Runtime: 5 minutes, 49 seconds.
Soundtrack: Marches by Tigerblood Jewel.
Day on Magisto, Youtube, or Vimeo.
Sunday, March 21, 2021:
Sumas – Bellingham, Washington
Oisin awoke late at 11 am dreams about the Quest of American Giants : An Expedition to the East trip coming up as well as figuring out vaccination appointments en route. As a resident of Colorado, Oisin qualifies for the vaccine in his home state of Colorado, but not his secondary state of Washington. His roll call in Washington will be delayed by almost a 15-30 day window. He’s hoping for the J&J Vaccine, as it’s a one-shot and the old tried-and-true methodology for vaccinations. the mRNA methodology is brand new and while it is sound science, the long-term after-effects are an unknown factor. Plus Oisin has a sincere fear of needles and shots, so a one-shot is better than a staged 2 shot. In addition, he’ll be traveling to Ohio, and be in the field when his 2nd shot comes due, so he won’t be able to get the 2nd dose in the recommended timing.
He was up and skipped breakfast as overwhelmed with packing for the expedition East. He hasn’t done field archaeology (outside of recording of wells and springs) since September 2019. He sincerely hoped his legs and body were up for the feat. He also hasn’t been back East or the Midwest since September of 2019 as well. He dug through the old photo albums for all of his allergy testing results – needle prick, scratch, needle prick that occurred up and down both arms and over his chest and back when he was a young child. He remembered having upwards or beyond 456 allergies, but he could only find a sheet (initial testing?) of 64. Scratched on one of the pages was an ingredient that was found in the mRNA vaccines, so he was concerned he couldn’t do that. He could not find any vaccine appointments available in all of Denver during the window he would be there. That was upsetting and concerning. In addition, the J&J vaccine was nowhere to be found. He finally found the civic center in Grand Junction, Colorado did have some appointments available around the time he could side-loop his trip and stop there. So he booked it. They did offer the J&J. Fingers crossed. He continued to pack for the expedition. While this was the first day of Spring, it was cold out – or at least felt it at 44 degrees Fahrenheit and raining outside. He finished up some client work, blogging, vlogging, and had corn dogs for a late lunch.
Late afternoon he headed off to Bellingham for his delivery shift with Grubhub (3:30 pm – 9 pm | 5.5 hours), and it became quite prosperous. The first delivery was $10 for McDonald’s, then $20 for a Unita Thai, and another $20 for an On Rice Thai delivery. That was hopeful as he needed to accumulate travel funds for the trip to Colorado and Ohio. Especially since he decided to take Monday off to spend time with Cian. His mind was drowning with all the to-do items for his trip East – garbage, watering plants, emergency lists, what-if something goes wrong with the vaccines, or the trip during a pandemic across the country, and lots of anxiety. His neighbor said he’d put out the garbage for him while he was gone, Oisin set up a self-watering system for the plants, and he notified an emergency list that everything would go to Cian if something happened to him on this trip.
He had an interesting OnRice delivery to a gated community north of Bellingham named after a Spring. The geology and landscape looked amicable for a Spring location, so he was curious. But no way to look into it after work. He had some tech issues with the Grubhub app not accepting “arrived” or “delivered”. But a plus, there was a promotion at 5 pm that for every 5 deliveries, the driver would get an extra $15 bonus. It turned out to be a very prosperous evening, averaging over $30/hour. That’s becoming less-rare these days, though the minimum one makes guaranteed with Grubhub is actually less than the region’s minimum wage of $13.65/hour, but only the previous year’s $12/hour minimum. One of the evenings delivery was $10 for 5 orders of McDonald’s fries. Really? a customer pays $10 to the driver and $5 to Grubhub, plus a higher-priced rate for fries than if gone in person. Some people must have too much money on their hands. It was an evening of non-stop deliveries. Oisin tried to find a Starbucks open after 7:30 pm, but since the Pandemic in this area, all closing early, so no caffeine boost was available.
Once home, Oisin did some client work and binge-watched the newest episodes of Walking Dead and Superman&Louis. Dinner of stuffed clams and Shrimp, the rest of the evening involved packing up.
