April 16-April 30th (Week 6 DC-During Corona Virus)

We have been on house arrest for 6 weeks now. I can't believe the entire month of April is gone. So many activities cancelled or postponed. Tom's Birthday show has been rescheduled for April 2021. The state of Maryland has not yet decided if they are going to officially cancel school for the rest of the school year, but all current school activities have been cancelled. No more elementary or high school sports, travel teams. The summer swim teams have already been cancelled. No more spring high school musicals or concerts. Proms were all cancelled as well as graduations and recognition ceremonies . I feel very sorry for all the High School and College seniors. So many experiences that they are missing. Some activities have been posted online including proms and graduation ceremonies, but it is just not the same. We all know that, but what can you do?  Kids are still participating in online learning and homework packets, but they have not decided how they are going to grade anything. Or if they open schools, how that is going to happen.Church has been closed as well. Now I just attend mass at 8am with the Heart of the Nation Catholic mass from Milwaukee. No First Communions or Confirmations are scheduled.

And of course all National Sporting Events have been cancelled or postponed. Tom and Allison would be enjoying the Stanley Cup Hockey playoffs. Don't think they are going to try and squeeze that in this year. Tom had tickets for one of the Hershey Bears Caldor Cup games in April. Hard to believe we enjoyed our last game at the Hershey stadium in March when Scott was home for his Spring Break.

We also miss traveling down to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg Virginia. The Park usually opens before Easter and we have spent several holiday weekends down there, especially for Opening Day for Pass Members. But not this year.

We've settled into our new routine. Not sure how the world is going to look when we come out on the other side. I would imagine we will eventually get back to some type of normal, but things will definitely be different. For now, Scott finished his online Spring Term and made it through his finals week at the end of April. And we are very excited to report that he finished with all A's and even made the Dean's list!  To be fair, he was earning all A's before everyone switched to online learning. We feel bad for the kids that were already struggling with their classes, or really needed to be in the class or labs in person. There is only so much you can do online sometimes, and only so much assist from online tutors. The Universities gave the students a choice of taking a letter grade or just Pass/Fail in case they were struggling. Scott was very disappointed especially to miss out on the rest of his Electrical Engineering labs. He was learning quite a bit and liked all the different skills he was picking up with the hands on learning. This semester was primarily easy to transition to online learning. Moving forward, most of Scott's engineering classes have hands on labs scheduled. Universities are trying to figure out if they can allow students back in the fall! Administrators are actually more worried about the professors getting sick from the students!

Since we received a Room and Board refund, we decided to put it to use paying for Scott to take an online class from Western Michigan for Summer 1 term starting the first week of May. Western decided to offer classes online and we thought it was stupid not to take advantage of the opportunity. Especially since Scott doesn't have anything else scheduled right now and he can concentrate on one of his more difficult classes, Engineering Statistics. And he has Tom and Allison at home to help him out. We also received our payment from our Maryland 529 Pre Paid College Trust, so that helps out with payment. We originally signed Allison up for the program but we never had to use the funds for her in- state undergrad program, so all the money can now be used for Scott's out- of- state tuition. Scott also got a credit towards his University parking pass that he can use next year when/if he heads back.

I continue to go to work everyday, but things are really starting to slow down in our nursing and rehab center. Most of our rehab patients have been discharged and returned home. People usually only stayed about 2 weeks on average, so we dragged out some of their recovery periods. Partly because some people had more medical issues to deal with and we decided to keep them on therapy. Now we are mostly working with our Long Term Care patients and started working with our residents in the Assisted Living Facility. But there are just not enough patients to go around to fill our day with 6-8 hours. And I am trying to avoid the Corona 15(gaining 15lbs) similar to the College Freshman 15 where kids gain weight while away at college with all the food choices in the dining halls. As Health Care Workers, we have had plenty of freebies to take advantage of including free lunches from local restaurants including pizza and chick fil a. And local chains have been giving away freebies like coffee from Starbucks, McDonalds meals and a dozen donuts from Krispy Kreme!  And our Activity Director turned an electric golf cart into an ice cream truck and drives through the facility delivering awesome ice cream treats twice a day, every day!  I try to punch out of work before the ice cream truck comes!  Not only do health care workers get some perks like free food, but I try to take advantage of the services including "no waiting" in line at Costco and Sams Club. When I show my badge I can walk right in at those places. Very nice perk.

And we have had some long lines waiting to get into the stores. I try not to go shopping too often, so when I do, it is usually a big haul. I am still trying to get used to following the new, big arrows on the floors to keep us all moving in the same direction. I have pointed out to some customers that they are not following the pattern. But I have to admit, I don't always follow the lines if I walk down an aisle and did not see what I was looking for because I just run back and take a second look. I know I should probably walk all the way around again, but that seems inefficient. The stores here in Maryland are still short or empty of most cleaning products, paper products and some food items like rice, bread, soup, eggs, beans, flour, and sugar. Currently the concern is over the availability of meat. Not a great time for Tom to be following the lo carb diet. Fortunately we have our small freezer and can stock up on certain meat items when available, or pick up frozen food items as needed. I hear there is a freezer shortage now too. I always said if there were ever a Zombie Apocalypse or Nuclear War, no one would starve in our house since I usually keep the pantry and fridge well stocked. And that has seemed to make things easier for us. I usually have enough cleaning products and paper products, and food items in the house, especially since we shop at Costco and Sams club. So we were not desperate for any items, but it makes getting the fresh foods a bit more difficult, like meat, bread, eggs. And I also pick up paper products for mom including paper towel and toilet paper, so that was a bit of a concern since they had not restocked most stores with those items since March. It has become a bit of a game to see who can locate what item and where on our neighborhood web page and share that valuable info. And most people figured they could just order everything on Amazon, or have items delivered from stores, but not if the items are not available! And because we are home more, we have been cooking and baking quite a bit(like a lot of Americans). Banana and Blueberry muffins have become a staple. And Allison and Scott have found creative ways to prepare meals and leftovers, like beef broccoli stir fry from Allison and breakfast sandwiches from Scott. And Tom has had to rely on canned SPAM for back up. We tried supporting our local restaurants with carry out at times, but discovered that some of the meals are a bit skimpy or the quality is just not the same. Fast food seems to be keeping up with the demand so far.

And we now all have masks to wear out in the community. I keep extra in my car since I have equipment to wear at work. We have masks at work that last 1 week(and they count the days) kept in a paper bag at the front of the facility. We also have our temperature taken first thing coming in the door. (don't drink coffee before having your oral temperature taken!). Then we are wearing plastic face shields, hospital gowns and plastic aprons. It can get pretty hot. Fortunately we have not had any residents with positive covid cases in our facility, but we did have one staff member. Our staff is no longer allowed to work in other facilities to avoid possibly spreading the virus. We also have not been taking in any new patients. And no cases in mom's facility except for one staff member so far. Most importantly no deaths. Unfortunately some facilities in Maryland have had large numbers of positive cases and deaths. So the country is cracking down on restrictions especially in nursing homes. Mom B has been able to come out of her room to the large activity space for meals and recreation since the staff kept everyone apart, but it looks like they may have to restrict that. We still can't visit, but I do weekly drop offs of clean clothes and small gifts and cards. Some of our residents are able to visit with family through the windows, but Mom B is on the 3rd floor and they just don't have enough staff to bring everyone to the front door. I also think that would confuse my mom even more(why can't we come in?) I am currently waiting for the recent plan of testing all nursing home residents and staff to see how that works out and when. The family hopes I get tested soon, but who is to say that I test negative and the next day could catch it? I'd rather have the antibody test to see if I was already exposed at some time during the winter months.

Tom and Allison continue to work from home on their computers and with conference calls. Tom is also busy with his current PhD class. We also have been having a few beautiful days to get outside and do some yard work. Thank goodness Scott is home to cut the grass! I have been working on cleaning out the flower beds-trimming shrubs, raking leaves and pulling weeds. The cherry blossoms are all done(they cancelled the Cherry Blossom festival in DC at the beginning of April). Now the Dogwoods and Redbuds are blooming, along with my lilac bushes. I can't deliver any flowers to Mom or bring them into work-they are afraid Covid may be on plants or flowers. And I can't bring any in the house since the family has such bad allergies. I just had to enjoy them outside. We are also enjoying watching our bluebird family-looks like the parents are busy feeding young chicks as they fly in and out of their bluebird house all day and safely guard it from squirrels and other birds. They are tough little birds, but they put up with us going in and out of the garage. We also try to stay active with daily walks with Cookie. I hope we don't wear her out! I did have to take her to the vet. She was very droopy at the beginning of the month, stopped eating as much and appeared to have an infected anal gland. Going to the vet in Covid times: take a photo of the dog, send it to the vet. Make an appointment if they feel it is warranted. Drive into a numbered parking spot, call the clinic to let them know you are there. Vet comes out, checks out the dog, puts on their own leash and takes the dog inside the vet clinic. Comes back out and gives you their diagnosis. Vet tech brings out your dog with medication. You keep the leash(no covid sharing). Cookie had an infected anal gland and needed antibiotics like I figured. They strapped a cone around her head to make sure she did not lick herself (that was entertaining for us!)and even brought her out in a towel to keep my car clean(just in case). Then you call the clinic and pay for the visit with a credit card. Drive in vet clinic. She will go back in a few weeks for a final check up. But so far she seems to be doing much better. And getting in lots of walks! Hope we don't wear her out!

How else do we stay busy? Lots of tv and movies. Tom and I caught up on new movies like "The Green Book"-really liked it, "1917"-pretty good. "Hustlers"-quite a bit racy, so now I see what all the fuss was over the pole at the Super Bowl. The kids are enjoying their Disney + cable they got for Christmas. And we can't go to the Y, but if I had the energy and extra time, I would log into some of their online classes. Allison and I did enjoy the Facebook Live BINGO nights! Especially when I won a tshirt! We had so much fun with it, Allison hooked up her friend Jen at Salisbury and even she won a game! Allison also continues to connect with her Dungeons and Dragon group online. They added an extra night. Plus she started Scott and a few local friends playing online on Friday nights as well. Allison misses her Ultimate Frisbee teams, but keeps in shape taking Cookie for walks and running on our treadmill. Scott and Tom have taken several long walks up to our Home Depot and the grocery store to keep active too. And Allison and her friends have discovered the wonder of the US post office again. Besides texting her boyfriend Gabe, the two have exchanged a few cards and letters as well as with her friend Jen at Salisbury University.

Sadly, our thoughts and prayers go out to Sheila Bozyk and family whose father passed away in Missouri on April 5th at 91 years of age with a history of cancer. I'm certain the family would have loved being all together at this time, but some things have to wait.