I am only home a week after spending a beautiful three weeks in the Beautiful Bronx with my children and my gorgeous grandson.

Traveling back to Florida went as well as traveling anywhere by air can go. Which is to say no criminal passengers were fighting with crew members or other passengers or who made an uproar over wearing THE MASK!

Of course, the one thing that did worry my wife Eileen and me was returning to the Delta Variant Sunshine State.

While the discussions about booster vaccines and who should get one persisted, Eileen and I set off to get ours this past Wednesday.

Similar to the second shot, our reaction consisted of a slow progressing journey towards aches, pains, and exhaustion.

Wednesday was not such a bad day, but we knew what was coming, so we learned to take it easy and do what we can. No over-taxing ourselves.

Thursday, the Mack truck arrived. (I don’t use that analogy often ever since I was T-boned by a Mack truck.)

All I could think was that Friday would be better.

However, I had to endure Thursday first.

Let me just say that if what I experienced was what Covid patients endured, then stop reading this and go out and get the vaccine or booster if you have already been vaccinated.

I didn’t have any respiratory problems, just aches in every joint of my body and fatigue. That was it, but that was enough.

I suppose due to my compromised immune system thanks to CLL, I never get a fever. My temperature always hovers around 97.4. However, Friday morning around 4:00 AM, it seemed that the “fever” had broken.

I woke up in a sweat, and I actually felt terrific. I was able to walk with absolutely no discomfort, and my body aches all but disappeared. (Except the usual pain I live with.)

Here it is Saturday morning, and I am thinking seriously of going into the pool and maybe even have the first pumpkin ale of the season.

It’s hard to think that Autumn is coming when it is still in the nineties down here. Still, baseball has entered the critical part of the season, and football is upon us, so before you know, we will be cooling down into the high eighties, the perfect time for a crisp pumpkin ale.

I tell you all this because this was the furthest thing from my mind on Thursday, but here I am Saturday morning, and I can get off the mat and get back to living the life.

So, the message is: Get the Vaccine; Get the Booster if you can.

Don’t fear the vaccine.

Fear the virus.