Ottawa health authorities and the municipal government is complaining that they're being overlooked while other parts of the province of Ontario are forging well ahead of the national capital in vaccinating their elderly residents. They point out that the average vaccination rate of those over 70 years of age in other parts of the province stands at 77 percent, while in Ottawa that number is just over 50 percent. The problem is that vaccine deliveries to Ottawa have been short-changed, they complain.

It's also the provincial health ministry that has been responsible for the software that has gone haywire to the effect that people qualified for registration appointments trying to arrange appointments online find the system disqualifying them through a glitch that won't accept their completed applications. Which is precisely what happened with us. And when Irving finally got through by telephone and made appointments for us, we discovered a week later that the software had erred in double-booking, so those who had succeeded in obtaining appointments had to go through the same process again, for new appointment dates.

Mid-week there was a report that people who showed up for their appointments should not have because of double-booking creating chaos and thousands of people had to be shuttle-bused to other locations to be inoculated. These are people in their 80s and above, who don't appreciate confusion in their lives, particularly with the stakes so high of serious complications with COVID-19, and the fact that the vast majority of deaths in the province occurred among those 80 and over.

So we, knowing our second-arranged appointment would be a few days' hence, were more than a little nervous when we set out this morning to arrive ten minutes before our appointments as instructed, to find the parking lot to the temporary injection site packed with vehicles, and people streaming toward the front of the location which just happened to be a YMCA re-purposed as an area vaccination centre.

Parking assistants were helpful. There was a doorman stationed under a rainshield prepared to admit people whose appointment times were imminent. Before you even got to the front entrance there was a man with a bullhorn circulating in the parking lot, calling out the 'next' time slots at which time people were to exit their vehicles and make for the front entrance. When we arrived at the front entrance we were informed that only those whose time slot was 9:58 could enter; ours was 10:05. So we waited.

It was a dark, dismal morning, pouring rain and cool. Inside the doors waited a young woman to direct people as they entered and channel them toward a series of desks with protective plastic shields. Another woman caught those entering to direct them to numbered kiosks where you were to present your Ontario health card and printed proof of your successful appointment application which had been emailed ahead.

Once the initial questioning was completed, health cards tucked away, we were directed to follow arrows along a corridor, there a young man directed us to a short set of stairs leading to a gymnasium. Within the gymnasium young men and women directed you to one of a number of fifteen desks, each manned by a young woman with a computer and hand sanitizer, wipes, filled syringes, and she was prepared to administer the vaccine after the series of questions repeated and health card requested.

Finally, it was done. We were both vaccinated, waited a short while on chairs set up around the perimeter of the room, then approached another set of desks with young people asking questions, finding your name on their computers and instructing that a 'receipt' of vaccination would be forwarded to you by email.

Done! At least the first dose. The rest to follow in four months' time, stretching out the vaccine numbers in Canada in a bid to inoculate as many people as possible, at least with the first dose. Because there's an acute shortage of vaccines by any pharmaceutical company.

Irving decided to stop by a local supermarket to pick up a carton of 35% cream so I could make some whipped cream as a desert to fill the cream puffs I planned to bake. Jackie and Jillie, beside themselves by our brief absence (and it was brief) were given special treats; they had already had their breakfast before we left, though we hadn't. 

So, as things turned out, it has been the great technological advances in computing, software and communications that have glitched. While the human element has surpassed expectations, everyone coached and prepared to do what they could to expedite the process. The  young people we saw discharging their duties were exemplary; in manner and performance and efficiency.

And because it's been raining heavily all day, no opportunity to get out for a ravine hike today. Jackie and Jillie have been filling in time watching a procession of squirrels visiting the front porch to stuff their little faces on a miserable weather day.