Prior to this year, the hardest thing I ever tried doing was going without chocolate for six months in my youth, theoretically to help suppress acne. Then COVID arrived.

Isolating myself and avoiding people has been a piece of cake (chocolate). But trying to get a vaccination is not for the faint of heart.

Upon the advice of various people in the know, I’ve registered with the city, the county, the state, two drug store chains, three hospitals, and the guy peddling drugs to the kids at the nearby playground, but, so far, no luck, except I scored some antidepressants from the peddler.

Now I’m thinking that maybe I should start answering the twenty-three robocalls I get each day in case one of them is a COVID vaccination scam. There’ve been a lot of studies on the possible positive effects of placebos. It’s only a small step further to imagine good results from paying someone for a shot you never receive.