Sick feeling after booster; no balls in park; hot water

 After receiving my Covid booster last weekend, I felt absolutely awful. For two days, I had a thumping headache, dizziness that kept me off my feet, chills and body aches, pain at the injection site, and even more fatigue than usual. I'm such a wimp. I can't thank my wife enough for putting up with my whining, and providing care for me and our two children. My son Elijah has been under the weather a little with a runny nose and cough, and I picked up some of that to go with my vaccine reaction. The side effects gave me a little feel of what having Covid would be like. It would suck, and my heart truly goes out to folks who have had to deal with any form of the coronavirus. My booster was from Pfizer, and my first two shots were AstraZeneca. I had no serious reaction to the first two shots, but the third shot was another story. Nonetheless, I'll gladly put up with side effects for a couple of days if it means avoiding full-blown Covid and staying off a ventilator. I've had pneumonia in the past five years, so there's no telling how my 67-year-old flabby body would handle the real deal. I'd be remiss in my blogging if I didn't acknowledge the Vietnamese government and health officials for providing testing and vaccines to me free of charge. Wonderful. And thanks to my father-in-law for giving me a ride to get my booster and guiding me through the paperwork, raucous line and aggressive line-cutters to ultimately get my jab. Great job. And thanks to whoever donated the vaccines. Everybody contributed.
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Security guards at our neighborhood park said that due to concern for the new flower pots around the trees, balls of any kind are prohibited at the park, meaning Elijah does a lot more kicking at home these days. The park is extremely peaceful now with fewer visitors, no soccer and only a few joggers and cyclists. However, part of the slowdown is probably due to Tet, when families gather at home. It's kind of like Thanksgiving in the U.S.  Covid seems to have had a little impact, but folks here are determined to celebrate the lunar new year regardless. Cheers!
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While the East Coast of the United States, where I grew up, has been dealing with snow and frigid temperatures, we're cooking here in Bien Hoa, with temps in the 90s daily -- it reached 97 Wednesday -- and of course nasty humidity. I don't even bother to look up how humid it actually is. I just feel it. The ""real feel" temperature is usually in the upper 90s or triple digits. I knew I was having a bad reaction to the shot when I had chills, a first for me here. Really. Our water is solar heated; the equatorial sun can be intense and so can our hot water. You have to be careful in the shower because a nudge of the faucet handle can turn warm water into dangerously scalding hot water. On the plus side, dishes get really clean when the water is super-heated by the sun. But if you don't know the water has been hot, you can actually burn yourself by turning the tap on and washing your hands. The only time the water is really cool is rainy season when there's no sun and you could really use a hot shower sometimes.
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The bee swarm on our third floor balcony looks like it's sticking around for a while. It's been there a week and just gets bigger. The heart-shaped swarm is very still at night but there's some movement in and around the swarm during the day. My daughter is fascinated by the swarm and the bees, and so am I. We'll go out and take a look in the day, but she has to hold my hand and she's not allowed on the balcony by herself now. A few bees fly in and out of the swarm during the day. I still read next to the flowers and swarm at night and feel safe. Like I said, there's no movement at night. ... I just finished reading  Over the Edge of the World, the story of Magellan, and it was fascinating. These could be cruel times, of course, but that cruelty could be evident on the ships as well as the lands discovered by the sailors. Mutinies apparently were rather common, and if unsuccessful, mutineers were not kindly dealt with. Torture was a tool of the times. This was a pretty long book which I finished fairly quickly given my lifestyle. Same with the Columbus book I read. Now I'm reading The Last Days of the Incas. This should wrap up my Age of Exploration (also called Age of Discovery) unit.