June 1-June 7, 2020 (Still DC/During Corona virus-week 12)

Just Stay Home Hon! That's still Maryland's Mantra, although we are moving from Phase 1 into Phase 2. The CDC continues to recommend that people stay home. Not much has changed with Phase 2, except beauty and nail salons can open with limited capacity. Our hair salon is not open yet. More businesses are allowed to open but many are still only allowed curbside service. Restaurants are still only open for carry out or patio dining on a limited basis-no dine in. Including fast food restaurants. And if you want to eat at the restaurant, you need a reservation since table settings are limited due to social distancing. And these are currently only for restaurants that have permits for outside dining. They are talking about closing down streets to allow increased seating outside. Also you can only use their restrooms if you have a reservation. Our state's capital, Annapolis discovered that many people were showing up at the restaurants downtown without reservations just to order drinks or food to go and then standing around on the sidewalk while they ate/drank. But that is not the only thing they were doing on the sidewalks! They were not allowed to use the bathrooms in the restaurants, and no public restrooms are open, so they went anywhere they could! And they weren't just tinkling either! Nasty.

That is the one big thing we have struggled with in planning any outings. Available restrooms. Unless you are going somewhere close to the house, which is also a CDC recommendations, you don't know what services are open.  Some campgrounds are opening, but they tell people to bring their own toilet paper and hand soap because people have taken items from public spaces. It's also difficult figuring out what is actually open too and knowing how many people showed up to do the same thing you wanted to do. Allison found last week that parking at our local state park was very limited, and the trails were a bit crowded as well as the river. And there are still long lines to get into many of the stores like Walmart and ACE hardware while they slowly begin to restock empty shelves. Especially in the grocery stores. It felt like Christmas in our local grocery stores as it the first week they fully stocked the shelves with toilet paper and paper towel!  Still some big gaps with missing items like baking supplies, rice, soup and of course meat. Not to mention cleaning supplies-specifically Clorox or Lysol wipes and Lysol spray. Amazon had 1 can of Lysol spray online for $18.00!  Usually runs about 4 bucks! Bread seems to have made a comeback, as did eggs and ice cream. Still plenty of chips/snack items. And surprisingly plenty of fruits and veggies. Prices however have gone up on some items like meat and eggs in our area, or there is still a limit on how much you can buy. And some stores, like Costco don't seem to have quite the usual variety of items. At least I did not have to stand in line or use my health care badge to enter last week as there seems to be a lot less people shopping there. But they do a terrific job of disinfecting their carts and keeping people separated at the check out. And in their bathrooms they have placed metal dividers between all the sinks and hand dryers. Seems like most people cannot get the hang of following the arrows on the floor for safe flow however. Not in any of the stores. I must say, I forget about it too when I am on the hunt for a specific items and don't want to walk all the way around the store to get it. Some people are taking advantage of our drive through weekly Farmers market for fruits and veggies, even meat and eggs. And our neighborhood has been hosting a Greek food truck for some reason with really long lines. Food trucks seem to be a really good idea right now. Actually anything that you can do in your car seems to be a good idea right now.

They've  opened up drive in movie theaters only-we actually have 1 in the state of Maryland on the east side of downtown Baltimore. It's about a 45 min drive  from our place. We have taken the kids in the past, especially when they were young. It is a lot of fun-they usually show 2 or 3 movies a night, and usually newly released. You can sit outside your car in your own chairs and listen to the movie on your car radio or any portable radio. They have great snacks too. The downside is the number of mosquitoes that pop up, especially towards the end of the summer. Then you usually want to hide in your car or dose yourself with mosquito repellent. And usually there is an incredibly long line of cars to get in, so you have to come early to make sure of a spot. They have even offered overnight campouts for Scouts in the past. So Bengies opened up this past weekend, but they were playing two movies we have already seen including "Sonic" and the newest "Jumanji" movie. They are only letting in customers with pre paid tickets online, presumably to keep the numbers down and avoid long lines. We decided to skip it and put on our own outdoor movie at home. We have a projector which Tom has set up before to show movies in our backyard on a homemade movie screen(white sheet stapled onto wooden frame). Tom also plays the sound through our boom box for volume control. We usually set it up in the backyard, but we wanted a bonfire too, so Tom placed the screen on the garage door and we sat out in the driveway. We had quite a few neighbors stop by before hand to ask us what we were up to. I felt bad not inviting everyone, but we are still trying to keep groups down to 10. We did invite our neighbors Dan and Gloria over and Tom picked up Ben Affleck's movie "The Way Back"-a bit underwhelming. We also watched Will Smith in "Bad Boys"-more action packed and a bit of humor. Plus we snacked on homemade brownies, pineapple fluff, popcorn and chips. It was a beautiful night to sit outside and enjoy the bonfire and our neighbor's company.

We needed a break after a long day of yardwork. Since Scott has been busy cutting the lawn, it gives me extra time to continue to trim bushes/shrubs and edge the curb and sidewalks.  I had to reshape our cedar trees next to the driveway after Tom gave them a power company trim(just hack off anything that is hanging over the driveway method). And Tom took on  a long awaited project-painting the house shutters. They have not been painted in over 20 years! Plus I had to run Cookie up to the Petsmart on Saturday afternoon for her grooming. She is the first one in our family to get a haircut! I had to wait 3 weeks to get her into an appointment. Petsmart was closed 3 weeks ago, and then opened but only allowing curbside pick up/drop off with reservations.  Finally you could actually go into the store. As I said, it is hard to know what is open or not since each county is following its own schedule depending on the number of COVID cases and deaths. Tom still does not feel comfortable with the idea of going into a hair salon to get a trim. He doesn't want anyone he does not know that close to him, even with masks. For now the hair salons are closed. He was still amazed to see how many people continue to show up at places like Home Depot. They are still counting the number of people that go in, but I have not had to wait in the super long lines lately. Except at ACE hardware where I hear they have cleaning supplies.

Church had an outdoor mass and some indoor masses. You have to make a reservation to attend, and bring your own chair for the outside mass. (and the bathrooms and water fountains are closed). I am still enjoying my tv mass from Milwaukee. Our YMCA started holding a few exercise classes outside in the parking lot-you have to sign up and only 8 people at a time. We have hundreds of Y members. I usually do the pool exercise program. Not sure exactly when they will be able to open the pool. Our local town of Columbia decided they will not be opening any of their outside or indoor pools this summer which is about 23 facilities. Looks like some swim clubs in the local neighborhoods may be open for recreational swimming only-no summer swim teams. Busch Gardens has not announced if/when they will be opening. A local amusement park, Six Flags near DC plans to open at the end of June with reservations only. Looks like a lot of places will attempt an opening but with reservations only to keep the number of people down. School in our area will not get out until the end of June, so I think programming, like summer camps will not be making any real plans until then. The YMCA is still planning on offering some type of summer camp-limited number, all with masks. They stopped the online BINGO as they are concentrating on coming up with new programs. I mentioned Girl Scouts cancelled summer programming and Boy Scouts has still not made a decision. Although they did just raise their yearly fees. They seem to be struggling, especially since they recently filed for bankruptcy and have a lawsuit out against them for a history of  sexual abuse.  Too sad.

Allison volunteered to assist with an online GS summer program, but I think they have enough help. Instead she may be able to do some training. She wants to become a leader for the new High Ropes course they built last year at GS camp. She would also like to volunteer for trail cleaning at GS camp since it is closed this summer. Then she could maybe spend the weekend there, which would be fun for her and some of the other staff. Mostly she has still been busy working from home. She has started some orientation seminars for her upcoming position in August. She also continues to play Dungeons and Dragons online with friends, as well as Scott. All of his friends are out of school-college classes. But they haven't gotten together yet. Allison did connect with a few high school friends-one girl lives here in our neighborhood. The two girls made some chocolate chip cookies on the weekend and took them over to another friend who had put herself on quarantine after visiting her fiance in New Jersey and visiting her apartment in New York. The girls sat outside enjoying tea and cookies while social distancing.

Scott continues with his statistics class-working on learning Mini Tab in his statistics class now, something both Tom and Allison are familiar with(thank goodness no more probability!).  Tom has also started his new class-the last. He had a late start however since his advisor signed him up for the wrong class. Tom did not realize it until he started the readings and looked over the homework. The rest of Maryland is still in school until the end of June. Still can't figure out if they are going to grade the students or not. Summer school is going to be offered for those that need it in person at public schools. Like Scott going back to Western in the fall.  At this point they are planning on students going back, but not sure when. Maybe mid August and returning home at Thanksgiving-with finals online after the holidays. All students living in the dorms may be offered single rooms, or students may have the choice to complete all their learning online at home/distance learning. Who knows. It changes everyday!

And to top everything off, the country has gone crazy with protests over the death of George Floyd, an African American who died while being arrested in Minneapolis for alleged use of counterfit money while purchasing cigarettes. Protests have broken out all over the US as well as the world. Here in Maryland there has been protesting in downtown Baltimore as well as locally in Columbia. Fortunately the protests here have been primarily peaceful. Baltimore learned years ago during our last riot in 2015 when Freddie Gray died after being taken into police custody that it makes no sense to burn and loot your own city. Protesters are calling for dismantling of police forces and defunding across the US. Not as big an issue here in Baltimore, especially since our town has the highest rate of homicides in the US which has been on the rise since our previous riots and they have been begging for more police intervention, but there is talk about reform. The Baltimore police have reported a lack of support from the city Administrators since the 2015 riots. The city did hire a costly Police Chief from New Orleans, but nothing has improved in the past 2 years that he has been in charge. Baltimore is also up for a new mayor. Primaries were the beginning of June. Mail in ballots were sent out. We can't vote for the Baltimore City mayor, but the race was interesting to watch. It came down to a close run between Brandon Scott, a very young 36 year old who grew up in Baltimore and Sheila Dixon who was in office several years ago and kicked out for stealing gift cards from the Mayor's office to buy herself and friends Christmas gifts, including a fur coat for herself! We couldn't believe with all the talk about change and taking back the city, transparency and equity, justice, etc. before the recent protests that the citizens of Baltimore were looking to rehire a criminal for the job of Mayor. Makes perfect sense. Fortunately, after a weeks worth of counting ballots, the young Brandon Scott took the lead. Will be interesting to see if he can make a difference for the good. There was a big fuss about the voting method here in Baltimore. Most people complained that they did not receive their ballots in the mail. The electoral board says it is not their responsibility to make sure they have a current or accurate address to mail the ballots. So they did offer in person voting stations, just not as many facilities open as usual. And less people can access the facilities at once with less people working inside. So it took longer to get everyone's vote if you went in person. And then it took a week to count the votes. Looks like Atlanta, Georgia had it even worse with people waiting in lines to vote past midnite. The mayoral vote was the biggest issue here in Baltimore. Our local county seemed to have a better handle on things for the primary vote-more mail in ballots-less people standing in line. I was the only one in the family who could vote for all the candidates in the primary. The rest of the family only voted for the Board of Education on the Independent ticket. It will be interesting to see what voting method we end up with in November for the Presidential vote!

I have been the only evaluating therapist at work the past two weeks. My co worker tested positive for COVID with no symptoms. Apparently according to the WHO she is "rare". But then they changed their statement. Housekeeping supposedly did a deep cleaning in our rehab gym, but I am usually cleaning everything I touch. We attempted to celebrate Speech and Better Hearing Month for May by bringing in bagels and donuts, but there usually are not enough people around to snack on all the goodies. Even our boss brought in an ice cream cake to celebrate one of the PT assistants birthday, but most of us are leaving work before noon because of limited patients to treat. However,  since I am currently the only OT  that can do all the paperwork, I ended up with  some very long days and a few short days. I was also the only one that was scheduled to work on our COVID isolation unit-that is the unit where they put all the patients that have been around someone diagnosed with COVID or went out to the hospital for any reason, just to be safe. They are placed on isolation for 2-4 weeks.  The other OT assistants asked if they could treat patients on the isolation unit too since they did not have much work. The facility director wanted to keep the staff numbers limited on that unit, but then the caseloads were lopsided. I had 8 patients and the rest of the OTs had 1-2 patients. One of my patients was an actual rehab patient that fell and broke her hip and came in for therapy.  Eventually everyone coming in from the hospital will have to be placed on the isolation unit. One person can't do all the treatments. I was very happy to share, and I even got Friday off!  Just like my old schedule. My coworker should be back next week if she tests negative for COVID.  And Thank Goodness the Maryland Dept of Health still expects us to pay our $300.00 bi yearly OT license on time, due at the end of June. Even with all the Maryland therapists working less hours or not at all due to illness, they still want their money.

June 8-June 14th(DC During Coronavirus Week 13)

Stay Safe, Stay Smart and if you go out, Stay Apart-Maryland's new motto as some counties go into Phase II-limited seating inside churches and restaurants with reservations. Hair and nail salons may open with restrictions and limitations on number of customers allowed inside-our hair salon is not yet open. And I still prefer church online. Small business are still curbside purchases only which has many owners upset, especially since the protests and marches continue in the area. Still not violent although crime and homicides continue to be on the rise in Baltimore.

Sunday, June 14th,  is Happy Flag Day! We usually spend Flag Day at Ft McHenry, celebrating our American history at the home of the National Anthem. Currently the Fort and visitor center is closed(bathrooms too!). Only the parkland around the Fort is open.  No ceremony or parade, no music or fireworks like usual. Previously our GS choir has sang and participated in the parade of state flags. We've done it with the Boy Scouts as well. They have been inconsistent with the program in the past few years. Allison and I discovered Defenders Day/Star Spangled Banner Day in September is a much better program. Ft McHenry sits on an outlying piece of land not far from the Baltimore Harbor. Defenders Day celebrates our battle in 1812 when the British attacked and the locals fought them off. They have military and era appropriate music from several centuries, starting at the Revolutionary War to present performed by military bands. They end the program with a re enactment of the War of 1812 with lots of cannons and ships and fireworks. It was a wonderful program, all free and probably won't occur this year. President Trump dropped into Ft McHenry to make a speech recently to mark Memorial Day.  It is a very cool place. Can't wait to visit again.

Boy Scouts finally announced they will be cancelling all summer camps. I know that is tough on the kids since they especially work on Eagle badges at summer camp. They have to finish their program before their 18th birthday. I would hope BSA is extending their deadlines and age requirements. Allison is busy reviewing GS Gold Award projects online and the GS organization is making some modifications in case the girls cannot actually run their programs.  Our YMCA is slowly reopening, but our local facility has not yet started classes inside or opened the pool. Organized sports are still on hold. So no Ultimate Frisbee for Allison. She keeps active running on our treadmill or in the neighborhood if the pollen is not too bad. Plus Cookie continues to get plenty of walks!  She was licking at a sore on her paw that popped up after her haircut. I need to take her back for another follow up appointment at the vet for her glands, and they are so busy I could not get Cookie in for two weeks from now. I think lots of people are getting pets since they are staying home. I see a lot more puppies in the neighborhood!

My co worker has returned to work, re -testing negative for COVID. She was put back to work on the isolation unit, mainly because she works more hours than I do-40hrs/wk vs my 30. We are still at a very low census. We had one more patient come in for therapy after falling and breaking her pelvis while working at Target(at 80 yrs of age!). She said she thinks it is time to retire. They cleared out a much larger unit for isolation now in hopes of bringing in more rehab patients. We've also had some deaths in our facility, but not related to COVID. So a lot more empty beds and apartments, less people to treat. No one is moving into our facility at this time. I actually started working again with one of our residents who recently tested positive for COVID. Seems like we have to treat everyone like they are positive for COVID. We continue to wear our protective gear(very hot now as it warms up outside-even with the air conditioning). I also make sure all the equipment I use is washable and either soak it or spray it or wipe it down with antibacterial cleaners after use. And most of the time I don't bother eating lunch at work. Plus when I get home I continue to wipe down my car seat, wash my uniform and take a second shower. I've never done so much cleaning in all my life! And to top things off, our computer system went down during the week making it even more miserable to get things done(or nothing done!).

I continue to be on the hunt for Lysol spray or wipes-no luck. I even stopped into ACE hardware before the crowds started lining up at the front door-no luck. No Clorox wipes either. The stores continue to slowly restock, but there are still shortages on certain items. Our church had a food drive this weekend for the local food bank and Allison and I dropped off a bag. We were on a Saturday morning mission-scanning garage sales. The neighborhood decided to host an impromptu garage sale. I was definitely not prepared to sell, but we had fun with our drive by shopping. We were looking for items for Allison and her apartment. We purchased a very nice Broyhill coffee table and matching end table. The woman said she had it sitting in her living room for 30 years that no one uses anymore. Very good shape and I had Allison bargain down the price-two pieces for $40. Good job!

Tom has been off to a busy start with his new class. This professor is requesting the students to read papers and articles and write reports. Tom also decided his current work group at Northrop is very limited, so he put in for a transfer to another department. Not sure when that will happen, but he is already happier with his work prospects!

We decided to have our good friends Beth and Barry over for dinner Saturday night. We haven't seen them since before St Patrick's Day. They also brought their son Bryce who ended up staying home for his Tesla internship. He would have been isolated in a house in California, distance working on a computer, so the company said he could stay at home here in Maryland and work. Now he is just waiting for them to send him a secure laptop. And Allison's friend Jen was in town for her Dad's birthday celebration and planned on stopping by. As well as Allison's boyfriend Gabe who was back from helping his sister move out of her apartment in New York. We decided to cook some spare ribs for our group under 10, so on Friday after work I did a Costco run. I was able to get some baby back ribs and we had some in the freezer to defrost. There was more meat available to purchase, but the prices have really shot up. At least gas prices are still under $2. I only have to go to the gas station every 2 weeks now, and even then the tank is not empty. I also had to shop at a few different stores for side items since grocery stores were out of a few things, like broccoli! Still more than enough food including corn on the cob, watermelon, baked potatoes, bean casserole and broccoli/cauliflower salad. Plus Allison made brownies and I picked up lemon bars and rice krispie treats. Jen brought muffins, Gabe brought wine and bakery fresh portugal pasteries this time, and Beth and Barry brought jalapeno poppers and salmon/ cucumber/ sour cream and dill slices.  Lots of tasty items! By the time we were done, there was not much food left! But enough for some great leftovers for us!

And since we were social distancing and keeping our numbers down, we split up and half ate outside on the patio and the kids ate inside at the kitchen table. Then we all headed out to make a bonfire and watch a movie. Tom picked up the movie "Yesterday". We missed it at the movie theatres-the one about the guy who is the only person on earth to remember the Beatles music. We all enjoyed the movie and our bonfire. I was surprised that Allison was not familiar with most of the Beatles songs. I also picked up a corn hole game at Walmart. I was busy beating the pants off Scott when the rest of our guests arrived. I figured outdoor games would come in handy since it looks like we all will be spending more time at home and outside. Tom wanted to invite our neighbor's Dan and Gloria over as well since we had so much food, as well as their son Alex. We reminded Tom that he has been fussing about the "No more than 10 in a group " rule (mainly I think to get out of socializing at times). Well, we caught him! He decided 1 or 2 more people over the limit wouldn't hurt, so we called them up. Unfortunately, they had their hands full with their 17 yo sick Beagle, Buddy. Looks like Buddy has had a few strokes, along with arthritis. It is very hard for him to walk since he shakes so bad and leans to the side. Plus has hearing and vision loss. Nonetheless, they took him to the emergency clinic and paid $900.00 without any life changing services or improvement, so they brought him home. They were trying to keep him going until both kids could see him again. If he makes it through the rest of the weekend, they may take him in to be put down on Monday with their regular vet. Dan stopped by for a drink and to fill us in on the situation. So sad to lose a pet.

Seems like just when you plan something, even more opportunities arise. The county decided to put on a drive in movie at our local fairground. They were showing "The Princess Bride" which we have all seen, on Saturday night during our party. Allison would have liked to have taken Gabe to the movie since he has never seen it before. Our outdoor movie theater, Bengies, was playing the newer movie "Onward" as well as the last "Star Wars" movie that came out. We have seen both, and the movies playing over the weekend were all sold out.  And Allison's friend decided to put on a music concert-she and her fiance sing opera, so they were serving dessert and performing for friends and neighbors in their backyard on Saturday night. Allison and I would have loved to attend. Just too much going on! Believe it or not.

Scott topped off his weekend with a break by going for a hike at the state park where Allison hiked with Gabe, and having dinner with his high school friend Matt. Taking advantage of some very nice weather. We're all enjoying spending time outside, especially on our backyard patio, keeping an eye on the wildlife. We still have a lot of baby birds around, including our Carolina wrens that moved into the bird house Allison bought me. I also discovered a nest in my hanging flower basket as I dumped water on top of the poor thing watering the flowers! And our bluebirds are staying busy with their second batch.