Paul Simons

Totally different topic -

Live underwater coral reef cameras - also links to other cams (appears to show dark screen if viewed when night at cam site)

https://www.coralcitycamera.com/

Another topic - a live street cam in St. Petersburg, Russia -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCcMcaiRbhM

Nancy Messer

Today I received my first Covid vaccine injection at UC Health in Clifton.  It was totally drive-thru - never got out of the car.  I'm mentioning this because if any of you have relatives or friends in Cincinnati who have mobility issues and want to get the vaccine, this is the way to do it.

Ira Goldberg

I'm happy to hear about more of us getting dates for vaccines. Is there a way to easily indicate in Profiles when we have Covid 19 antibodies? While it may be a "long shot" that the information enables June's scheduled reunion, it might help reschedule the celebration. Until then, be well. Missing so many of you these days!  

Nancy Messer

I want to add something about receiving an IM (intramuscular) injection in the arm.  Keep the arm limp and hanging down and the muscle relaxed.  You generally aren't told this by the person giving the injection.  This can reduce side effects.

Laura Reid (Pease)

In case you didn't receive the following email, I am sending it on....Walnut Hills is going hybrid on February 15 and is in need of substitute teachers if anyone is interested:     Dear Alumni, Walnut Hills High School is entering a new phase within this pandemic.  Since March 2020, all student instruction has been online.  As we expressed in our recent Annual Fund publication, we anticipated 2021 would bring new learning formats. That time is now! As of February 15th, Walnut Hills will be moving into a new hybrid schedule, a blend of in-person and online instruction.  Due to the complexities of an expanded schedule and staffing changes, WHHS is looking for qualified substitute teachers. We believe there are no better candidates than within our alumni community! Qualifications for the Substitute Classroom Teacher Pool include a college degree.  Super Substitute Teaching Pool qualifications include a Substitute Teaching License and/or Ohio Standard Teaching License.   The link to apply is: https://www.applitrack.com/cpsk12/onlineapp/default.aspx?Category=Teacher+Assignment Full and part-time positions are available. Online systems training will be available. Due to the timeframe, the process is time-sensitive! After you apply, contact the Alumni Foundation @ debbieheldman@gmail.com and we will send the required letter of recommendation.  We look forward to engaging with you and making a mutually beneficial connection. Hope to hear from you at your earliest convenience.

Richard Murdock

Wish I lived in Cincinnati right now, as I would love to sign up as a Substitute Teacher at WHHS.   Sounds like that would be not only fun but very satisfying.  The only possible problem I could see is that the bulk of my experience has been in the Accounting/Finance field and I sure don't remember there being any classes like that back when I was at Walnut Hills.  Still it would be worth a try. 

On a different topic, I finally navigated my way through the poorly designed online sign-up process here in California and have my first Covid vaccine shot now scheduled for the afternoon of the 12th.   Overall I am quite happy to have accomplished that.  The last statistics that I saw put CA either at or very close to the bottom of the list in terms of percentage of the state's population that have been vaccinated to date. 

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

I was SO cheered to hear that some of you are managing to get vaccinated! I hope to hear very soon that ALL of us have crossed this line. 

Golly, I still remember getting my first Salk shot. Back then, though, it was my parents who were relieved, not I.

As of January 31st, I am considered "immunized", and here is my certificate. I was so excited to get it!

Nelson Abanto

Hi to everyone,

Cindy and I have been quarantined in Florida since March and finally received our second vaccine yesterday. I truly hope things lighten up enough for us to have a reunion but the virus seems to be a moving target.  We won't really know for another two or three months as we see the vaccination rates and the impact they have on the rate of contagion. 
Stay safe everyone.  We'll get through this.

Paul Simons

I am glad for those who have received vaccine or at least have appointments. Pennsylvania is a backward State, it looks like I might be able to make it to the reunion if it is in maybe 2024. The drugstores have plenty of toothpaste and dental floss but no vaccine. The City of Philadelphia turned its vaccine program over to one Andrei Doroshin who promptly changed it to a for-profit enterprise and stole a number of vials of vaccine for himself and his pals. My doctor's office has a very sophisticated "Hold" musical selection on their phone system but nobody to talk to. All in all I'd better get the best mask on earth and then get another one and then wear both of them.

This is what the CVS web presence looks like. If you live in one of those states, you're in luck. If not, enjoy your ventilator.

Bruce Fette

I guess that makes Virginia dead last in figuring out how to make reservations for immunization.

Philip Spiess

Yeah, Bruce, we don't know what the hell happened here in Virginia -- our neighbor state of West Virginia is apparently the state most on top of vaccine distribution -- but my wife and I registered for getting the vaccine as soon as our age group (and you know that is all of us) opened up, and BAM! within thirty seconds we were told we were registered with the state and on the list to get shot (we assumed this meant with the vaccine, though we live in northern Virginia, so you never know).  However, that was two weeks ago, and we have yet to hear anything -- when we are scheduled, and where, to get which vaccine.  But we are patient -- we just don't want to be patients.

As to substitute teaching at Walnut Hills, I would love to do that, but of course I am well out of state, and, although I have three Master's degrees and have taught graduate school, undergraduate school, and private Middle School, I have no Substitute Teaching License or Ohio Standard Teaching License.  Also, my teaching approach is distinctly my own, and is therefore somewhat eccentric (I don't follow lesson plans, but go with what the class seems to feel or need on any particular day), and I add things to the history curriculum (agricultural practices and food ways, architecture, religious beliefs and practices, early navigation devices) that aren't necessarily in it to begin with.  This was evidently welcomed by both students and parents (and my bosses) who seemed to appreciate my teaching style in a private school -- but we all know how regulated and unionized the public schools are.

Chuck Cole

While almost all of us turn 75 this year, and those over 75 are at the front of the line for vaccination in many states, some us are still 74 and will have to wait a while longer for our turn.  Some of us don't turn 75 until very late in the year.

Vermont has divided the 65 and up age group into three bands --75+, 70-75, and 65-70.  I too hope we can convene together in June, but if not, would September be a possibility, or waiting until 2022?  I imagine most of us would prefer waiting rather than having a virtual reunion.  

Bruce Bittmann

Out here in the wild, yet poorly managed state of Arizona, who comes riding to the rescue for those of us under 75?  A division of Kroger's.  Fry Foods is the big K out here.  They began 65 and up last week, and my wonderful wife secured us appointments.  So, we got our 1st shot last Friday, and they gave us our appointment card for shot #2.  Very professional, organized and maintaining social distancing guidelines. Still relying on Cincy to watch over me.  Stay safe everyone.

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

Judy, thanks for bringing back the memory of  my pediatrician, Dr. Theodore  Selkirk. His office was in the front parlor of a big white house on Edwards Rd. in Hyde Park.  Back in those days, he made house calls when my brother and I were sick, sometimes at night, but we went to his office for our routine examinations.  I remembering summoning up all my courage, sitting on a crinkly paper covered examination table, staring at the wall of all of his diplomas and certificates, waiting to get my first Salk vaccine shot.  I even noticed that one of the diplomas looked a bit odd, with his name written as "Theodorum Selkirkum", or something like that.  It wasn't until our Effie year at Walnut Hills (where I later also was part of the Sabin Sundays in 6th grade, long before I even knew I would be a student), I realized the diploma was in Latin and Dr. Selkirk had graduated from Harvard University. 
The Ohio, particularly Hamilton County, sign up for coronavirus vaccine is such a hodgepodge of providers and locations. I had registered with the county, early on, for a notification of when it would be my turn for a shot. I never heard a thing, even though a friend actually received a telephone call to make an appointment to receive a shot at the county location, the board of elections.  Some of my friends were being notified by their health care systems for drive through vaccines.  It dawned on me that my PCP and where I receive all of my tests and labs were not notifying their patients proactively, so I did my own search. The big providers outside of the health care networks are Kroger and Walgreen's.  Registration with both was very unwieldy.  I happened to find the CVS website which was easy to use to drill down to locations to schedule a vaccination nearest to your zip code.  I searched last Friday and got my first shot Monday and will get my second on February 22.  As Paul mentioned above, I feel fortunate to live in one of the states on the CVS website. 
The way the virus is mutating is concerning.  Reminds me of something out of a Robin Cook novel.  But, after I receive my second shot, I will be fine!  I haven't touched another human being for almost a year, and will throw all caution to the wind, knowing I will be able to finally hug my grandkids without fearing for my life! 


 

Richard Winter (Winter)

In Massachusetts (47th out of 50 in actually using the vaccine doses that have been shipped to our state), as a 74-year old, I'm not even eligible to schedule an appointment yet.   I hope to become eligible to schedule by the end of the month.  

With luck I will actually get vaccinated in March or April.  I'll be 75 in April, but that doesn't help me now. 

Still, if I get my first shot in April, it would still be early enough for a June reunion, if we have one then.  I hope we are able to...

Paul Simons

Well well.  Many are getting vsccinated in stares that could be called "developed" or "civilized". Ann is in one of the states recognized by CVS! I don't know what it will take to get Pennsylvania to understand that, like masks, vaccinations are a good thing. Maybe some type of insurrection at the state capitol Harrisburg. Aha - maybe kidnapping Governor Wolf. He seems like a reasonable fellow like the type you meet in the aisles at Home Depot who know exactly where to find what you're looking for. Yes, kidnapping him would be the smart thing to do. They are able to find vaccine for those who are incarcerated.

Becky Payne (Shockley)

Chuck et al: As one of the "elders" in our class, I turned 75 in December and thus qualified for the "over 75" shots savailable through my health provider (along with John, who is now 77). It took about 2 weeks of checking and re-checking to get our appointments, but today we will get shot! (first dose). Good luck to everyone else, and I do hope we will see each other live sometime this year or beyond if necessary! 

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

Does anyone else remember getting their Salk polio vaccines at school? I'm pretty sure that's where I got mine, but after reading Ann's post, I'm no longer so sure.....

Another point: It seems strange to me to receive a medical treatment at a pharmacy. Did they even have CVS in the 1960s? 

Sharon Baum (Covitz)

In North Carolina my husband went online and as appointments were cancelled he took the place of an opening spot - he's 76.  Then he got mine as NC opened it to over 65.  Our second shot is next week.  So happy to have this behind us (hopefully) and for those of you who haven't gotten their shots yet, my heart goes out to you.  Please stay safe until the time comes.

Sandy Steele (Bauman)

My husband and I are on Longboat Key for six weeks. I received the first dose at Christ hospital before we left, and am scheduled March 6th for the 2nd dose. My husband is registered to get his first through the Mercy system when we get back. Hoping all of you are staying well. 

Bruce Fette

As I said before, Virginia appears to be dead last. The governor was on TV today to give a status, praising how well he has done. BUT the covid web site states: they have already given all vaccinations provided to Viirginia by the FED, And apparently that means a few thousand (~ 7000).  So nothing has trickled down yet to anyone except the 1a folks. He praised himself that CVS will finally get some doses in a few weeks, the next time the FED gives out some more doses. Meanwhile, Maryland is going gangbusters doing vacinations at the local amusement park.

What a bureaucratic foopah!!

Margery Erhardt (Schrader)

In Texas, originally, we were told that 1B would be from age 75 plus. And then the next group would be those below the age of 65 who wanted the shot. Fortunately, as it became clear from Washington who was to be in the 1B category, 65 on up was included so as a 1B (I don’t turn 75 until late summer) I was able to get my first dose this past week. There was a learning curve in this process as it took two separate days to do the initial shot. We signed-up, waited for an email to be sent to us with a specified time whereby we went to fill out the necessary information and were given a date and time for the vaccine (why could we not have done this online?) At the same time, we were scheduled for our second dose. The day of the vaccine, two days later, the kinks had been worked out and it was a breeze. My heart goes out to the kind people volunteering to make this all happen. It is a MASSIVE endeavor!

Nancy Messer

Judy

I assume I got my Salk vaccine at my doctor's office (Dr. Seinsheimer - sp?).  The Sabin vaccines were given at school. 

CVS bought Revco in 1997.

Paul Simons

Great news!! Glad to hear many are getting vaccinated!  Philadelphia isn't quite there yet but we are assured that a shipment of Hydrochloroquine and 3 tank cars of bleach are heading our way from the medical research center of America, Palm Beach, Florida! Fabulous! 

David Buchholz

My wife and I met Ms. Moderna today.  Efficient, smooth, on time.  What's puzzling though, is that Kaiser Permanente with its 12 and a half million patients, our HMO for more than forty years, the organization which along with Blue Shield, has been given the reins to manage California's distribution can't get the vaccine.  When I emailed my GP at Kaiser on Wednesday he replied, "Get it wherever you can.  I don't think you'd be able to get it through KaIser until April."  If the distribution of vaccines went half as smooth as the application of the vacccines, we'd all have our second shots by now.