November 1-November 8, Quote of the Week, MD Governor Hogan "Wear the Damn Mask"!

Looks like the number of Covid cases increased this week in Maryland. Not sure exactly why, but we had more cases pop up in my nursing home too. Mostly nursing staff, but we have 3 residents that tested positive. Last week I had to evaluate and treat one of our COVID patients. She wasn't doing very well, and was transported to the hospital, but returned to us since she did not have pneumonia. They started testing again a few weeks ago every Monday. It had been down to only 1x/month with limited number of COVID in the state, but has since been bumped again. I have been tested twice so far after being off testing for 90 days due to my previous positive test results and both times negative, but I was starting to feel bad. I had an upset stomach and stuffy head, no fever. By the middle of the week I was feeling bad enough to ask to go home. As soon as that happens, you have to stay home for 3 days after the last of your symptoms. So I went home on Weds and have been out of work since then. I still don't feel terrific, but was well enough to get some house and yardwork done. The best thing to do when you are home from work is to Christmas shop online! I got a bit of a start. I also took advantage of stopping into the local Hallmark store since I had some coupons and November was the start of their Holiday Open House. Guess I should have started shopping back in July though since a few items I was looking at were sold out. Or they did not receive some items at all because of shipping issues with COVID. I did have a good time Christmas shopping though even if I was feeling too well. 

I needed some enjoyable activities this week to take my mind off the elections. Just as the country seems divided over Trump vs Biden for President, so was our household. I've decided to stop watching the news stations and talk shows-too stressful. But that doesn't leave much on tv. Especially when you are home stuck on the couch feeling sick. (hence the online Christmas shopping). And now my evening tv is depressing since Alex Trebek from Jeopardy recently died from pancreatic cancer. How sad. Amazingly Alex was able to work up until 10 days before he passed away and taped enough shows to get to the end of this year after a 36 year run as host. It will be interesting to see who takes his place. So when you are home sick and flipping through the tv channels, most of the choices of daytime shows (besides talk shows, home improvement or cooking classes)include court cases such as The People's Court, Judge Judy, and Judge Mathis to name a few. I actually enjoy listening to all the different cases and the rulings. Now with COVID,  it is interesting to see how some of these shows have adjusted to new taping with online/zoom participation and lots of plastic shields as well as smaller or no audiences. I also continue to enjoy catching up with movies including "Roman Holiday" and I started the scary movie series "Insidious". And Tom and I caught another new episode of Disney's "Mandalorian". But as I mentioned, when I was feeling a bit better I got up off the couch and was busy with projects around the house.

It rained last Sunday so I couldn't get all the Halloween decorations put away from outside. Or rake leaves and trim bushes. On Monday we had a very strong wind storm. I was quite surprised to see a large branch down in our backyard off our Cleveland Pear trees when I got up in the morning. I was especially surprised I didn't hear the branch break since it was just behind the bedroom window. The funny thing is I deliberately planted those trees as they are supposed to be sturdier and less likely to break or crack in strong winds. Guess the tree didn't get the memo! Tom was very happy to spend the day cutting up the large branch with the chainsaw and cutting the grass. Since he was able to work from home it gave him extra time during the day to cut up the branch. Now that we have less daylight after turning the clocks back on Halloween night, it is even harder to get things done outside. At least it is sunny in the morning going to work but usually getting dark when returning home by 5:30. It also makes it tougher to take Cookie for walks. I was actually happy that my rehab department decided to rehire one of our OT assistants. She started back to work on the day I went home sick which was convenient. Other staff are worried she will take work away from them, but I am happy about it. I am tired of working 7-9 hr days, 5-6 days a week. Another reason I think I got sick. Besides having to work with all the layers of PPE -either sweating or freezing, and with the change in weather, getting much colder and a bit rainy.  That's why it was so tempting to get outside this past weekend as the weather warmed to the low 70s and it was just so beautiful. It was hard not to go outside. I was also happy to spend less time working with our COVID patient while staying home! 

And since it was so beautiful outside, I got to work on our leaf piles. We usually get a ton of leaves piled up right in front of our big garage door. Makes it hard to pull the trash cans in and out without leaves falling into the garage. I am so happy to have my Toro leaf vacuum to get an early start on cleaning up the leaves this year. I was busy sucking up all the leaves by the garage door, the front door and in the flower beds before I started shoveling up all the leaves in the street. Tom's version of cleaning up leaves is to mow them all up when he cuts the grass, but that usually just leaves big piles of chopped up leaves that kill the grass(we have this conversation every year). He is not one to spend time bagging leaves. So I usually end up doing all the bagging. I feel like it is such a futile attempt however as the leaves just keep on falling while I am busy shoveling! Even though the colors are so beautiful, I felt like the trees were just mocking me! And I say shovel because I found it is much easier to sweep leaves into our snow shovel if they are in the street and put them in recycle bags for weekly pick up. It just takes time though since we have such a long curb in front of our house. Just don't want the leaves clogging up the storm drains. I remember as a kid growing up in Detroit, everyone used to rake their leaves into the streets and then burn them. Not today. 

So I made some headway on the yardwork over the weekend, as well as gathering up all the last of the Halloween decorations and by Sunday I stopped to take a break when we dropped in on our neighbors to watch the Ravens vs Colts football game. Allison joined us after coming over early to walk Cookie for me. She also took up most of my Halloween decorations into the attic(my hip does not enjoy climbing up and down the attic ladder too often). Then we all headed over to watch the game and enjoy some snacks. Our neighbors had lots of leftover munchies and dessert since they hosted a dinner for the retiring co worker from the FDA who Dan bought the cow painting for at Busch Gardens. (she liked it!) We were happy to help them clean up some of their goodies while enjoying the Ravens win over the Colts. A much more enjoyable football game then last weekends disappointing loss to the Steelers as well as the horrible games played by both MSU and Uof M on Saturday. On the other hand, Uof Maryland seems to be having a very good year(so far). And they are part of the BIG 10. Sadly I am missing out on attending any games at Maryland with my brother Dan and family this year with COVID. And Dan and wife Sheila are still in Houston as he has not yet been asked to return to Pittsburgh for work. 

Allison enjoyed her beautiful weekend on a hike with boyfriend Gabe on Saturday. Not sure how much more of this warm weather we can expect. Tom and Allison have been meeting for lunch on Fridays during work hours. They invited me along since I was at home for Chinese food. I thought the won ton soup would do me some good, but unfortunately the place they picked had no indoor or outdoor dining. Carry out only. And Allison really did not want Tom and I in her place since she tries to keep down the visitors with her D and D group meeting there once a week, but she made an exception for Tom since he was feeling fine. Allison and her group have been trying to be careful since they already had to put the in person gathering on hold as one of their group members tested positive for COVID.. 

I also spent time at home on my sick day packing up one more care package for Scott. I wasn't going to bother since he will be coming home in two weeks. But I couldn't help myself. He also took down all his Halloween decorations. At this time he would probably be decorating the dorm room for Christmas. Seems everyone skips over Thanksgiving. Especially now with COVID-all the Christmas decorations have been up in the stores with Christmas shows and music out on tv and the radio. I even spotted some neighbors putting up their outdoor Christmas lights. Although with the wonderful weather, who can blame them. We are waiting for Scott to return home on the 20th of November so he can put up all our Christmas decorations. He won't be done with school however. He will finish his term online from home up to Dec 18th. Right now he is busy cramming in last minute projects and labs before leaving campus. And the profs keep adding in more work, including group projects. Tom plans on flying up to Grand Rapids on the 19th of Nov and then the two will drive home in Scott's Jeep. Scott needs to bring home his computer system to finish his classes as well as most of his clothes. He will lock up his dorm room until he returns for the Spring semester on January 11th. Right now he is looking at signing up for those classes. He has also sent out some resumes for summer internships, but there is not a whole lot of listings available at this time. He wasn't even able to tour a local plastic manufacturing company as a class assignment due to the COVID restrictions. It looks like most companies have put internships on hold until they see how next year turns out. 

I was even checking out the job listings for OTs since our current rehab department just reported they will be switching to the new management team come Dec 1st rather than Jan 1. The current management company also tried to stop their reimbursement for continuing education which we were supposed to get after 1 month of employment. I am hoping to get reimbursed for a cognitive test kit I just purchased. And the new company offers so much less than this contract company as far as benefits. I guess the only good thing is that we will all still have our jobs. Especially since there are not a lot of  other job postings at this time. So many facilities have had to cut back on staff or close their services due to COVID. And facilities like ours don't want substitute part time staff coming into their buildings for fear of spreading COVID. It can also be too hard to keep up with the cleaning of equipment and following PPE guidelines while working with patients. Our facility was just able to start bringing 1 patient into the rehab gym at a time if they were off the two week quarantine period, but we had to stop when COVID popped up in the building. They also stopped in -person family meetings in our facility as well as my mom's, so I was not able to schedule an appointment with her as they have moved inside due to the change in weather. They also had to put a hold on  Activities and eating in the dining room even though the residents were spaced apart. So I just keep dropping off small care packages to my mom, along with a written card to keep her up to date(for the moment).