A Day in the Life

In terms of "your usual work day", this past Thursday was anything but.  The work day part of Thursday, for me (for the last month-plus anyway) has started before sunrise in my office in Basking Ridge.  This past Thursday morning, I woke up in the wee small hours of the morning at our little Paradise by the Sea.  I made the day's first pot of coffee, set up shop in the kitchen, and worked for a couple of hours.  

Just about sunrise, I threw on my running gear and headed out for a quick run and to see what I could see.  Boy, was I not disappointed.

September 11 Memorial 

Spring Lake, New Jersey

September 11 Memorial 

Spring Lake, New Jersey

I ran south a bit into Spring Lake before hooking a left turn out to the boards so I could make one more left turn (I am my father's son), and head north to home.  By now it was about ten minutes after sunrise and the day's promise was starting to come into view. 

Spring Lake, New Jersey

Spring Lake, New Jersey

I was home, showered, and back at the revenue-generating producing part of my Thursday by 7:00 am, which is where I remained until 3:45 pm.  

New Jersey has been my home for almost five-and-one-half decades.  I have spent almost the past thirty years driving all over New Jersey for work.  I had been fairly confident that I had seen every nook and cranny of our great State of Concrete Gardens.  

I was wrong. 

The twin forces of my sister Jill and my wife Margaret took it upon themselves to put Yours truly on the COVID-19 vaccine list.  They accomplished their task.  As it turned out, the CVS Pharmacy at which they were able to find me an appointment was the CVS in Villas, New Jersey.  

For the uninitiated, in New Jersey our municipalities are not organized alphabetically from north to south.  In the case of Villas, it is just a happy coincidence.  Villas is located in Cape May County and for those of you who love to delude yourselves that you are talking smack to a Jerseyan by asking, "You're from Jersey?  What exit?", the answer to that question is 4B on the Garden State Parkway.  

After a purposefully rapid journey south from Exit 98 to Exit 4B, I queued up at the CVS and received my first shot of the two-shot Moderna vaccine.  Apparently, at the Villas CVS no one goes home empty-handed.  I received a sticker

Ralphie?  She received a Band-Aid

Two hours later, I was home in Middlesex safe and sound...

...and approximately forty-five seconds after I put down my work bag in the kitchen, I was out in the backyard playing Dingo with my faithful hound dog, Sam.  She neither wears a watch nor carries a smart phone but nevertheless has a keen sense of time.  Having been forced to wait two hours longer than usual for her daily Dingo, she was not prepared to wait one minute longer.

It was the perfect ending to a very full, productive day. 

-AK