We got our second Covid vaccination shots as scheduled on Tuesday. The second shot was a much different experience than the first. Three weeks ago, M&T Stadium was doing 500 shots a day. Last week, they were doing 5,000 a day. We spent two hours getting our shots, and that was with the check-in person giving us a short cut reserved for old folks. Most of the people in line were younger — teachers, essential workers, etc. We cleared the calendar Tuesday and Wednesday, but it turned out we didn’t need to. Neither of us had a serious reaction to the vaccine.

The highlight of the week was a visit to see JaMM. JiaJia and Mark have had their first vaccination shots. We’ve all followed the Covid protocols carefully. We decided it was safe enough to have an in-person visit. It was a beautiful day. Mark and Jiajia made a fantastic lunch — spicy ribs, couscous fruit salad and Australian pudding. After lunch, we went for a hike along the Susquehanna river. The weather and the view were both fabulous. And, of course, Mira was the star of the show. You can se a few more pictures if you visit the website.

This was the first real trip in our new car. The driving aids are more effective than I thought they would be. It takes a little while to understand the car’s behaviors. Once I did that, driving was amazingly easy. It will be somewhat less easy in the rain, since lane keeping turns off when the wipers turn on. But the other driving automation features still make driving considerably easier.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

We’re trying to figure out how to use our new car. That is taking a while because we aren’t driving very much. The dealer was OK. We got a good price with little hassle. But picking the car up was painfully slow. After making an appointment at a time the salesman recommended, we spent hours sitting in the showroom waiting to actually take delivery. To add insult to injury, our salesman was deathly afraid we would ask a question about the car. The dealership has a little script the salesman is supposed to go through to introduce us to the features. Our salesman gave us a copy of the script buried in the other paperwork so we wouldn’t see it until after we left the dealership. Almost a week later, I finally figured out the car was delivered with many of the safety features turned off. The dealership sent us an Email invitation to write a review. I decided the dealership really didn’t want to see my review online.

Last week I was bemoaning the lack of a CD player. I was dreaming up all kinds of complicated and expensive solutions. But I received some excellent advice from a retired high school art teacher — convert the CDs to MP3 files. (Thanks, Duane). As soon as Duane said it, I knew it was the obvious solution. I already have a CD-ROM drive, so the only cost was my time. Thanks to some sloppy weather, I had plenty of that. I spent 3 days “ripping” CDs. I found I was working the CD-ROM drive too hard. After a while, it refused to rip disks and I had to give it a break. But I converted the music and loaded it onto my phone. Now I can play music anywhere. If I’m on the porch, I can connect my phone to our Bluetooth speaker to get a great sound. If I’m in the car, the phone plays music over the car’s radio. Technology is amazing.

We’re scheduled to get our second vaccination shot tomorrow. In two weeks, we will be free to move about the country. We’re super excited. We have our calendar cleared for two days in case we get a reaction. After that, the next several weeks are planned out. There are fancy deserts and restaurant meals in our future. I also have plenty of doctor visits.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

We had big news this week. We bought a new car yesterday. Our old red Honda Accord was 10 years old with a little over 100,000 miles. We decided to replace it with a new red Honda Accord. We expect to pick the car up Wednesday.

Cars have changed a lot in the last decade. We like having a built-in GPS. Ten years ago we had to buy the top-trim level because putting a GPS in a car was an expensive proposition. It required a special design of the dash to accommodate the display. Lower trim levels didn’t always have a display. So the GPS was a big deal option. Today we had to buy the top-trim level to get a GPS because most people don’t need it. All trim levels have a display, but most people connect their smart phone to the display and navigate with their phone. We’re to cheap to get phones with data plans, so we “had” to get a car with all the fancy trimmings. (So sad!)

Our new car is a hybrid, getting over 40 MPG. It has a continuously variable transmission (no gear shifts). There is no shift lever. Instead, there are buttons on the center console for drive, reverse, and park. Even the parking brake is set with a button on the side panel.

The safety features are mind blowing. We barely got a chance to check them out on our test drive. I turned on the blinker when there was a car in my blind spot. I immediately got a pleasant chime warning. Whenever a car was passing us on the right, an icon of a car showed up in the mirror. There’s also lane keeping, adaptive cruise control, emergency automatic braking, and much, much more.

What the car doesn’t have is a CD player. What will I do with all those music CDs?

The internet has made car research a breeze. Before we visited the dealer, I knew which car, which color, which trim level and options, and what I should pay. The dealer gave us a good price on the new car, but not such a great deal on the trade in. So I sold the old Honda to Car Max. I had an electronic estimate from the internet. The dealer said they couldn’t match it. Car Max gave me the full amount without discussion. The only problem was how long I had to wait at Car Max. In fact buying the new car wasn’t very fast either. We spent 2 hours at Honda and another 4 hours at Car Max. We had an early lunch and a late dinner. But as it turned out, we had a neighborhood food truck to serve us festive tacos. The whole neighborhood got to help us celebrate the new car.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

I suspected the tires that came with my trike were cheap. But I decided not to replace anything until it demonstrated its deficiency. That didn’t take long. Not only was my tire flat, it was damaged by a small piece of wood. Fortunately, I had a spare inner tube and the appropriate tools for a roadside repair. Unfortunately, I purchased the wrong tube. My bike uses a smaller valve called “Presta”. I purchased a tube with a “Schrader” valve. This is like the valve on car tires. Unfortunately, it doesn’t fit in a hole designed for a Presta valve. I knew better. I just didn’t read closely enough.

I was only two miles from home, so I picked up the front wheel of my trike, hiked home, ordered good tires, and the wrong inner tubes. Twice. I think I finally have the correct tubes on order. They should be in Monday.

The COVID positivity rate is below 4% in Howard County. And we should have some small amount of protection from our first vaccination shot. We decided I could bring home a Sunday breakfast. Bob Evans makes a fine breakfast.

That’s what passes for news around here these days. I hope this finds everybody doing well.