Back Again

Sometimes you just have to push through it. Pfizer vaccine and my immune system made peace so the intense pain has finally stopped and I am back in the land of the living.

Oh the pain. It started on day 3 after the shot. I feel like someone is beating me from head to toe every day. They say the pain comes if you have a robust immune system. I must have one hell of an immune system for the pain to continue like this. It was a week on Thursday and the pain is still here. It reminds me of the comedian who told a story about a man who was up in a tree with a raccoon. They were fighting. Shoot the coon, he kept yelling to the group at the base of the tree. They didn't shoot so he told them to "just shoot up here amongst us. One of us needs some relief." I am at that point.

Well, I have done my part. I got the third Pfizer shot on Thursday. Only side effect was massive sweating. My t-shirts looked and felt like I had been standing in the pouring rain. I would put a dry shirt on and it would happen again. And again. And again. So I have been drinking lots of water to avoid dehydration. I even bought some adult Pedialyte to replace the electrolytes I am losing.

Ping shops at H-Mart and 99 Ranch regularly, but when she wants the best thin meats for hot pot, or the best ground pork (select a pork shoulder or a pork butt and watch them grind it), or the best pork ribs cut in half with a saw, or the best chicken feet, or the best pig feet, she shops where other Chinese people shop in Houston. At a store on Bellaire Blvd in Chinatown called Welcome. It was very difficult to get in Welcome to shop until H-Mart and 99 Ranch opened. Now Welcome has widened its aisles and organized everything to make it easier to shop there.

Ping and I were without electricity for 56 hours with outside temps from 14-29 degrees. We live in Fulshear, which is immediately West of Katy in Ft Bend County. Our power was turned back on for about 6 hours and then turned off again for about six hours before it was turned back on and left on. A new law requires that no one be left without electricity for more than 12 continuous hours. Ping used candles for light. Our stove top range is gas so she was able to cook for us. We just layered up with clothes until the power came back on. Our house is well insulated and we had no loss of water. None of our rental properties in Katy had burst pipes or loss of water. But in the entire Houston area I don't believe there is a better place to live than where we live in Cross Creek Ranch. Our house is in the Katy ISD, so the Asian population is higher here.

Texas opened eligibility to everyone over age 16 on Monday, so our daughter got her first dose of Moderna on Saturday. Her boyfriend was also able to get an appointment and got his shot on Saturday. Also Moderna.

In Texas they opened a Phase 1C, which is open for ages 50 and over. A few counties had extra doses and opened their counties for all adults until the extra doses were used. Ping and I both had Pfizer and neither of us had any side effects.

Another encouraging note is that Ping was able to make an appointment today to get her first shot tomorrow. She is just 50 years old, so things are opening up more and more for everyone.

The VA sent an email to me months ago asking if I wanted to sign up to receive the vaccination. If so, they would schedule an appointment for me when they received the vaccine. I checked the "Yes" box and sent it back. Someone from the VA called me at the end of January and left a message and phone number to call so they could schedule my appointment. I called the number and without even asking for my name the lady said I could come to an open vaccination session and she gave me the date. I told her no thank you. I am not driving 70 miles just to stand around in a crowd and hope I get vaccinated before they run out of the vaccine. The next day, on Feb 1, I received a text message from Methodist Hospital not far from our home. Your name and info are in our system and you are eligible to receive the vaccine. Use your phone and select a date and time and also electronically sign the consent documents. About 5 minutes later I had an appointment scheduled for Feb 7, which they confirmed back to me. They sent reminder texts with instructions on how to park. They were incredibly well organized and Ping and I walked from one station to the next and never had to wait. I got the shot, and had no side effects, but they sent a text the next day asking if I was feeling well, and asking if I wanted to speak with a Nurse about any problems. When we were there they scheduled my next shot for Feb 28, three weeks later. We returned to the same organized system, and they were doing only 2d shots that day. I didn't even feel the needle when the nurse gave me the shot. Again no side effects, but a follow up text inquiring if I was having any problems. I have always felt it is better to be lucky than good, and maybe this helps prove that belief. This is also why I use Medicare and not the VA for my health problems, even though I am 100% covered for everything at the VA. I would rather have the higher quality of care, and Methodist Hospital consistently ranks as the best. If you guys are in the system at a hospital it may be easier to schedule an appointment with that hospital to receive the vaccine. Good luck with it.

Ping became a U.S. Citizen yesterday. The weather was eerily similar to the day we went to her visa interview in Guangzhou, with thunderstorms and rain. But no more green card to worry about. So far 30 people have indicated they will attend the party to celebrate Ping's citizenship.

We received the Notice from USCIS today, and the oath ceremony will be on Wednesday, October 16. Then we will celebrate with our neighbors (23 houses on our cul-de-sac)on Sunday, Oct 20 by hosting a party at a nearby Mexican restaurant. Then we will apply for a U.S. passport, change Ping's status to U. S. citizen with social security, and register to vote.

I had forgotten I wrote this post back when we first started the N-400 process. The waiting time that USCIS posted kept getting longer after we filed the N-400, with the range extending out almost 2 years. But as I indicated in another post, we unexpectedly received Ping's interview notice just 7.5 months after we filed the N-400, and her interview was yesterday, which was just shy of 9 months after we filed the N-400. The short end of the range posted by USCIS was 14.5 months so we were lucky to even beat that shorter end of the range. Ping passed her tests and the interview and we are waiting for the notice to attend the oath ceremony.

Well, Ping aced the civics test and passed the English reading and writing test. She also charmed the officer who conducted her interview and was in and out in just 20 minutes. The officer was admiring Ping's Kate Spade necklace and her engagement and wedding rings. We ate Mexican food for lunch and shared a flan for dessert instead of eating moon cake for the Autumn Festival. Now we are just waiting for the Notice about the date of the oath ceremony. We already know we have to be there at 7:00 a.m., and it will take us more than an hour to drive to the location of the ceremony, so it will like the day we went to the interview at 7:00 a.m. in Guangzhou in 2008.

That is nice of you to say, Dennis, though I know it was said in jest. I hope you and your wife are doing well. Tomorrow is the day for Ping. We have to get up to leave at 0'dark thirty to get there in time for the interview. It will be Friday the 13th with a full moon. Yesterday Ping answered 99 of 100 questions correctly for the civics exam, so she should be ready. This evening she prepared with an hour of Tai Chi using the YouTube video she likes to follow. I enjoy the music but I walk for exercise, and Ping still walks with me, holding hands. There are 22 houses on our cul-de-sac in Cross Creek Ranch and we have a private Face Book group, so Ping has a lot of supporters rooting for her. Assuming all goes well, Ping and I will host a party to celebrate at a nearby Mexican restaurant for all of our neighborhood after Ping is sworn in as a new U.S. Citizen.

According to a lengthy article in the Houston Chronicle this week, the Houston District Office is the slowest in the Nation in the processing of N-400 cases, so I guess it is even more remarkable that Ping's case was scheduled for an interview in less than 9 months from when it was filed.