Shooting The Pony Should Not Be a Task of Such Heruclean Proportions

In late summer, an old mom's fancy turns undeniably to thoughts of having The Pony shot. With the bacterial meningitis vaccine, of course. You don't want your young 'uns living in a college dorm without protection from that deadly illness.

I called my pharmacy, uh...let's call them NearMin, this morning to see if they give that shot. We get our flu shots there. But no, they do not carry that vaccine. So I called Hick's pharmacy, CeilingReds, on his recommendation. I might have mentioned that I am not a fan of CeilingReds, especially Hick's branch. The workers are snotty and act like they're doing me a favor, then probably ridicule me as soon as my back is turned to walk out. Not that I'm the paranoid sort or anything.

CeilingReds said they do indeed give vaccinations. No appointment necessary. Just drop in. I asked specifically for that meningitis vaccine. The girl put me on hold so she could make sure. Yes. They give that shot. Come on in. You can see where this is heading, can't you?

Off went The Pony and I, up at the crack of mid-morning, at 9:40 a.m. Did you know the sun is out at that hour? We headed to the bank so I could activate my new debit card to replace the expiring one. Thank goodness my new one does not have a chip! No need confusing those Save A Lot checkers unnecessarily. After the bank, we headed to Walmart for the shopping we put off from yesterday. Then back to Backroads for the shot, and my 44 oz Diet Coke, located just across the drainage ditch from CeilingReds.

In we went. The man Hick raves about being so kind went behind the high divider to inquire about the vaccine, then pawned us off on a girl who was already ringing up medicines. She took The Pony's information and typed it in the computer. It was a lot quicker back in the old-timey days when they just handed you a clipboard with the vital questions to check off. After that rigamarole, the gal went behind the high divider. She came back and said, "Sorry. We don't have that vaccine in stock."

I JUST CALLED THERE THIS MORNING!!!

She asked if we wanted her to check with another branch (where I used to go, right across the street from Walmart) to see if they had it. Yes. And guess what? They DID have it.

So off we went BACK to where we'd been, having wasted gas, 30 minutes, and thawing time for frozen food. And you'll never guess--no, I'm sure you WILL guess--we had to go through all that data entry and vital info all over again. Sucks to be us. One good thing at this branch was that the lady went behind the high divider BEFORE taking all our info, to make sure they had the vaccine in their glass-doored cooler that looked like the one in our student snack area that holds soda, or the one at the florist that holds DUH flowers.

After another 30 minutes of data entry and insurance cards scanning, we were referred to a waiting area with four chairs. Too bad that man with a cane kept looking pointedly at me. It's his own fault for standing outside during that half hour. He could have easily scammed one of those chairs in the time he kept making the automatic doors open so we could hear his dog barking at him.

THEN The Pony was called over for his shot.

CeilingReds really needs to get bandaids adhesive bandage strips with their own logo, don't you think? Let the record show that is a view of The Pony's ARM.

So...after an extra hour-plus of driving around our frozen food (I think those chicken wings were ready to jump out of T-Hoe's rear and walk home without us), giving way too much information, and being stuck behind regular hillbilly traffic

The Pony was shot and is at this very moment generating antibodies to protect him from bacterial meningitis. Even though it won't help one whit if he comes down with viral meningitis, like Genius two Christmas vacations ago.