Last week, when Ohio lowered the age range for Covid 19 vaccinations to those over age 50, for once I felt a tiny bit of privilege! I made my appointment for today, and then this morning, Ohio announced that those over 40 would be eligible for jabs come this Friday, and all those 16 and above would be eligible on March 29th.

Turns out I’m not special at all, man.

But I’m cool with it. I supposed that I would be eligible for the vaccine late Summer at the earliest. I’m astonished that the vaccine will be available to so many people, so soon. Could we possibly be past the worst of it? I hope so.

Hope everyone gets the vaccine as soon as possible.

(P.S. I got the Moderna vaccine, so I guess I’m in for it after the second shot. Oy.)

Dr. Evil and I are holding March 11th as our pandemicaversary, because that was the last time we dined in a restaurant. We have a favorite brewpub that is a real pain in the ass to patronize when OU is in session, so we scurry on over as soon as the semester ends, or breaks begin. Last year, we were a little reluctant, because spring break coincided with the early days of covid, but we decided to go ahead. Sitting in the dining room that day last March, I looked around at how closely packed the place was. Every throat clearing or cough went straight up my spine. I knew this was it: we were going into bunker mode. In the year to come, we got take-out pizza once in Autumn, and take-out Chinese just a couple weeks ago. I used curbside grocery pickup until after the state mandated mask wearing. Our face-to-face interactions have been limited to Dr. Evil’s folks, and a single visit from a nephew in July.

I’ve intentionally buried the lede here. Today is the first day those over 50 become eligible for covid vaccinations here in Ohio. Friends, I have a shot scheduled for this coming Tuesday, and I feel like it’s Christmas or something. I anticipated problems with the state’s website (nope), a significant delay in obtaining an appointment (nope), and an inconvenient inoculation site (nope). Feeling pretty fortunate here, and I hope everyone who hasn’t yet gets to experience this feeling very soon.

I can’t find an exact term for it, but a year or so into the Former Guy’s administration, I told Dr. Evil what the daily newscasts felt like to me. Think about when you’re watching apocalyptic or dystopian films and the notional family is going about their morning/evening routine as the tiny TV or radio is playing in the background: [Announcer] ” . . . rioting continued today in . . . ” ” . . . military forces were deployed against . . . ” . . . the plague continues to affect millions . . . “

Never again.

Good news: We finally, FINALLY, managed to sell our Charleston house last week!

Not so great news: Ever met anyone who can lose money on real estate? Well, you have now. Oy.

We put the house on the market in September 2019, after finding an agent who would actually show up and do the work. I think I described this before, but the first two real estate agents missed appointments, did not respond to emails and calls, and never produced comps as promised. We ended up with a part time agent (never a good thing, I think). Dr. Evil and I had an idea of how the house should be priced, but the agent provided comps suggesting a price a good 15% higher, and we went with the higher price after listening to her pitch about how important it was to get the price just right at the listing date. Guess what; it was too high.

When we listed it, there were several houses on the street that were also for sale, and ours was the priciest of the bunch. No offers came before the holidays, and we decided to leave the price where it was, hoping for a better spring market. Know what happened when spring came? Covid. I’ll spare you the boring details, but we lowered the price a couple times, and the house was showing, but no offers were coming in. Patience, right?

The house directly across the street from us went on the market for about 20% less than ours. It’s a newer house, but not as large and the lot is not great, either. The price on that house came crashing down, and it finally sold for 45% of its original price. We think it has structural issues relating to the slope of the lot and the foundation/basement walls. Because of that sale price, Zillow (or if you will allow me, FUCKING Zillow), reduced its “Zestimate” on our property by a whole bunch. Seeing the suggested value on Zillow, a clever buyer swooped in with an offer of . . . exactly the Zestimate. So what’s a seller to do? We bit the bullet and accepted the offer. An offer that was 15% below our then asking price, and 25% less than the “just right” initial listing price.

In the meantime, the house across the street underwent what we’ll call the “flipper special treatment.” You know, new flooring, removal of a dividing wall, fancy countertops, etc . . . And they put it on the market for the same price we’d initially listed ours. And. They. Got. An. Offer. In. One. Day. Thanks, Zillow.

But we’re done with Charleston, so we’ve got that going for us, which is nice.