June 15-June 21, Week 14 DC(During Corona)

When it rains, it pours!  On Tuesday our Rehab Manager called all of us into the office for a phone meeting with the Rehab Director and the Facility CEO. We were notified that we were all basically laid off. They were turning our Rehab dept over to a contract company, Rehab Care/Kindred. Same thing that happened to me 2 years ago at my last place of work. I usually try to take jobs where I am working for the company rather than a contract company. More stable and usually better benefits. Rehab Care has had several lawsuits for Medicare fraud. Some of my current and previous coworkers have worked for Rehab Care and they did not like it. But it's not like there are a lot of choices in jobs at this time. Most facilities are low census, or too afraid to bring in new staff for fear of spreading Corona Virus. We have been working very limited hours with limited patients. Only now have we started to bring in a few new patients. The facility moved residents to another hallway to open more spaces in hopes of bringing in more patients.

The crazy thing is the Rehab Dept had a great first quarter for revenue this year, and we were even voted Best Rehab services in the Baltimore area! Guess it doesn't matter now. It was nice of them to give us such short notice. I have personal days I was saving for my vacation in July that I have to use next week or I will lose the time. Not to mention all the sick time I've lost. The only thing I will get is my vacation paid out. I have been working under the current company for almost 2 years and had saved up vacation and sick time. Now I will have to start all over! Again! On Thursday, representatives from the new contract company, Rehab Care came to our facility in the late afternoon, driving up from North Carolina and Virginia Beach. I opted to go into work later so I would not have to return home, take another shower and dress and go back into work for the interview, only to go home and shower again. Two showers/day is enough for me. Anyhow, I went into work around 1pm and treated 3 patients. Then we had a meeting with our current management and the contract company to ask/answer any of our questions before individually meeting with the representatives. I came prepared with my resume and current pay stub, identification and we also had our drug screening on the spot. They weren't calling the meetings interviews, but I don't know what else you would call it. Mainly these groups just want to know if you want to work and to figure out how much they are willing to pay. I didn't hear back from them for several days. My coworker was offered a position, but it seemed that she was the only OT. Finally, on Sunday I received an offer email. They had attempted to send me an email on Saturday, but must have misspelled my name because the email kicked back to them. Anyhow, they offered me less money which I expected. I decided to take the offer though since there is not a whole lot out there right now. Plus I will still get paid holidays, a 401K, paid continuing education and remain in my current building. Also only have to work  30 hrs not 40 hrs to be considered full time with all the benefits. Unfortunately, it looks like our two OT assistants did not receive job offers. However, if things pick up again, they plan on rehiring more staff. Meanwhile, I just heard one of the new patients is positive for COVID.

I guess we will be perpetually testing for COVID. I did go to my doctor and got tested for the antibody immunity. Unfortunately I was negative for antibodies.

Tom and I also stopped by our neighbors Dan and Gloria's house during the week to share our condolences for the loss of their 17 year old beagle, Buddy. They had taken him to the ER over the weekend since he was declining rapidly, and they wanted him to hang in for a few days so their kids could see him. On Monday they took him up to the vet and had him put down after their regular vet discovered that he was full of cancerous tumors. We were all surprised he lived as long as he did since it looked like he had a stroke several years ago and walked crooked. I brought over a Sympathy card and stuffed beagle as a replacement and we all had a drink(or two) in honor of Buddy.

Besides the pandemic, the world is still going crazy with continued protests and violence following  deaths of people during police arrests, primarily african americans. There are still calls for defunding the police, protests in the cities and now statues and monuments are being knocked down, destroyed or defaced if considered racist all over the country. One group of protesters in Seattle, WA even took over several city blocks claiming their independence from local government. Here in Baltimore small protests continue thankfully with no rioting, burning or looting. The residents seemed to have  changed their minds and are demanding defunding the police department. Thank goodness there are still some rational people out there stating there is always room for reform, but to completely get rid of a police force is ludicrous. There is an idea that cities need more social reform with money being spent on social programs rather than police departments including more mental health services and social workers. Those services are always a good thing, but to think that social workers could replace police officers is a little crazy. I  have many social worker friends who I am sure would not want to be sent out to an active crime scene without a lot of police protection. Especially unarmed. Neither one is a terrific job. It takes a strong person to be a SW and deal with other people's issues(drugs/abuse/murder/theft and just plain crazy).  As an OT, I have also had to deal with people with the same issues during my 33 years of practice. Sadly there is no quick fix. Meanwhile, homicides continue to rise in Baltimore. The latest loss-a 23 year old pregnant mom and her toddler murdered by the unborn baby's young father.  Baltimore's Attorney General already has pushed to decrease arrests for drug use/marijuana and prostitution. Her husband just won a position on the City Council and is calling for police defunding. Should be interesting. They continue to complain about the quality of  life in Baltimore and the Baltimore school systems.  Residents feel if they made improvements in those areas, then crime would decrease. The residents continue to ask for more money for the schools. Several years ago they voted to approve building multiple casinos in the area with the revenue going to the city schools. Although the casinos are doing very well, no one can really say where and how much money was invested in the schools. And they continue to close Catholic schools in the city as well. There is a current investigation into the Baltimore School system budget while the last female mayor, Catherine Pugh is sent to Federal prison for 3 years for selling thousands of copies of children's book to the school system and Johns Hopkins Medical System that they paid for but never received. Who is watching who in Baltimore? Meanwhile, the gentleman standing in line behind me at Walmart was talking on his phone about planning a trip out to Utah to buy guns at the pawn shops since the supply in Maryland was low and more expensive. Lovely.

Still back to Corona, Maryland is easing into Phase 2 of reopening  Restaurants may now seat people inside at 50% capacity. The malls opened-limited access and social distancing. Most important, our hair salon is opening! Allison and I have appointments next week. Hallelujah!  Tom and Scott are holding off until corona is over. I will have to buy them hair scrunchies eventually. Parks are opening up their basketball courts and playing fields with limited numbers allowed. Still no organized sports, so no ultimate frisbee for Allison. Some camps are opening on a limited basis. Boy Scouts finally called it quits, but plans to allow scout families to use their campground. I wish GS camp would do the same. Instead, Allison plans on camping with some friends in July, probably in W Virginia. No large events, like the Capital Jazz Festival which is held nearby in Columbia every June. The drive in movie theater has opened and is showing 2 movies every weekend(reruns).  AMC plans to open soon with a few new movie releases(social distancing and you have to wear a mask-how do I eat my popcorn?). The Baltimore Zoo is reopening. The kids and I have reservations for a members only admission and then Allison plans on going with Gabe. And we are being allowed to meet with Mom B outside for 20 minutes, face to face in July! Masks still required and no kisses or hugs, no swapping items like pictures or cards. And no dogs allowed! Still have to drop items off at the front door for disinfecting before she can have it. I continue to pick up her laundry and drop off supplies, cards and pay her bills. Recently the facility sent a few photos of Mom B enjoying a staff mini parade in costume. They loved that Mom B followed them out in the hallway and joined in the dancing! We are party girls! Glad to see she is in good hands.

Public school has one more week to go.  Same for Scott's Summer I semester. He has been busy wrapping up the last of his Engineering statistics classes and lab, quizzes and homework until the final which is scheduled next week. The prof had a group chat on Thursday evening to discuss the final.  He also plans on continuing the class online in the Fall and wanted to know how they all felt it went. I don't think Scott minded the online portion, but he would have preferred doing more calculations using Mini Tab rather than by hand, the very long, old fashioned way before calculators and computer programs.

Even Tom has discovered that using Mini Tab for calculations and organizing data just makes more sense in his classwork. This last class he is taking turned out to be a bit more research based while writing papers. Tom discovered his prof made a technical error after Tom corrected his work using the Mini Tab program. The prof did not seem to think it was a big deal. He said most students don't catch those errors. So that's supposed to make it right? Oh boy.

We celebrated Father's Day on Sunday. I gave Scott the day off from cutting the grass since he had several assignments to work on and get ready for his final.  I tried to cut the grass on Saturday and naturally when I put on my shoes and socks it started raining. And it did not stop pouring until late at night with a few rumbles of thunder and lightning. It was nice to sit in the garage on the First Day of Summer with the door open  and watch the downpour. Cookie was with me but not excited about the rainstorm. It is very relaxing to watch the bluebirds and wrens in our yards as they stay busy feeding their babies in all the bird houses as well as my hanging flower basket. And the bluebirds can be quite aggressive and will chase down the squirrels that try to eat out of their personal bird feeder or get too close to the birdhouse. Us they don't mind so much and will sit on top of the birdhouse and watch as we come and go in and out of the garage and backyard. Sunday was better weather-only a few sprinkles. I also did some more trimming and spraying for weeds this weekend.  And when I wasn't doing yardwork, I was busy cooking. I had Friday off again since it wasn't too busy at work so I did most of my errands on that day. I planned on making Tom some hot crab dip as well as a low carb lemon meringue pie. I went to 6 different grocery stores looking for Knox gelatin for the recipe and no one had any in stock. Slowly our grocery stores have been restocking, but quite often they are low or completely out of key ingredients. I also had trouble finding broccoli and green onions. Instead, your'e forced to buy more expensive items including organic vegetables or go without, or travel to multiple stores at different times. . Or make substitutions like buying sugar free lemon jello for my Lemon Meringue Pie. It took me two days to make the low carb pie-hope it turns out. Meanwhile, Allison decided to take a tip from her Uncle Mark and made several peach pies. She wanted to share a pie with her boyfriend Gabe's family which she finally met on Saturday. And Tom decided to go Low Carb Holiday and wanted his own pie. Glad we had back up since mine was still in the fridge!  Allison took over a bottle of wine with her dessert pie for lunch at Gabe's parents' house on Saturday. Unfortunately Gabe's parents are diabetic, but they tasted Allison's pie and agreed it was delicious. Gabe is currently living in his parent's house after moving out of his apartment when his roommate decided to move. Gabe's older brother and pregnant wife are also living at the house, as well as his younger sister who they just moved back from New York. So Gabe is very excited to go house hunting for himself and that is how the family spent the rest of the day, including Allison. They were actually able to go into several houses since they are empty. Gabe wants a house closer to his work at Aberdeen which is north of Baltimore. House hunting is tough, especially when you are on your own with a more limited budget. And nothing in Maryland is cheap. Sounds like Gabe's parents gave him some good advice however on what to look for in a property.

So on Sunday we got up early since Tom wanted breakfast at the Little Market Cafe in Olde Ellicott City. He and Allison stopped in for lunch on Friday and loved it. Allison had to go into work and pack up her desk, getting ready for her new rotation in August. She will be moving into the big building where Tom currently has his office. For now she just brought everything home and Tom helped carry all her computer monitors and desk stuff out to the car. So they stopped into the Cafe for sandwiches. Seating is outside and you order at the half door. This was one of the restaurants featured on Gordon Ramsey's recent visit in February. Both Allison and Tom agreed that the sandwiches were delicious and wanted to try the breakfast menu. We all ordered bagel sandwiches on Sunday and ate outside at one of the tables placed around the patio. We arrived when they first opened and could not believe how busy they were getting after an hour. And quite a few people brought their dogs. I guess dogs are allowed but we had decided to leave Cookie at home. There is a little bit of seating inside, but it is very cramped, so mostly it is an outdoor cafe. They even built a fire pit and at night they will light it and sell s'mores kits to make and eat right there. After breakfast we decided to stroll the street since it was mostly empty and shops did not open up until noon. Plus a few restaurants were getting ready to open at that time as well and putting up tents and tables in the larger parking lots to accommodate spaced seating for meals. It was a nice way to kick off the day. When we got home, I got busy on the lawn while Tom and Scott hit the computers doing homework. Allison went on a hike with her girlfriends during the afternoon to our local State Park-busy as usual. Scott had an opportunity to visit with a few of his high school friends-enjoying a picnic, watching movies at a friend's house and also hiking. When he isn't visiting in person, he is usually spending time playing games on the computer with friends while at home, or working on computer drawings for a video game he has been helping to develop over the past year. He really hasn't had much free time since he has been so busy with the statistics class crammed into 2 months. He is looking forward to finishing
next week with the final.

We finished off the day with some gifts for Tom including a new Hawaiian shirt, some low carb snacks and new cast iron fry pans since he loves Allison's pan and she will be taking it with her when she moves out! So Tom needed a replacement.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Father's Day(as best as it can be right now!)