October 1-October 11  Week 29-Week 30! That's a lot of PPE!

     This month got off to quite a rough start. In July, my rehab facility sold the therapy department to a contract company. We learned at the beginning of October that the current company, Rehabcare, has sold out to a new company called Select Rehab. So starting in January I will have another, new management company. This is why I never took a job with a contract company. They sell off faster than mortgage companies. And just when we thought Rehabcare was the worst, we found that the new company, Select is even more crappy! No paid vacations, no paid continuing education. I am starting to take a look at other options out there, but this is not exactly the best time to go job searching. Not a lot of good choices right now. And it makes it worse with COVID. Not sure how good other facilities are following precautions. 

Meanwhile, our facility has been very busy. The administration is bringing in lots of rehab patients, from all over Maryland(and not the best rehab candidates) with less staff. So far I have been working overtime and 6 days/week. They want to make up for lost revenue from March when the virus broke out and our facility stopped bringing in patients. We also have to be more flexible with work schedules. Our OT assistant has to take off work once a week to stay home with her step kids since they are not at school. So she has been working every Saturday, but she cannot complete evaluations. So I have been taking turns with the other OT to cover extra work on Saturdays.  At least we have not had any positive COVID outbreaks among staff or patients/residents. And now the CDC has dropped weekly COVID testing to 1x/month. I am still off the list of those to be tested until Nov 1 since I supposedly tested positive back in July. They decided we no longer need to wear the N 95 masks(which is kinda nice since they are very constricting and hot). We just switch out regular hospital masks when we enter the isolation unit. 

Maryland is still on Phase 3 COVID recovery. The MD governor made an announcement that Nursing Homes would be opening up for visitors, but that was not accurate. It only meant that restricted visits would go inside rather than outside since the weather is changing. Everyone thought they could all go running back inside the facilities to visit their family members on the rehab units and in their apartments. Not so. They still have to make appointments, sit six feet apart with masks and a plastic shield between everyone. And only 2 people allowed at at time per visit. And no passing things back and forth. Same thing at my mom's facility. At least the beauty salon opened in her building and she got a perm.  

We still have to place patients on a 14 day isolation when they come in from the hospital. That has made a lot of people angry. But better safe than sorry. We have had to explain that we are still in a pandemic to quite a few patients and their family members! All their clothes need rewashed and belongings sprayed with Lysol or wiped down before coming into the facility. We are allowed to bring in one patient at a time to the rehab gym for treatment if they are off the isolation unit. They have to wash their hands before and after and wear masks and everything they touch needs wiped down. Thank goodness we now have a very nice tech who is helping out with all the disinfecting. We still have to wash all our equipment that we take down to the rooms also. And that takes time too. 

So I am tired now! I don't have as much free time at home to get projects done or run errands. Instead I have to pack in as much as I can when I am not working. Like yard work. I spent the past two weekends readying a few areas of the lawn to spread grass seed, along with a few more trips to Home Depot for more seed and dirt. I am so happy to see baby grass growing! At least we have had weather in the 70s and sunny with just a bit of rain-great for growing grass. I am also trying to climb up into our garage attic to bring down some Halloween and Fall decorations. Don't think I will go all out since I don't think we will be participating in Trick or Treating. And I don't have Scott home to help me. Halloween started early this year-back in September. All the Halloween and Fall decorations were out back in September at all the stores, including lots of candy! I have been busy packing up Halloween and Fall goody boxes for Scott at school and shipping them out. He had fun decorating his dorm room too. Besides starting to get out the decorations, I have been busy trying to plant the last of my Fall flowers. Such a nice time of the year. Our leaves are just starting to turn colors, but also fall from the trees. So I have started bagging(let the fun begin!). I also stopped into my mom's storage unit to pick up her fall and Halloween decorations and dropped them at her place. I think it helps with orientation to see the change in seasons. Our neighborhood as also been busy putting up Halloween decorations. Cookie is not thrilled with the decorations-she is especially fearful of a big, crouching light up cat that turns its head back and forth. And there is more than one in the neighborhood! Cookie will actually walk up on the lawn to bark at those big cats! Such a brave dog. 

October also saw the start of taxing our County residents for every plastic bag they use by a nickel. When you check yourself at the grocery store, it asks how many plastic bags do you have. I collected all my cloth bags and have been using those at the check out, but it sure slows things down. I like Allison's idea of just putting things back in the cart and bagging them at the car. Then I don't feel like I have to rush, or put everything in a bag. They even charge for the plastic bags over the dry cleaning. Maybe not a great time to start being environmentally sound-more expensive for residents to do the right thing. Especially for those out of work. And they weren't sure about spreading COVID with use of personal bags. I also find I need to launder my bags since some things tend to leak, like meat. I usually try to find the plastic bags at the store to put the meat in to keep it from getting in the cloth bags. Good thing I have all this extra time in my life for these new procedures. And the paper bags some stores offer also charge a tax.  Not just plastic. They have also banned styrofoam take out containers which has been a burden on some of the small restaurants since the substitute packaging costs more and there is a lot more take out these days. 

I have been keeping up with a few Girl Scout events on Zoom. We had an initial meeting to discuss our annual Camporee that was cancelled in May. We met to discuss the possibility of hosting the event next year. At least most of our planning is already done. We mostly talked about changes if we are still following social distancing, cleaning procedures, etc. And it may turn out to be a one day event if we are still not allowed overnights. And it was fun seeing Allison, even if it was only o a Zoom meeting! I did skip the Zoom Girl Scout choir practice however since I was busy watching the Ravens play. And I really don't enjoy meeting on Zoom. At least I am slowly getting the hang of the Zoom system. (kinda). 

We had Allison over to watch a football game on a Sunday afternoon and she stayed for dinner before heading home to play D and D online. It has been pretty crazy trying to keep up with all the sports. The NBA finished with the Lakers taking the championship. Los Angeles responded by having happy riots. Now we have the NFL to follow, although they have had constant changes in their schedules due to players testing positive for COVID. The fluctuating schedules make it more difficult for Tom and neighbor Dan to get together each week to watch a game consistently. So far, only the southern states have college football.  And baseball is winding down, getting closer to the World Series. Maryland ran the Preakness horse race on Oct 3rd with no one in the stands except horse owners. Swiss Skydiver won-a filly which is unusual. And they decided the Maryland state song(Maryland, My Maryland) sung to the tune of Oh Christmas Tree/O Tannenbaum was too racist, so they did not sing it or play it. They have used the song for the opening of the event since 1909. It actually was written as a poem to support the south during the Civil War. It picks on the Northerners referring to those states as "Northern Scum" and refers to Lincoln as a tyrant. So I guess it is a bit outdated. And yes, Maryland is the northern most southern state. Apparently no one could come up with a better tune or lyrics.   Instead they decided to play "Knock, Knock, Knocking on Heaven's Door" in honor of Baltimore. Which I guess hits home since the city has seen about 232 murders so far. Looks like they also stopped singing the lyrics to "My Old Kentucky Home" at the Kentucky Derby too. And we all know what happens during the National Anthem, not only during the NFL, but other sporting events. I think they should stop playing the songs altogether. When and why did sports become so political? Maybe when it became big money. I did take advantage of a Sunday afternoon Ravens game and made a hair appointment for a cut and highlights. I knew I would have to be at the salon longer and this way I had the whole place to myself!

Allison has been staying very busy, not only with her new position at work. She seems a bit frustrated with this new  rotation though since she is not familiar with the job duties. And the last intern did not do a great job orienting her to the work. So she is trying to figure it out herself which is not easy. And when she is not working, she is working out at the apartment gym or is entertaining a few friends at her apartment. A small group even started getting together for Dungeons and Dragons rather just online. She also has been spending time with Gabe, going on hikes and visiting him at his new house. They even traveled to New Jersey for a weekend visit with some of Gabe's friends for a small Octoberfest of their own. Allison even won the beer stein holding contest amongst the girls! (Must be her German bloodline!). Gabe enjoyed drinking the beer!

We keep tabs on Scott mostly through Skype. He seems to have finally fell into a routine with his online classwork and in person labs. Still a bit rocky however. He had one in person class that had to switch to online when a student tested positive for COVID. His in person labs are a bit skimpy-plastics lab mostly has them watch videos of experiments and write lab reports. He actually seems to be really enjoying his machining lab since he actually gets to make something! He even learned how to use a lathe to make the threads for large metal screws, however he was a bit behind since he could not locate the class during the first week, and he had overlapping classes then as well which he had to drop because the school started switching classes from in person to online.  I would say he spent most of this semester learning how to be flexible. I am sure every kid in America feels the same way. And even cheated out of a quality education. Learning online is just not the same as in person. Although Scott says he is also enjoying his Plastics class and actually feels like he is learning something new and interesting. Not the same for Quality Assurance class.  Here in Maryland most of the county schools remain online. Some counties are talking about starting up in person learning in the next few months. Seems silly to start deep in the flu season. Our county is not even considering hybrid or in person classes  until Feb 2021.  Same with school sports. 

The month of October also started off on a very sad note. On the first Sunday of the month, there was a knock on our door early in the morning. Our next door neighbor was in distress. They had just heard that their 47 year old daughter died suddenly at home in South Carolina. Married mother of 4 teenagers. She had been complaining of headaches and her family heard her pass out in the bathroom, called 911 and she was gone. So very sad. Paul and Phyllis are  older parents in their late 70s. Their eldest daughter was with them as they quickly packed the car to head down to Sherrie's house. Our neighbor's son Darrel, (our age) who lives with them had already left the day before to travel to SC. Paul was just asking if we could check the mail for them. Of course Tom and I were happy to keep an eye on their place as they did not know when they would be returning. Tom also cut their grass a few times and we put out their trash cans. The least we could do.  

Then I received an email from eldest cousin, Lisa Bozyk Parmentier in Michigan. She was asking for information on the Estate Sales company I used when I traveled to West Bloomfield to sell off Mom and Dad B's houses and belongings. I had not heard from my cousin Lisa since the beginning of summer. She was always posting on Facebook and then nothing-I was unfriended. She said her account was hacked and she dropped Facebook. She sent me a message but I guess it never went through. Turns out my Uncle Jim Bozyk, my Dad's younger brother, has dementia. They were looking for someone to help sell off their lake house belongings. I was confused about the status of his wife, my Aunt Mary. Turns out she passed away this July from a heart condition. I was shocked since I did not hear anything from the family. No written announcement, no obituary in the paper even. I guess my Aunt said she did not want any special services. And of my three cousins, the eldest and youngest are not speaking to the middle child, Marcia. She was living in the Lake Tipsico house, trying to care for my Uncle Jim. But Lisa, the eldest, decided he needed more care than Marcia could provide. So Marcia had to move out of the house and I assume is currently not working. Lisa was not even sure where Marcia moved to at this time-maybe her son's house. Sadly Lisa also said they will have to sell the Tipsico lake house because no one in the family can afford to keep up the cost. The property has been in the Bozyk household for over 65 years. My Aunt Mary and Uncle Jim took over the property from my Grandparents Bozyk when they passed and they built a new, modern house on the property. Very sad. I sent the girls some flowers in honor of my Aunt and now I need to send some flowers to our neighbors. 

A very sad start to October.