April 12-April 30, 2021

  Wrapping up the end of the month. 

The week started off with Scott's appointment for his COVID vaccine. Maryland opened up vaccinations to everyone over 16 years old and was planning on opening new mass vaccination sites. Scott was signed up on the Maryland COVID website to travel to the civic center on the eastern shore in Salisbury for a drive through vaccine.   He would then return in May for his second shot. He was trying to schedule the appointment in between attending classes online, and Tom was going to go with him. Maryland is planning on adding more mass vaccination sites, but the only two open for general appointments was in Salisbury and Hagerstown. And the Hagerstown location filled up fast for online appointments. Before his scheduled appointment though he was contacted by our medical office with an announcement of available vaccine appointments. We decided to have him cancel the Salisbury appointment since it is about a 2.5 hr drive and instead we had him make an appointment with Kaiser here near the house. He was able to make a Monday afternoon appointment and Tom went with him. We did not know what type of vaccine he was going to receive-when he made the appointment Kaiser did not tell him. Don't think he asked either, but Scott was not really concerned about which vaccine he was getting. Turns out it was the Johnson and Johnson. Wouldn't you know they put that vaccine on hold the very next day as a few women(6-8) experienced blood clots with one death soon after receiving this vaccine. I was a bit upset that Kaiser did not pull that vaccine sooner or at least make mention of the concern. I have to believe Kaiser knew there were questions surrounding this vaccine by the time Scott got his vaccine Not sure if they had the other types on hand. Regardless, Scott got the J and J vaccine and I have been keeping an eye on him over the past several weeks for any symptoms mentioned with blood clots, the worst being a stroke. Fortunately he is not a woman, so that seems to drop the risk quite a bit! He was feeling fine Monday evening after his shot and woke up in the middle of the night with chills and eventually a fever. On Tuesday he got out of bed with a fever, swollen arm and body aches. I had told him to take Tylenol the night before, but he was feeling fine when he went to bed so he skipped it. On Tuesday he was taking Tylenol to bring down his fever and help with the swelling,  aches and pains. I was actually glad that he was at home with the vaccine. Western Michigan had just started giving out vaccines to the students after Spring Break. I would have hated to know he was feeling bad and stuck in his dorm room by himself. The J and J is  one shot only and seems to have quite a kick. It still takes two weeks for him to be considered fully vaccinated. 

 We decided to make a quick trip down to Williamsburg and visit Busch Gardens the following weekend since Scott had a brief break in his classes before finals. Busch Gardens still requires reservations for set times to visit and I was able to get us in on Friday evening. Tom decided we should take Cookie since we have asked our friends to take care of her quite a bit recently. He found a hotel that allowed dogs and I also made a kennel reservation for Cookie at the park. Tom and Allison had Friday off work and so did I. We left in the morning and arrived at our admission time at 3pm. Traffic was not horrible but we did take advantage of the paid EZ pass lanes around DC. There is definitely more traffic on the roads these days, and gas prices have quickly been rising with gas as much as $2.80/gal. Signs of post COVID days. We dropped Cookie off at the kennel and headed into the park(after we all walked through the temperature scanner-even Cookie!). They finally opened the whole park and it seems they were allowing more people in-still with masks. Our neighbors Dan and Gloria also decided to join us for the weekend. Busch was hosting their Wine and Food festival-lots of tasty treats located throughout the park. We bought a punch card for tasting-a little bit better deal and it includes wine and beer tasting. Although the staff seemed to have a hard time with it, punching extra spots and we lost a tasting. (inexperienced employees). Scott enjoyed the coasters while we sampled the food and a few drinks. They even had a bit of entertainment-outside and in, singing and music with covers over the  wind instruments. Tom and Scott especially enjoyed tasting a Virginia Stout beer. And Tom, Gloria and Dan tried a whiskey sampling complete with take home whiskey glasses. Allison bought some Dragon earrings from our favorite in park jeweler and  even Gloria found a earlobe clip on she liked. We also noted our in park artist Carolee was busy at work painting in her studio. Perhaps on our next visit their newest coaster, The Pantheon, will be open. It's supposed to be the worlds fastest multi launch coaster. Although we are still not sure about our membership status. Several years ago the new park owners(no longer Anheuser Busch) dropped further sales of our platinum passes that we have had for about 24 years. They switched to Memberships and of course, more expensive. So it's not as easy to figure out our benefits(like free parking, discounts on food and store items in the park). We found out the hard way that we have to pay full price for their  Christmas Town event. And the park prices skyrocketed(for less rides, less shows and less hours). And yet people still come. Like us, but we are not paying as much as everyone else. For now. We were also saddened to hear that their biggest spokesperson for their conservation efforts, 74 year old Jack Hanna, was diagnosed with Alzheimers dementia and is no longer able to make presentations. Glad we had the time to enjoy a few visits from him at the park being Pass Members along with many of his favorite animals. Besides being the spokesperson for the park system, he was also the director of the Columbus Ohio zoo, sponsoring his weekly Saturday morning shows-Into the Wild, Animal Adventures and Wild Countdown. He also made many appearances on late night tv shows like David Letterman with some crazy animal guests. We enjoyed listening to his  travel stories during his live presentations at the park. Another loss for Busch Gardens. 

Turns out Scott did not get much of a break during the following week after returning home from our quick weekend. His professors decided to set up computer time for finals review and had some last minute presenters. His Sustainability prof announced she is retiring. He also had some last minute assignments and quizzes before his official finals week began. As I mentioned before, I did not realize he had signed up for 5 courses this semester. He was rather disappointed in his final grade for his metal casting experiment(the one he had to Fed Ex to the prof). Especially since he had to complete the project here at home. He received a C+/B- and he is not sure why, but he'll take it. Better than sitting through a written final which he worried would be a whole lot more difficult.   Turns out his finals were spread out over a week and a half. He had a two page paper for his Sustainability class, talking about the process of manufacturing a product utilizing sustainable materials and processes. The rest of his classes involved formal timed tests during the week at the end of April including Operations, Leadership and Cost Analysis. He celebrated the end of his very long semester with a celebratory beer at Guinness Brewery with Tom and Tom's tech. 

Allison and I continue to meet online for a possible GS camping weekend event scheduled for the first weekend in May. Looks like we have a green light for our event, so Allison and I had to hurry and prepare, even though we have had two years to plan. Still it was all last minute. We were not sure if we could still gather in larger groups, as well as host an overnight activity. And during our last meeting we only had 16 girls registered. But GS council approved the event, following COVID guidelines, so 45 girls registered. We usually have 100-200 participants so this was going to be a bit more easy going. A good way to ease back into life! Allison was teaching archery so we decorated a big cardboard box like a dragon for a target to match our Medieval Times theme.  Her GS camp name is Dragon, so she packed up all her dragon costumes and jewelry for the event, besides designing the iron on patch for our staff tshirts. Although they asked her at the last minute to finalize the design with color which she could have done months before if anyone had asked. I was running a Scout's Own event on Sunday morning(usually a time set aside instead of going to church to reflect on the event and give thanks). I tied in information on the rituals followed during the medieval times in which they honored nature and the environment with songs and chants and drum circles. I bought a bunch of noise makers for the girls and made myself a homemade drum. Looks like we were going to be allowed to sing with our masks in place, so I added a few songs about the earth. We also packed up our camping equipment for the event but Allison did not feel comfortable sleeping inside a large hall with all the staff removing their masks. She considered tenting alone, but the weather was supposed to be stormy and we wanted a good nights sleep to be ready for our event. Scott recommended we pitch the tent inside the building, which we did and then placed our air mattresses. Good idea! Especially since we forgot the tent fly(cover) and it was incredibly windy that night. Although we did not get a very good night's rest after all. Some genius installed motion detector light switches that would not turn off! We had florescent lights shining in our faces all night long. I managed to sleep with a blanket over my head. Allison was not as successful(and her air mattress leaked!). And we were rather tired even though we both had Friday off to travel up to camp. We were stuck in traffic for several hours due to multiple accidents on the Baltimore beltway. Usually it takes about 1.5 hrs to drive to GS camp. At least I had most everything packed up the night before. And we did not have to cook, but picked up dinner on the way for Friday night. 

Besides making last minute preparations for the camping event, I was struggling with our washing machine. It was washing the clothes, but would not spin and drain. I had to wring out the clothes and hang them up to dry so I was doing small loads. Our washer is about 10 years old and I think I got another year out of it on top of last year since I was washing clothes every day during COVID, especially my uniform. Tom decided to try and fix our Maytag with replacement parts for the ball bearings in the drum. He ordered parts on line and worked on the machine while Allison and I were off camping. Meanwhile, I sent some clothes over to Allison's for washing at her apartment via Scott. Just in case the repairs did not work, we took a quick look at washers at Home Depot. Last time we bought a washer, there were not very many styles to choose from, and they had all got rid of the agitator pole with promises of energy efficiency and low water use. And clothing not as clean. Now they decided to bring the agitator pole back in half of the models with all sorts of extra features. Now I am really confused.  

In the meantime, I keep trying to make reservations for the swim aerobics classes at the Y as well as acupuncture appointments to keep me going in between work. I am still only scheduled for 3 days/wk which works out well for me, and every other Saturday. I never know how much work I will have each day, especially on Saturdays. We therapists are responsible for all the paperwork, so sometimes it is very busy and other times not so much. The last Saturday I went in I worked a 12 hr shift. That was a very long day. At least we get a free lunch. We still cannot bring our patients to the gym and anyone that was in the hospital has to stay quarantined for 2 weeks. And we staff cannot move between the buildings treating patients on the same day. At least we are back to getting tested once a week. We just keep on having at least one positive COVID case every  week-usually staff members. I also use my extra time off to take advantage of the free online classes provided by our contract company. They won't pay for us to go to classes, but they have an online library of certified courses so we can keep up with our licensure requirements. 

 I also stay busy with yard work on the nice days-getting the flower beds ready for mulching as everything has been busy growing and blooming. The pollen was crazy ridiculous down in Virginia. A thick layer of yellow pollen coated everything, and our allergy sufferers in the family were not having fun. Although all the blooming flowers on the trees and bushes are quite beautiful. It's surprising what a difference in the weather and the climate just 3 hours south of us. 

I also try to schedule a visit with my mom each week. Her facility has stayed COVID free for quite some time now. Still no visitors allowed inside. Instead, we can now meet inside and hug-still need 6 feet apart with  masks and temperature checks even with we are both vaccinated. But don't have to show a negative COVID test now-even though I get COVID tested each week at work. And still just a 20 min visit. But it's good for mom to see my face I am sure!