Baker's heartbeat

       Receipts from my recent flu vaccine experience, at Costco.      I was four years old, perhaps, when I received the first medical vaccine.     Most of my family lined up at the high school in Edina, Minnesota, and I recall the sugary water in a tiny cup. I drank it up and eventually left the school with my mother, and siblings.     Flash forward to 2021: While shopping at a big-box store (Costco), I received a vaccination against this year's flu.     I've been getting flu vaccines for most of my adult life, but they used to be given at our office. When I no longer had an office, I sought out the vaccine at stores -- first at HyVee and more recently, Costco.     I never thought about getting regular preventative health care until I didn't have insurance to help cover the costs. That was the case for a couple of years; I did scramble a bit until I found what was needed. Most costs were out-of-pocket.     These days, at 63 years old, I have a health insurance policy from

  An absentee ballot request form and a letter from the auditor's office to point out the error of our ways.      An election is approaching on Nov. 2 and the Baker household is making preparations to participate.     Steve Baker prefers to fill out an absentee ballot and vote in the privacy of our home. I, on the other hand, like to go to our precinct (in McCausland, Iowa!) to vote in person.     One big change this year is in the absentee ballot request form. Folks like Steve may request the form from the auditor's office and it must be filled out precisely.     I can understand why, but this whole absentee ballot process is also a significant change from previous years and one might hope officials would allow a wee bit of leeway. That's not going to happen in these partisan times and that's too bad.     As of now, the request form has to be filled out to include the exact type and/or date of the upcoming election. Steve asked me, a former news reporter who has covere

      One table of fiction books for sale (cheap!) in Eldridge. Sports-themed books in the non-fiction section. There are many choices in the Religion section of the Non-Fiction area.           Are you a reader?     There is  a sale at the public library in Eldridge, Iowa. Customers will be attracted by a wide variety of good-quality, unbeatably-priced books.     The Friends of the Eldridge Library Book Sale is on now until Saturday at the  library located at 200 North Sixth Avenue. A "Bag a Book" sale is 9 a.m. to noon Saturday.     I joined the "Friends" group a few years ago but this was the first time I was able to help set up for the sale. This was accomplished last Wednesday, when yours truly helped to establish the Non-Fiction section of the offerings.     Our group worked for about two hours on Wednesday, Oct. 6. The library does not accept book contributions at this time so all the books we dealt with are collected from around the Scott County Library Syste