Need a tetanus shot this year

The Troubles, the parents’ anniversary

tetanusAfter my bride and I moved into our new house in May 2000, I decided to clean up in the backyard. There were a bunch of branches near the very rear of the property line I began gathering.

As it turned out, some weren’t trees. Some were wood trim from a house. I discovered this when I stepped on a nail that went through my Chuck Taylor sneaker and my sock. And pain…was tremendous…

I hobbled to the front of the house since I didn’t want my bloody foot tracking through the home we just bought. Instead, I hopped up the front steps, opened the door and yelled to my wife. “I’m upstairs,” she replied. “Please come downstairs!” I said, more politely than I was feeling.

She drove me to an urgent care place on Western Avenue, about 15 minutes before it closed. After treating my wound, the doctor asked when I last had a tetanus shot. I had no idea, so I received one. In 2010, I got another. In 2020, I should continue the tradition.

A momentous year

I didn’t realize it in the moment, but the year 2000 was one of the most momentous in my life. In January and February, there were The Troubles at Trinity, which involved both the choir being suspended and the Hispanic congregation being booted out.

My wife and I spent a three-hour dinner in conversation with a church leader in February trying to rectify the situation, to no avail. There was a BS meeting in March, which solved nothing.

So I started singing at First Pres in February. I did actually joined the Trinity choir twice more as a member. A chaplain named Frank Snow, who was was quite fond of, had died and I sang in the choir for his April funeral. The next day, it snowed, coincidentally. First Pres was closed, but Trinity was open, so I sang.

March 12 was my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. My sisters and I tried to plan an event at their church in Charlotte, NC, but something kept interfering with our efforts. It turned out to be my father, who was organizing the same thing. My wife, parents-in-law and I drove down. We helped Dad with arranging flowers and other decorations.

Dad had noticeably less energy than he had when he decorated Trinity for my wife and my wedding in May 1999. Of course, he died in August 2000, but that is a tale for another day.

Author: Roger

I'm a librarian. I hear music, even when it's not being played. I used to work at a comic book store, and it still informs my life. I won once on JEOPARDY! - ditto.

4 thoughts on “Need a tetanus shot this year”

  1. Do you have a blogpost on the troubles at trinity. I was in rensselaer cty by then.

  2. Lori – no, I’ve ducked it. But since you specifically asked, expect one or two posts in June.

  3. Roger, make sure you get not just Tetanus – Diphtheria but one with Pertussis vaccine too. Sometime (around 2000) pertussis was re-instituted in the “adult” Td, as the 100 day cough (pertussis has a Chinese name lol) had made big comeback among infants.

    Pertussis is usually benign in adults; all ages can be treated in the first week or two by zithromax (but adults hardly ever have the classic childhood “whooping cough” and if the do go a get checked out are invariably given some Definite wrong diagnosis and big pharma prescription.
    In Dec. 2005 I kinda almost cut off the top of my thumb using electronic hedge trimmmer in the dusk (prior to putting up the old C-9’s) and after a few stitches asked specifically for a Pertussis in the mix. But they were trying to get rid of the old Td and although I signed for the triple, was given the double (which the nurse started to give as an IM then turned it into a sub-q at 45° angle & more shallow… exceptional, right). Pissed me off ’cause you really should not repeat it the same year.
    Think about how many kids get whopping cough from their parents & grandparents with the 100 day cough.
    You have held a whooping child in a steamy bathroom in the middle of the night, no?

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