A man waiting for his kickout is on what’s called Short Time. Short Time is known for being Hard Time. Lots of Short-timers go nuts or fuck up or try a run. Short is often harder than Long.

Ken Kesey, Demon Box

Let’s Livejournal.

I just got my second vaccination shot. The Pfizer Soze. The homie JP was headed in for his first.

Were there, he wondered, any side effects?

The side effect of the vaccine is this idea that enters your head, that you’ve been denying yourself, that you’ve abstained from thinking: that you could get back to your regular life, or some semblance thereof, pretty soon.

But not really soon. And anyway: you can’t. That life is over now. Things done changed.

And anyway, you don’t even remember what you’re supposed to do or how you’re supposed to act once you can get back to the world, however you find it.

So there’s this bored mourning period that starts when you get your first COVID shot.