Magic Mountain, my mom, and me…

So they announced the availability of vaccines for the over-65 set Tuesday… I was on it like white on rice. My mom (Granny to everyone) is 82 and damn I want her shot up like the baddie at the OK Corral.

Everything you’ve heard about the LA County website is true… and then some. To say it sucks like an open chest wound is a massive understatement, although I’m not sure many websites could handle a deluge of seniors and the tech savvy people who love them fighting like a bunch of rabid chickens after a single worm.

I wanted that appointment and I wanted it BAD.

I sat and reloaded over and over for two hours before succeeding and even then I figured divine intervention happened somewhere.

Problem is you hafta choose the day of the appointment before you know if there are any available. If not, you can’t just choose another day… you start the process over again. Add that to a constantly crashing site and it’s one miserable experience.

So! Friday at 3:51pm! What an oddly specific time. Whatever. Granny wants to be there an hour early, okay…

It’s not like there’s a waiting room, it’s a drive through experience. Still, I’m not one to argue (often) with the matriarch.

So off we went, me expecting a long ass wait. The entry, however… god, is this gonna be like a Disney ride where it looks empty at first then you realize you’re in the line from hell?

Bravely forward. Still nothing.

And rounding the bend, we find…

As my mother said, well, life’s good if you’re a red cone maker, isn’t it?

Back and forth, back and forth… Granny didn’t appreciate the idea of my going rogue and seeing how far my little Bolt could send cones flying. Then finally someone had the bright idea to open up the path for a more direct route. Thank god.

First stop, ID and temperature check. After that, we wound around to the shot location. There’s 15 lanes and they tell you which to get in.

Inevitably we’re put in the lane that takes the longest. It’s like being in the grocery but you can’t hop into the shorter line. Others were driving right up to the nurse. We waited a good 15 minutes as the other lanes sat empty.

Finally! Pull up to the gate!

And wait more. Turned out they needed to “defrost” another batch, which takes a while. We had a good half hour wait, but eventually we got to pull forward.

In the interim, they asked if I take care of my mom, because if I’m her caretaker, I could also get the shot. (I’d really like it but not at the expense of someone else, so I’m waiting my turn.)

We then had to wait another 15 minutes (they label your car with the time you’re excused and they hold you until then). So be warned! Pee before you go… or…

We drove off with vaccination card in hand and instructions to go back and book her second shot for late February. Well worth the time.