One Month Closer to Spring and Hopefully a Vaccination

 

It's the final day of February and all I have to write is it has been a long cold wet month.  For the middle two weeks of the month the temperature where I live never got above freezing and we saw snow on five days.  Prior to the month all we had experienced this winter was snow flurries.  To put it mildly; I detest Winter.

And to make the month worse I still have not been able to get a Covid-19 vaccine from the local health providers.  I am over the age of 65 and I suffer from two underlying health complications.  According to the government I am in the tier to get the vaccine because of those underlying conditions but as of today it's crickets.  Not a word from any health care provider.  And to complicate matters our 93 year old mother is also signed up for the injection but has yet to hear from any health care provider, hospital or doctors office.  If we can't take care of our elderly than what in the world are we doing?

I live in the Midwestern state of Missouri, which at one point was last of the 50 states in distributing the Covid-19 injections.  This can in part be blamed on our governor Mike Parson, who apparently is sending more vaccine than is needed to the counties that supported him when he was re-elected in November.  But, that has resulted in the counties where he lost, including those that are home to Kansas City and St. Louis to be far short of the amount needed.

Hopefully, I will be able to get our mother inoculated against the Virus in March and I will get the shot before I get the virus.  One of my specialists has warned me if I get coronavirus it will be difficult to shake because of my health.  I am becoming increasingly bitter with the politics and hope the governor's actions don't result in the death of any of our state's senior citizens.

Laughable Programming during the Coronavirus

I retired from 42 years of working in the broadcast industry almost three years ago.  Over the years I heard a lot of strange things, dumb talk show hosts, announcers and bizarre programming.  But, two sister radio stations in St. Louis have played some of the strangest content you can imagine during this COVID-19 pandemic.

The station that like to call itself the "Sports Voice of America" has gotten lazy and is re-broadcasting every St. Louis Cardinal baseball game from September 2011.  The Cardinals won the World Series that year after being eleven games out of first place in August.  (For the record, all MLB games this season thus far have been cancelled and this outlet was the Cardinals' flagship station when they won the series). OK, but this radio station, KMOX, airs baseball games from September 2011 and then makes its announcers act as if they are in real time.  So, the night before last I heard the sports guy saying "the Cards are now just four back of the last wild card spot".  What the What?  Just plain dumb.  I am embarrassed for the poor sports guys that have to pretend its nine years ago.

If you think that's stupid, another St. Louis radio station decided to broadcast Christmas music for people under home quarantine.  Are you freaking kidding me?  Christmas music in March?  For example have you ever heard "The Little Drummer Boy" on St. Patrick's Day?  I have.  KEZK radio must have gotten the message from its listeners, or lack thereof, since they are back to their standard format.  Apparently, the station's attempt to make its listeners happy during a pandemic was a miserable failure.

Let's hope the remaining 45 other stations in this market don't also lose their minds.