June 14-June 30th, 2021

Happy Flag Day! Happy Father's Day! 

  I was missing all the Flag Day festivities at Fort McHenry in Baltimore. Allison and I enjoyed music and fireworks on Flag Day several years ago and we used to participate in the show with the Girl and Boy Scouts. Our Girl Scout choir had been asked to sing at their performance in  the past. We also enjoy their program on Patriots day in the fall. Maybe they will be able to schedule that this year!

Our family has decided COVID is over ever since returning from vacation in Hilton Head. However, it appears that Maryland is still staying extra cautious. Most businesses have stopped the mandatory masks, especially if you have been vaccinated.  I notice most people are still wearing masks and some are even wearing face shields and gloves. Some businesses still expect customers to wear masks. And some places continue with plastic dividers.  Our family has decided we are vaccinated and as long as the COVID positivity rate in Maryland is below 1%, we feel pretty comfortable getting back to normal life. Meanwhile, Tom and Allison are now going into work on a regular basis(Allison a bit more than Tom). Allison started a new, more permanent position in finance and reports it is not as stressful as her last rotation. There is even talk of getting the summer Northrop Ultimate frisbee games started up again. Tom spent our first week back from vacation running a work event and the last week in June he attended an online externship for his PhD with Walden University. He was a bit annoyed that the meeting was on Central time, so instead of finishing at our time, 5pm, he was busy until 6pm. Even though he started an hour later, it still interfered with his daily schedule. 

Our cicada explosion also seems to be wrapping up. They were at the flying stage when we got back from Hilton Head-very distracting when driving and being literally bug bombed while on the road. Tom and Scott were covered with cicadas when they cut the lawn. Tom could not take it anymore when a few ended up down his shirt and started buzzing! Gradually they started dying out and now I am mostly sweeping and raking up cicada bodies. 

 We have also been to our first movie in a theater since COVID began last March. Allison and I decided to take Tom to see The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard for Father's Day. We saw the first movie of the series, The Hitman's Bodyguard with Ryan Reynolds and Samuel Jackson over a year ago. (We actually took my mom to that movie several years ago!). This one was a bit much of everything, but we enjoyed the crazy humor. Even Allison really liked it! Scott did not join us since he had to work and then went to an evening BBQ and bonfire with his old high school friends. 

I think Scott has especially been enjoying his summer. He seems to like his job at Home Depot. He usually works several days a week and one or two days on the weekends. They certainly flex his work hours. Sometimes he goes in as early as 6 am, but other times he works later in the day. They hired him as a cashier and that is what he has been doing. Sometimes he is running the contractors register and ringing up lumber, other times he supervises the self check out. Occasionally he is running the register outside in the garden shop. The staff is not allowed to sit down or look at their phones or play video games while waiting for customers. But they don't have any other assignments either. It is just their job to run the cash registers whether someone is there or not. I figured they could at least stock shelves or straighten the merchandise, or sweep the floor, but I guess they have to be vigil to help customers. He is mostly excited to be making some spending money. Especially since he and Allison are planning a trip down to Orlando in October to visit Disney World and Disney Studios over Scott's fall break. The two want to visit during Disney's 50th Anniversary which kicks off in October as well as during the Halloween months. Should be a lot of fun for them both. And since he is home this summer he has been spending more time visiting with his old high school friends.  They have had a lot of fun visiting at each other's houses for cook outs and bonfires. He has also gone fishing and kayaking at our local park. And he was talked into participating in a  Mario Kart competition at a local gaming store with a high school friend. They played outside with a screen on the wall of our favorite Wine Bin store in Olde Ellicott City and Scott won the tournament out of 25 contestants! He brought home a radio controlled video game Mario Kart(retails around $100 bucks). And it only cost him $10.00 to enter. One of his bosses from Home Depot was also in the competition. Scott said he felt a bit strange beating his boss by just one point!

And he is actually looking forward to going back to school in the fall. WMU reports classes will all be in person, although there are still classes that were online before the epidemic. Scott is signed up for 4 classes in the fall with labs for each one. He may add his computer class, or look into taking one of his other electives. When he signed up for classes last spring he just wanted to make sure he had the requirements all set up first. Here in Maryland, schools wrapped up online  June 15th. High Schools were able to hold their graduation ceremonies at our local outdoor theater. Initially guests were only allowed to sit out on the lawn and the students were going to sit under the pavilion with 2 guests per student. But since COVID has been declining, they allowed more guests. The high schools even held proms over the last two months, but I hear there was no slow dancing allowed. Allison said that happened at the wedding she went to with Gabe at the beginning of June also-no slow dancing. Too close I guess.

Allison and I did get to attend my niece's Baby Shower the weekend after returning from Hilton Head via Zoom online. One good thing that came out of COVID! The shower was held at her parent's house in Indiana. Allison and I had ordered gifts sent via Amazon(another company that made out well in the pandemic). It was so much fun watching her open all her baby stuff, but we did miss out on the company and the yummy treats! And Stacey had several others zooming into her shower including cousins and even her "sister" Alex from Germany since travel to/from Europe has been halted.  Looking forward to the arrival of their baby boy, Elijah in August(if Stacey can hold on that long)!

At my mom's facility, we have been able to schedule indoor visits and remove our masks while visiting in the apartments. We cannot wander around the facility. We also had to make a reservation to take Mom out, but they recently dropped the need to make a reservation. Before the staff would bring Mom down to the car and now I can go up to her apartment to pick her up. So after returning home from Hilton Head I dropped into her apartment to pick up some dirty laundry and hook up her phone system again. I also brought her a necklace and a shirt I bought her from Hilton Head. I stopped in on a Saturday morning since we still had to make reservations and brought her a cup of coffee and cinnamon roll from McDonalds which we shared. The following weekend I brought her back to our house for a pork chop dinner and some more home movies. I have been very busy working. Our facility keeps trying to fill all the beds on the rehab units round the clock to make up for lost revenue. They are also trying to fill the Assisted Living apartments as well as the Long Term Care Units in our nursing home.  And we usually provide therapy services to all those people so I am back to work M-F and every other Saturday. Doesn't leave much time for pool exercise or acupuncture. We are still wearing our masks but no longer need to wear our face shields unless we are treating a COVID patient. We have not had any COVID patients for awhile and most of those patients  that come to our facility already had their vaccinations. And we have not had any positive staff members for several weeks either. Now we only need to be tested once a month if we are vaccinated and the rest of the staff that is not vaccinated get tested once a week. We are also back to treating our patients in the rehab gym which is nice, but that means we have to run groups too. So far I have not had to run a group but I know my turn is coming. So far I am still the one to treat most of the residents in our Assisted Living facility. Apparently I am the only one that doesn't mind working in that facility. I am so glad our family had an earlier vacation too since the rest of the staff is now itching to make plans(and they have). It gets a bit crazier when someone is off because our contract company does not send any help. I guess it was pretty rough when I was gone because our other OT had to take off on a long weekend to attend her daughter's wedding(rescheduled due to COVID from last summer). That meant only 2 staff members were available to work. I know my turn is coming up for this too! I also stopped taking two showers a day, one before work and one when I got home. I do wash my uniform every night, but it certainly saves some time not having to take an extra shower. 

It is also nice to be able to go out shopping and to restaurants without worrying about wearing masks, although our county seems to be more comfortable wearing the masks. We took Tom out for dinner for Father's Day on Friday night and planned a steak dinner on Sunday. (However, we filled up on Tom's Buffalo Chicken Dip so we saved our steak for Monday night's meal.) The kids bought Tom a tshirt in Hilton Head and bought him a few knives featured on the show, Forged in Fire. Turns out they work pretty well! I bought Tom a Star Wars Hawaiin Shirt and a grilling tray. I also made a peach pie for dessert. At the end of the month, Tom and I celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary. I had purchased Tom a gift card at a new restaurant for his birthday last year. So we decided it was time to try it out, especially since the live entertainment returned. The restaurant, 18 and 21st is decorated during prohibition days with the hostess wearing a 20s flapper dress. Not a very large place and they had a jazz band playing which was very nice but a bit loud for the small space. Tom was running late for our reservation. He was scheduled for an online externship with his class which ran until 6pm(central time). We could only get a 5:45 dinner reservation, so I took Scott with me to share a drink and appetizer before Tom arrived around 6:30. Then Scott left and Tom and I enjoyed a steak dinner with creme brulee for me for dessert! Plus a glass of champagne! 

 And some of our favorite summertime activities have been rescheduled like outdoor concerts, plays and movies. Looking forward to trying to get to a few events.