May 17th-May 31st, 2021

  Hope you all had a Happy Memorial Day weekend! Can't believe that May is over as we slip into June. And supposedly we reached the unofficial start of summer and it seems the end of COVID as well.  Hard to tell by our weather over Memorial Day weekend that we are slipping into summer. Temperatmps like summer at 97 degrees! Of course while we were trying to get some yardwork done. 

I planned on celebrating Memorial Day weekend with the neighbors, some we have not seen much of since the start of COVID last March 2020. And just like the cicadas have been emerging from the ground, so too have Marylanders coming out of their houses after our Governor dropped the mandatory mask law. Maryland's COVID positivity rate dropped to 1.5% and hospitalizations are way down. Some businesses have dropped the mandatory mask laws, like Costco, Starbucks and Walmart. I discovered that people here in Maryland have become so comfortable with their masks, they are having a hard time giving them up! I am more than happy to not wear my mask when shopping. Since I have to wear a mask still at the nursing home, I find it liberating to be able to go shopping without remembering to don my mask. I found I was pretty much the only customer in Costco and Walmart, as well as in the grocery stores not wearing a mask. So far no one has said anything to me, although I think I got a few sideways glances. I also noticed that the mandatory mask wearing signs were a lot more prominent and plastered all over the entrances to most stores, but the "You don't have to wear a mask if you're vaccinated " signs are much smaller and difficult to find. I had to ask a Costco employee that was not wearing a mask if we could go maskless while shopping. He assured me that if I was vaccinated, I was welcome to remove my mask. I finally saw a small sign about it at the service desk when I was returning a few items. So the whole getting over Covid and returning to "normal" is very confusing.  And even people I have talked to that are vaccinated still don't want to remove their masks. Which is interesting since they have been saying that masks are used to protect you from giving someone else the COVID virus, not keeping you from getting it. Still don't think people understand the whole mask thing. 

Tom and I decided to have the neighbors over for a BBQ. We thought it would be nice to sit out on our patio for dinner, especially if everyone is still worried about spreading COVID to each other. So the weekend before the holiday, Tom spent two days pulling everything off the deck and power washing it. He then spent a day repainting the deck. I had already trimmed all the bushes around the deck. And I bought a new outdoor rug to go under our patio table. I also planted some new flowers in our deck planters. I even found a batch of herbs and planted those on a new deck planter including rosemary, thyme and basil as well as cilantro to go along with a big batch of jalapeno pepper plants. I had purchased some of the veggies at Home Depot, but they did not have a big selection this year and what they did have went fast. I found a big patio tomato plant and  Scott put it in his elevated planter and built a net frame around it to keep out the deer and squirrels. Yeah! Maybe I will get some tomatoes this year! It helps to know someone at Home Depot.       

Scott started his new job at Home Depot when he returned from Arizona/Nevada with Tom. He spent a week in orientation-mostly watching safety videos. He was rather surprised to hear that Home Depot recommends their staff look up information on their phones. They even have their own app to locate items in the store rather than actually teach the staff any new skills or information. Apparently they have one person per department that actually knows info and the rest just look stuff up. Primarily Scott was hired as a cashier, so his second week focused on training to ring stuff up. He was recently placed on the register in the garden center. Not a surprise since that area seems to be the busiest. So far he seems to enjoy the experience. And he has decent hours, mostly 4-8 hrs per day and M-F. Plus he is able to take time off for our family vacation the first week of June. I even had to pick him up a few polo shirts for his work shifts since they really don't have a uniform except for the orange apron. He also spent some time socializing with his new manager. A guy about Allison's age who plans on staying with Home Depot for a permanent managerial position. He also attended a local high school and was active in boy scouts. But he does not drive, so he asked Scott to take him home one afternoon when they both got off work and went out for dinner and a beer. Scott has also met him at our local mall to hang out and have dinner. Kinda nice to meet some new people-Home Depot seems to have hired quite a bunch of new staff. Seems like pretty much all the businesses around our house are looking for worker bees. Just couldn't get an engineering internship. At this point, Scott would be happy to even volunteer some free time with a company but internships seem to be very limited. Tom said they are not taking any interns at Northrop this summer. 

He has started back to his office more frequently and noticed it is getting a bit busier with other staff coming back to work. Allison wrapped up her last Northrop rotation before Memorial Day weekend and started back to work in her new department. She had to try on all her work clothes and pack up her computer system. She has been busy learning a whole new job involving contracts. At least this department is a bit more relaxed. They were not too worried to hear she was going on vacation with us starting in June. She decided to visit her librarian friend, Jen and her fiance Tyler at their new house in Salisbury. Jen and Tyler invited over another couple for a housewarming party. Allison put together a collection of fun household items as a gift and headed out early on Friday morning to beat the beach crowd. They had time to visit the Salisbury zoo and drop by campus and the bookstore, as well as enjoy spending time at the new house as this was the first time Allison got to see it. She hopes to go back for a visit with her boyfriend Gabe. He has been traveling quite a bit lately-fishing in South Carolina with friends as well as a trip to Portugal with his family to spend time with his elderly grandparents. Allison made it back on Sunday afternoon in time for her Dungeon and Dragons group. 

Meanwhile, we had two couples over for a baby back rib dinner Sunday afternoon with corn on the cob, beans, potato salad and a green salad. I also made some black bottom cupcakes(chocolate cupcake base with cream cheese filling). Scott was also home to enjoy dinner with us. We both ended up working on Saturday as well as Monday, Memorial Day. It was nice to catch up with our friends. Gloria is recuperating from a total shoulder replacement with her arm in a sling. She plans to have the other shoulder done after this one heals. And she just started her therapy at home. I thought we might need to take our friend Beth to the hospital as she tripped on our steps coming into the house while holding the large bowl of potato salad in one arm and her cavachon dog Ripley on the leash in the other. Ripley was so excited to see all of us, she pulled Beth right to the floor! Fortunately she was surrounded by two medical people and we patched her up with a bandaid and ice pack to her wrist. Glad to hear it wasn't broken! We also stopped in for drinks, snacks and dessert with Gloria and Dan during the week at their house before heading out on vacation. Beth and Barry will be watching Cookie and Allison's fish and Dan and Gloria volunteered to water our outdoor plants. 

I just put in a bunch of new flowers and veggies including a tomato plant. Scott built a very nice netting cage to keep out the deer and squirrels. I also put in some herbs that I bought from Costco, but plants also seem to be limited this year. There are a few items I like to plant every year that just weren't available. I ask Scott to keep an eye out for me for a few things like cilantro at Home Depot. I bought a small one but something already ate it. And we have had a bit of warmer days that set off our cicada population. They have been crawling up out of the ground as nymphs and looking for trees to climb after their metamorphosis into big flying bugs with red eyes and a very loud mating buzz. We are ground zero for the Brood X 17 year cicada boom here in Maryland. They love all our big, old trees. Even when the trees have been cut down, the cicadas that were waiting underground at the tree's roots still emerge as long as the stump wasn't removed. That looks as weird as all the bugs climbing up the tree trunks. The worst thing is that Cookie and apparently all dogs just love to eat cicadas. It is horrible taking Cookie for a walk since she spends all her time attempting to scoop up the bugs for some tasty snacks. A few cicadas are fine, but if dogs eat too many they get very sick. So I tried a muzzle for our walks. That was a whole 'nother experience!

There is always so much to do before going on vacation. Scott and I finished up the yard work-I was trimming all the bushes and bagging up the clippings. Scott was busy putting down the rest of our mulch while Tom cut the grass and worked on the deck. I also had to take my van in for service since the heating and cooling fan in the front dashboard finally called it quits. It has been slowly dying for many years now. Tom kept thinking it just had something stuck inside like a leaf, but it was making such a loud noise it sounded like a jet plane taking off every time I started the car and the whole steering wheel vibrated. I knew we could not get very far on the road with that noise. So we dropped off my van on Friday morning and they repaired it very fast. Tom even asked to see the part to make sure it was broken and did not just have something stuck inside. Sure enough, the motor was fried. Scott and I picked up the van during the day and then I had time to run errands getting ready for our trip and our dinner on Sunday. On Monday, Tom decided to take the dealer's recommendation and change out our brake pads in the rear tires of my van. The dealership had done an overall assessment and recommended new brake pads. When Tom tried to remove the back tire he discovered they had broken off the bolt! He tried to take it to Midas but they were closed on Memorial Day. So he had to take it back to the dealership on Tuesday who denied any wrong doing of course. However, they were able to cut off the broken bold and complete a brake job with a discount(free rotors). At least it did not cost as much as Tom thought it was going to be. And Allison had returned from her trip to Salisbury to discover she had a nail in her tire, so she had to get that repaired too. A crazy busy car repair weekend. And all before going on vacation of course! I was still picking up vacation supplies, doing laundry and packing. Plus I had to get my hair done-cut and highlights. Even Cookie needed another grooming before vacation. 

All that plus we were all busy trying to get to work. My facility has started filling up again as the COVID numbers drop. We are not completely COVID free-someone always seems to test positive every week. Then we have to limit our mobility in the building. But we have been able to bring some patients into the gym now as long as they are spread out. And of course they started having us run groups. Not sure how that is supposed to be social distancing. I have been seeing as many as 10 residents a day in the Assisted Living facility, plus helping out with the rehab patients. I had to come in on Weds and Friday again, but just for a half day since I scheduled a visit with my mom at her apartment! They finally let us come into her building if we are both vaccinated. I can't wander through the building and have to stay in her room. But it gave me time to sort through her closet while we shared some french fries and a chocolate milkshake. I also discovered that her phone system has been out since probably before Thanksgiving, so I ordered her a new Verizon wireless box. Just waiting for it to come to hook it up in her apartment. I also signed up to bring her home for dinner again. She was quite content to watch a hockey game with Tom while I put together a ham and mashed potato dinner with corn and rolls, plus lemon meringue pie for dessert. I probably won't see her for a few weeks since we will be heading out of town to Hilton Head with the Seitz family for a week of sun and fun!