cannot 
adequately express how 
rejuvenated and free I feel 
every year when I’m able 
to dispense of old batteries, 
fluorescent light bulbs, 
unused prescription drugs 
and years’ worth of old 
documents and bills.
Lest you think I live a 
pathetic existence, worry 
not. I’m right where I want 
to be. Mark Twain said: 
“Twenty years from now you 
will be more disappointed by 
the things you didn’t do than 
by the things you did.” Not 
me. I’m never disappointed 
by what I don’t do because I 
don’t want to do anything in 
the first place. Except maybe 
be a motivational speaker. 

 

Visit his website at laughwithbigal.

com,“Like” Al on Facebook and reach 

him at amuskovitz@thejewishnews.

com.

Alan 
Muskovitz 
Contributing 
Writer

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