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.

May16-May 31st, DC (During Corona Virus)

Happy Birthday to all the May Babies!  Mark Seitz celebrated on Friday, May 8th. Stacey (Seitz) Draper celebrated on the 17th, and Christopher Bozyk enjoyed his special day on the 23rd, Memorial Day weekend. Happy Birthday to Western Michigan Too! The school turned 117 years old this month!

Happy Graduation as well! Our nephew Christopher B had a virtual graduation at Texas A and M early in May. Way to Go Christopher! Our friend's Beth and Barry's oldest son, Barry Jr graduated from Uof Penn in Philly and took a job in NYC.  Their second son, Bryce took a summer internship at Tesla in California. Looks like they will still be empty nesters this summer, even with the covid isolation. And Big Barry retired from his position at the Pentagon. So sorry we have not been able to celebrate all their family's special events together. And that included our long time neighbors from down the street who also retired and decided to sell their home and move to their mountain cabin in a ski resort town in Bryce, West Virginia. Jane and John managed to sell their home without even formally putting it on the market, and got 25K more than their asking price! Good news for the rest of us. I was hoping to spend a little bit of time with them before they left.  I was thinking we could at least all sit down around our fire pit in the driveway and have a drink together. I had picked out an evening before their scheduled move out date where it wasn't raining and a bit cool-comfortable bon fire weather. I sent Jane a message and found out that they had moved out early. So sad. They just could not take another day of living out of boxes, especially since they had moved their daughter and son in law and 2 yr old granddaughter in with them from New York before the shut down in March. We'll have to plan a visit to their place some time in the future to toast their retirement.

Happy Memorial Day! Not the usual holiday. I was actually scheduled to work on that Saturday over the weekend, but we did not have any new patients to treat, so I did not have to go in. I also got Friday off and took the Holiday hours on Monday. I normally would cherish a 4 day weekend for a trip away with the family. Probably to Busch Gardens to enjoy the opening of the Water Country USA and the Wine and Food festival. Not happening this year. Everything is closed. I also miss the Howard County Wine in the Woods festival that I attended last year- a whole weekend of wine sampling and concerts, art booths and food here in our local park. Not this year. Instead, on Saturday night we had our neighbors Dan and Gloria over for drinks and snacks. Gloria has been working as a contract Nurse Manager in the only hospital on Nantucket Island off the coast of Massachusetts. She only had 1 COVID patient admitted, and since the island is basically closed to visitors, they really have not had any patients. So they sent her home early.  She was so looking forward to shopping int We enjoyed a bonfire in the driveway! It was cool enough to make a fire and roast some marshmallows. A nice way to celebrate S'more Saturday!  Even Allison's friend Jen from Salisbury University and her fiance stopped by to visit. They were in town to watch her brother's dog while he was gone for the day. We spent Sunday at their house, enjoying a crab feast! We haven't had a crab dinner in quite some time(mainly because they are so expensive, and take a while to eat. Plus it is better if you can eat them outside at home(rather messy), so the weather needs to cooperate. Dan and Gloria bought several dozen and we rolled out the paper on the patio table and went to town with our crab mallets! We also had bratwurst, potato and green salad, mac and cheese, shrimp, chips and salsa, and cheese and crackers, along with bakery designer cupcakes. Plus we brought watermelon and I made brownies and chocolate truffles. Our whole family stopped over along with their two kids and their daughter's new boyfriend. We had a wonderful time sitting out on the patio and enjoying our meal together. Socially distanced of course!

Meanwhile at work, we are slowly making our way through treatments for the Long Term Care residents as well as the Assisted Living Facility residents, but we have seen most of them already. Every once in awhile we treat someone again because they have fallen, and may have injured themselves, or caught a cold and get put on isolation, but there are no new patients coming into our building, and our facility manager is not keen on bringing in recuperating COVID patients due to concern over risking getting our residents sick. Which we all appreciate. We do have an isolation unit in case someone has to go out to the hospital. They stay on the isolation unit for 14 days, but they just extended it to 28 days, in their room. So we have had a few patients to treat there also.   But there are more of us therapists with extra time on our hands and less and less patients. They were going to allow us to work as nursing assistants, but we have not had a shortage in staff members from sickness. Since there are plenty of staff members and not so many residents or patients, they don't need our help. Some of our company's other facilities have started to schedule rehab staff to come in every other day. None of us are working our full hours, so we only get paid for the time we work. And they continue to keep a close eye on our work hours. At least we have not lost our benefits, but some staff have submitted requests for unemployment to cover their lost hours. So far no one has actually been successful in filling out the applications or getting a check. And they already used all their vacation hours. Apparently you also have to fill out the unemployment applications every week. There is a rumor that we will start taking patients in as they have opened up the hospitals and clinics for elective surgeries and treatments again. But apparently most people have been avoiding going to the hospital for fear of catching the virus. Recently, the nursing homes in Maryland have all been tested for COVID by the National Guard, including our facility. We actually did our own testing right before Memorial Day since we had plenty of nursing staff to complete the task. They offered two different ways of testing, nasal or oral swab. I was certainly dreading a nasal swab since I had heard so many horrible stories. I managed to locate the oral swab team-like getting tested for strep throat. Not so bad. So far looks like I came back negative, as did most of our facility. They had two staff members test positive and one private aide, one resident so far. Turns out one of the staff members was my OT coworker. She tested positive, but asymptomatic. So now I am the only therapist and two assistants(for two weeks at least). She is on quarantine for now.  So its off to the Corona Unit for me. Poop. And we'll have to see if we get any new patients. And they plan on continuing the testing. Fortunately the hospitalizations have started to go down in Maryland.

Tom and Allison continue to work at home although Tom has started going into his office. He has his own space and he can get a lot more done, except when they turn off the air conditioner!  Allison is happy working from home and was told she will be switching to her new position in August. She will finally be working in Tom's building by the BWI airport. She can keep working from home if she wishes, even when she starts her new position. Northrop hasn't worked out all the kinks on how to bring everyone back to the facility with social distancing yet.   Tom thought he would stop into work to start a new project before he has to begin his last PhD class. Scott has been hard at work at his Statistics class. He is getting a bit sick and tired of the content as they have been focusing on probability for the whole month. He's ready for something different. He thought he was getting a break over Memorial Day weekend, but then the prof surprised them with lab work, homework and a quiz all due on Memorial Day. We didn't see much of him except when he stopped by to eat a few crabs at the neighbors. And he does not get any real instruction-just reading and watching power point presentations and doing the homework. Tom is helping as much as he can, but also was not thrilled with the over emphasis on probability.

Because we had a 4 day weekend, I thought it would be fun to take a break and go bike riding and take advantage of our nice weather.  We have talked about biking or hiking a portion of the C and O (Chesapeake and Ohio) Canal towpath. It runs along the Patapsco River for about 137 miles from DC to Cumberland in Western Maryland. There is a free parking lot and access point with outhouses/portapotties and a small, nearby town near Frederick MD that I thought would be a good place to start-about 45 mins from our house. As Tom was loading the bikes, I checked the website for directions and noted that all the public bathrooms including outhouses/porta potties along the trail were all closed. As was the visitor center in town with bathrooms, and pretty much the entire town was closed. So it did not seem like such a great idea to go off for several hours in the heat while drinking lots of water without use of bathrooms. So we have discovered that even though many parks-both state and national-have opened up for use, it is primarily for hiking/biking/fishing and boating and no services available. And we have also discovered since that is about all that is open, everyone goes there, so not much in the way of social distancing. For some, they cannot even find a bike. Bike sales have been up-cleaning up the shelves. And local bike stores are swamped with sales and repairs. Still have to wait in line for assistance outside the stores. For some, if you find a bike for sale, you will pay a great deal-up to $1000!  Again, our neighborhood has been busy swapping/selling items, including bikes.

It's quite the experience to go shopping. A few weeks ago I was picking through the leftovers at one of our local grocery stores when the staff yelled "Fire" and pulled the alarm. I had to leave my grocery cart and the door and head to the parking lot when the manager started kicking us out. And I was just getting ready to check out too!  I certainly could have done without the store catching on fire. I think the employees felt the same way-looks like it was a roof fire so no terrible damage and they were open again in a few days. But I had to go and do all my grocery shopping over at another store. Employees continue to wipe down carts, or leave spray and rolls of paper towel for a do it yourself cleaning. Most people don't follow the arrows guiding everyone up and down the aisles to avoid crowding. But everyone seems to be wearing some sort of mask or using gloves. Our shelves are still not fully stocked, especially for cleaning supplies, paper products and popular food items. They continue to limit the number of people in the stores, so sometimes there is a line out the door. I still use my Health Care Worker ID to walk right into Costco if necessary. But even their lines have decreased since they are not stocking as much of the popular items. There is also still a limit on the amount of some items you can buy, including meat and eggs, and those prices have really gone up. I don't like to shop too often, so I try to buy 1-2 weeks worth of grocery items if I can. I did drag Allison along with me to Walmart after we dropped off supplies to Mom B at her place over Memorial Day weekend. We needed a few items like shampoo and Allison wanted to look for some running shorts. While I was making a return, some old guy tried to pick her up(he told us he was 68)! He spotted her wearing the Washington Capitals Stanley Cup tshirt and hat and just so happens he is the organist for the Caps and the Washington Nationals(as well as his church). He was wearing his Capitals face mask. He was so excited to see a Caps fan and share all his stories and performances with us on his cell phone. Boy people are really bored! He is currently out of work since most sporting events are on hold. We finally pried ourselves away, but I noticed he was mostly just poking around the store. I wouldn't have minded chatting with him if he'd offered us free tickets to the Caps games! (although it was creepy having him flirt with Allison!)

We are currently under Stay At Home/Safer At Home Phase 1 in Maryland. Some things are slowly opening, but with limitations.  Tom and Allison stood outside the pet store recently for 45 minutes to buy some fish for Tom's tank. He figured since he and Scott would be spending more time in the basement that they could use a relaxing distraction. None of our stores are open yet. The state of Maryland is easing into Phase 1 with some counties moving faster than others-parks are open, stores are open to curbside business, Starbucks is open and you can walk inside now but can't hang around. Restaurants are open for patio seating socially distanced only or take out still. If they don't have patio  seating they have to request a permit. Some areas are looking into closing off streets and parking lots to allow more seating, but that can mean less parking or ability to drive around town. And you need a reservation or take your chances standing in line. Scott was excited to see his Game Stop was open to 5 customers at a time. Sometimes you don't know what is open or not. Although all big indoor venues like shopping malls, entertainment centers, bars, movie theaters are still closed. Our one and only outdoor movie theater in Maryland just got permission to open-not sure when. Some hair salons are opening, but not ours. Too small to accommodate social distancing. We are all starting to look a bit shaggy. Good thing we had all gone to the salons early in the year and had very short hair cuts, but it is starting to catch up with us. Tom has been trying to trim the sides, but then he ends up with extra long hair on top. Forget about growing a beard-didn't work well. I keep trimming my bangs so I can see through my face shield at work. Scott wants to know what he looks like with long hair but needs a lot of gel to keep his hair straight, and Allison refuses to go back to early days of pony tails!  Hence the hats. The only one getting a trim in our family will be Cookie after I drop her off at the groomers. I had to make an appointment for her 3 weeks in advance since they were so full only grooming 1 dog at a time! And they are open 7 days/week. She will certainly appreciate the shorter coat since it has been getting hotter and muggy. I had to take her back for a check up at the vets from her infected gland-still doing the drop off in the parking lot. But she seems much better-just fluffy and hot!

Churches have permission to open or carry on outdoor services. The Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore has opted to to remain closed. Too hard to social distance at most parishes-too many people and too hard to set up chairs/huge tent in the parking lot-and then no parking. So far they are limiting indoor services to 10 people. So it is tv church for me! Girl Scouts has cancelled all summer camps-day camps and overnight camps for the summer. Boy Scouts have not officially cancelled summer, but it is looking that way. Girl Scouts are planning on a virtual camp and Allison volunteered to make a video of some activity(cooking or arts and crafts/science experiment-she has not yet decided).  She is also still busy reviewing GS Gold award projects. Guess they are happy they switched to online in the Fall. Our YMCA is offering a few exercise classes outside in the parking lots-you have to make a reservation and they only take 8 participants. If you go out in a group, numbers have to stay under 10 still. YMCA will have day camps with just 8 kids and 2 adults per group. Not sure how many groups. I am still happy to play online BINGO with the Y camp staff. We are still not pushing Scott to look for a summer job since he will be busy through June with his class and we are not sure what will be open or running when the kids get out of school mid June. Looks like most engineering internships are on hold for him.

Baltimore and Maryland have pretty much cancelled all special summer events including celebration of the 4th of July. No fireworks anywhere in our area this year. The amusement parks are still closed as well as water parks and pools, zoos. Busch Gardens is giving us a credit for our yearly passes as well as the Baltimore zoo. The Y is giving us a tax break.  I see RVs are making a comeback. Tom was never an RV type of guy. Campgrounds are open, but not all. And you need a reservation-spots are going fast. They recommend you bring our own toilet paper and hand sanitizer as people have been taking those items from the public bathrooms. The CDC does not recommend traveling out of state at this time. And if you have to, they recommend avoiding bathrooms, gas stations and fast food restaurants. What's left?  There are 2 more phases to go through until our state can reopen and they don't think we will hit Phase 3 until the end of summer. That would be when they allow us to visit Mom B in person. The discussion to open schools or not in the fall continues. Most are pushing for them to open, but maybe with varied schedules and every other day with less kids attending. Even day cares are trying to figure out how to open, especially if people start going back to work. Hurry up vaccine!

Our neighborhood continues to stay busy cleaning out closets. Since Allison is looking at renting her own apartment sometime this summer, we have been keeping our eyes open for free furniture or household goods. So far she has two Laz-Y-Boy recliner/rocker chairs, and we just picked up two new sets of Lenox silverware from the neighborhood-one for her and one for Scott when he gets an apartment. She also picked up a few lamps-one floor lamp and one table lamp, and just recently we brought home a very nice heavy wooden kitchen table with 6 chairs. The table is especially nice since it has a built in extension. Plus Tom would be happy to upgrade our couches and donate them to her , as well as our current ottoman/coffee table. She also has her full bedroom set and bed, along with her newly obtained desk and hutch and all of her kitchen stuff from college. So she really is ready to move in! And we are ready for her to move out since all of her stuff is starting to take up space!

I continue to reorganize and clean out our master closet when I get home from work early. But again, no place to take donations as of yet. And the dump is still closed to the public. Scott and I stay busy with the yard work-he cuts the lawn and I do all the trimming and raking. Both Allison and Scott have planted lots of veggies, so it will be fun to see how they do. If we can keep the squirrels from digging everything up! The wild life continues to take over. The neighborhood has been going crazy with all the fox sightings-guess they are going after the squirrels. I wish they'd come eat a few of mine!  And the deer continue to roam around eating all the flowers (and soon vegetables).  My peonies just bloomed-I brought these plants from West Bloomfield. Wish I could have shared them with Mom B. Our neighborhood is also freaking out over the Murder Hornets-the huge, yellow hornets from Asia that rip apart bee hives and can kill humans with multiple stings. Someone thinks they've sighted one every day, but they always turn out to be regular European hornets. As if COVID wasn't enough to worry about.

Besides doing yardwork and housework, schoolwork and workwork, we have been busy reading and catching up with movies and tv/cable shows. Tom and I just watched the "Maleficent 2" movie-we liked it, although Tom needed some play by plays since he never saw "Maleficent 1". We also saw "The Gentlemen" with Mathew McConaughey. Started out a bit slow and confusing, but got interesting and a bit violent. Still liked it. I also enjoyed the tv documentary on "The Roosevelts".  Especially the history around polio and Franklin D Roosevelt, including the camp and treatment center he refurbished in Hot Springs, Georgia. I knew about it, but did not know the history. I especially enjoyed watching the therapy sessions. Can't get away from the stair steps or those parallel bars!  Also busy cooking and baking. We have made quite a few banana muffins with all our ripe,  leftover bananas. Looks like everyone else is busy baking-lots of supplies missing from the baking shelves still like flour and sugar, cake and cookie mixes. I hear bread making is all the craze and it is hard to buy yeast. Still trying not to gain weight during house arrest. Fortunately for me I usually skip lunch at work since it is a big hassle to take off all the PPE before eating. And they really want us to eat our in our cars-they've removed all the tables and chairs from the break room and only allow 1-2 people in our snack shop at a time. We usually just eat at our desks since we have not had patients in our rehab gym since March, but it still feels risky. I am constantly wiping everything down with clorox wipes including computers, phones, tables and all our equipment. I see Costco removed all their tables and chairs from the snack shop and filled the area with appliances. There actually seemed to be less people shopping at Costco since their inventory seems low, especially for meat. And still a limit on the amount you can buy.

Our neighborhood also continues to organize donations, including donations for our local Food Pantry. We contributed to Scott's previous Cub Scout Pack collection, as well as a food collection put on by our local high school students. Nice for those groups to continue to participate in community affairs, even though they cannot be together. Especially for graduations and proms as the school year comes to an end. Last weekend the local high school graduates decorated their cars and had a small parade in our neighborhood. They'll also have a virtual televised graduation ceremony for all high school and college grads with Ravens football player Ray Lewis and Baseball champion Cal Ripken as guest speakers.

Many events wrapped up the month of May, including a sad event in Minneapolis of the death of a resident after being taken into custody by police. It set off multiple riots all over the US, including protests in downtown Baltimore. Fortunately as of now the damage is limited here in Maryland and no one seems to have been hurt. Unlike other more violent protests around the US, especially in Minneapolis with looting and vandalized buildings, attacks on police. Seems that people are especially frustrated at this time having been locked in their homes for so long due to the pandemic, and with so many out of work. Pray for a peaceful ending. And this week marks our vote by mail Primary Election. Tom and the kids are registered as Independent, so they can only vote for our Board of Education members at this time. And none of us can participate in the vote for Mayor of Baltimore which has been an interesting campaign. No doubt the city needs some serious help.

A happier event ended our month of May. Our family got to meet Allison's boyfriend Gabe for the first time. The two decided it was time to meet the parents! They felt since I was recently tested and came out negative for COVID, that it would be a safer time to get together. Allison did not want to spread anything to Gabe's family-both of his parents are diabetic, and his Dad has a heart condition. Plus they have traveled out of the country to Portugal prior to the shutdown. So they did not want to spread anything to us either. Currently Gabe is back living at home with his parents after he had a falling out with his college roommate. The two guys decided to part ways. Gabe is looking at possibly buying a house, but is quickly discovering how expensive they are here in the area. He really wanted a house with a yard. He'd like to put in a garden and even considered adding a chicken coop! Gabe came over late in the afternoon so he and Allison could go on a hike in nearby Patapsco State Park. They had to keep checking the web to see if the parking lots were open or not, filling up with cars. Fortunately at the park they visited, there were 5 different access points, so they got in and hiked for about 1.5 hrs. Allison said most of the people there were swimming and floating on their inner tubes in the river to cool off. They even spotted some deer and a fox when they took a shortcut heading home off the trail. When they came back, we sat outside on the patio and had a steak dinner. Gabe brought over a bottle of red Portuguese wine and some Portugal pastries. His parents are originally from Portugal. Gabe grew up in New Jersey, and the family moved to Maryland when Gabe's Dad took a job at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds where Gabe also works. Gabe also has a national security clearance like Allison. We parents managed to pick out a bit of info without being too overwhelming. We know he is 28 and Allison said he was in a serious relationship in the past, but the girl was not interested in getting married. We talked about the struggles of online dating. This was Allison's first attempt, so far so good. Gabe said he has met some strange women online. We know he has an older brother that is married with a baby on the way, and a younger sister-single and a hair stylist-all currently living with the parents. So at least Gabe is getting haircuts!  We know he went to catholic elementary school in New Jersey and was even an altar server. After dinner we sat out in the driveway and had a bonfire and cooked some s'mores and sipped some beer/wine. It was a lovely evening and we were glad that we got to finally meet Gabe. Tom especially enjoyed chatting to Gabe about computers, and I'm sure that Allison and Gabe were very happy to finally reconnect in person!

We also enjoyed watching the Spacex rocket launch of the Dragon capsule with the two astronauts from Cape Canaveral. Allison wore her NASA Dragon tshirt to mark the special event. I hear the rocket was named the Falcon after the Millenium Falcon spacecraft in Star Wars.

May 1st-May 15th, 8 weeks on House Arrest!

We finally made it to the Month of May. Only now has the Maryland Governor Hogan reported our state can begin to look at reopening. We are still primarily under the "essential" only rule, which means you are not supposed to leave your house unless you are an essential worker, like health care workers, restaurant employees-carry out only, Police and Fire Departments, Gas stations, US post office workers, employees from grocery and liquor stores or pharmacies, apparently Landscape companies, Walmart or Target employees, Home Depot and Lowes. And if you do go out,  you are required to wear a mask. I continue to do the big shopping at Costco and Sam's Club since I don't have to wait in line with my health care badge. Although items continue to be scarce, especially meat right now. I just went to our local Costco and they filled the entire meat counter with fish!  No red meat or chicken or pork to be found. They are still out of clorox wipes and most household cleaners, but paper towel and toilet paper are making a comeback. Primarily in the large club stores, not so much in the grocery stores. Also if they do have items there is a limit on how much you can purchase-only 10 cans of veggies, soup, beans. Rice is still on a limited supply, as are eggs-also limited amount that you can purchase here. There is more bread on the shelves(the kids found my fluffy English bagels!).  There seems to be enough fresh fruit and veggies-I try to keep the house stocked with those items for snacking. We are just finishing up our Easter basket goodies, but need to still watch the calorie count! Sometimes it is hard to shop when most of the items left on the shelves are junk food! Even cereal was starting to get picked over. And there are some very strange food items popping up as last resort. I found bags of fried fish skins at Costco! Really? Not even low carb for Tom!

The Governor just now allowed for the Phase 1 Mid May, soft re opening of parks, golf courses, tennis courts and beaches, but only if everyone keeps up "social distancing"-6 feet apart and no groups larger than 10 people. These areas are really only open for exercise but basketball courts and playground equipment is closed. No one is supposed to "hang out".  They also finally decided to continue with on line learning for Maryland schools until the end of this school year, June 12th. Not to reopen the buildings. Some churches are open but they are encouraging outdoor services and only 10 people allowed inside, like for funerals or weddings. I'm still enjoying my Sunday morning mass televised from Milwaukee(previously recorded).  And some of the counties can open hair salons, but most restaurants and bars are still take out only. Shops are curbside pick up. None of our hair salons are open, and Cookie is scheduled for grooming at Petsmart in 3 weeks!

Girl Scouts decided to cancel all summer camps including day camps. Troops are not allowed to meet in person, and all international trips have been cancelled or postponed. Allison and I would have been camping the first weekend in May where we help run a program for older girls at Camp Conowingo. This year's theme was The Renaissance(with Dragons and Archery and eating our food with our fingers-like Medieval Times). Guess we will just have to wait until next year. At least we have next year's weekend all planned out. Instead we spent the first weekend in May watching the flyover of the Thunderbirds and Blue Angels in Baltimore. Allison and I drove over to the Northrop parking lot near the airport for a front seat view. Quite a few other Northrop employees joined us, and even made a tailgate party of the event. People put out chairs, had lunch and watched their kids run around the expansive parking lot. The whole event only lasted a few minutes, and we only got to view them from the side. We brought Cookie along with us-it was a beautiful  day-nice and sunny. We decided to take Cookie for a walk on the BWI bike trail. Since all parks were closed, everyone decided to visit the bike trail that day! It is a bit hard to shut down a bike trail when it wraps around the airport. There were more bike riders than walkers, so we were not as worried about keeping our social distancing, although we were wearing masks. However, it is a bit hard to go on a hike with a warm face mask, and Cookie's fur coat is getting a bit heavy, so we only took a short walk. But it was nice to get out with a different view. We also tried to catch the flyover from the Baltimore National Guard the following weekend, but we could not see the planes from our house with all our big trees. We just heard them. Easy to do since there are so few planes in the sky now. 

We've celebrated(or not) several Holidays and special events over the past two weeks. We watched Star Wars on May 4th(Star Wars Day as in May the Force Be With You), and on Cinco De Mayo(May 5th), we enjoyed take out from Qdoba. Although we've noticed that the restaurant and some carry out food quality has diminished. Other events we had to modify this past month was how we celebrated Mother's Day. Hope you all enjoyed your special day Moms!  We probably would have gone out to eat, or celebrated at home with Mom B.  Instead, Scott and Allison spoiled me at home with two wonderful meals. I told Allison I am a brunch girl, but she likes to stick to her strict German roots of 3 meals/day at 7/12/6. Mainly because she is worried her iron levels will drop, and she's hungry! I'm pretty flexible on meal time, so she and Scott made me a deconstructed brunch in the morning with a lovely omelet(not their favorite, but it is mine!) They also made cucumber sandwiches and I washed it down with a Screwdriver. And for dinner they made a delicious chicken parmesan with bacon wrapped asparagus. Delicious. Allison also pulled up a Disney dessert recipe recently released. She opted for The Grey Stuff from Beauty and the Beast. Mostly Cool Whip mixed with vanilla and chocolate pudding and crushed Oreo cookies. We ate it with vanilla wafers. Very tasty. And the boys picked up some gardening items for me as a gift. The week before I dropped off a Mother's Day gift package to Mom B which included a short sleeved dressy blue top and some framed photos. I made prints of the family photo of Sarah and Patrick's wedding as well as a cute selfie of Allison, Mom and myself at our tea party last year. I also sent in photos to the facility to add to a Mother's Day video the Activity Dept made for the residents.

We still cannot visit in person. Maryland and the rest of the country seem to have lost the most people to Covid living in the nursing homes. Our county has not had as many deaths-38 total. And no resident diagnoses or deaths in my work facility or Mom's place so far from the virus compared to some nearby counties near DC with 400 deaths and most being in the nursing homes. Some facilities in Maryland have been hosting family parades at their places with residents sitting outside as family drives by to keep connected, or setting up visits through windows or glass doors. I have not been as keen on visiting with Mom B this way since I am not sure she would understand why we can't visit in person. I have been keeping up with her activities through emails and photos from the nursing staff and the facility Director. They were allowing the Assisted Living Facility residents a little more leeway coming out of their rooms, just keeping them separated in large living spaces. Recently the Maryland Dept of Health got tougher on restrictions and wants the residents to remain in their rooms at all times, including eating all their meals.  I know Mom B has a hard time understanding the reason for room restrictions, since no facility has been successful keeping her in quarantine in her apt before. Plus she can't remember the reason even after they tell her, so I think she is still probably going out to the activity room. I try to stay in contact via telephone, but don't always catch her in the room. But since they are serving meals in the apartment, I was finally able to get a hold of her more consistently. I also usually drop off a goody bag once a week with a card, some magazines and candy along with her clean laundry. No flowers or plants allowed since they are worried about possibly spreading the virus.

May 15th was Black Eyed Susan Day in Baltimore-the celebration before The Preakness horse race which would be on May 16th. The Preakness is the second leg of horse racing-the first being The Kentucky Derby which was cancelled. They talked about having the races with no people attending, but I guess it was too much to organize. Plus they have to move the horses all around the country. Instead they have currently rescheduled for October. Well, we can still eat Derby Pie and drink Mint Julips. And wear crazy, big hats!  The weekend before the Preakness our county hosts the Hot Air Balloon Festival. When Scott was in scouts we often volunteered to help unroll and roll up the hot air balloons, as well as hold the tethers as they float above the greens-a lot of hard work. But we always had a close up and personal experience with the balloons when they held it here at our Golf Course Resort. Over the past few years the event outgrew the space and they moved it to our Fairgrounds. The event is free, but you have to pay for parking. They added a stage with live music besides food and vendor tents. Also activities for kids like pony and go cart rides. Not to mention a quick ride in a balloon while it is tethered. And if the weather is too rainy, too windy, too cold, the balloons can't fly. So we have not been to the event since Scott received his Eagle and aged out of scouts during his senior year in high school. I especially enjoyed attending the event at the Golf Course in the evening when they lit up all the balloons. We could sit right on the lawn and had a front row seat to watch them inflate all the different types of balloons and then light them up with the gas tanks on board. I also loved that I was able to bring my parents to the event in the past and drive right up in the parking lot for a front row seat for a once in a lifetime experience.


Meanwhile, I keep going into work M-F for about 3-4 hrs a day as things have been slowing down. Hospitals have not been receiving patients for non emergency surgeries so our rehab facility census has been low. Not sure what is happening to the emergency treatments that usually come to us. Maybe going home with Home Health services, but some people don't want strangers coming in their house and some Health Care employees don't want to travel around. Our staff is not allowed to work in other facilities to avoid possibly spreading the virus. We continue to treat our Long Term Care residents and those living in the Assisted Living Facility. Its nice since most of these people have not had therapy services for quite some time if at all. We are usually so busy with patients coming in and out from the hospital that we don't always get to fully address the needs of our residents as much as we'd like, or spend as much time with them. Or they just get missed-especially the residents in the ALF setting.  However, since we are not bringing in patients at this time, we have more time to address their needs, but we also have to watch our productivity more closely. So they don't want us spending too much time with the patients, or spending time at work doing things we can't bill for like reorganizing  the rehab gym or our educational handouts or finishing our online training sessions. So we all try to get in and get out. I even had a 3 day weekend for Mother's Day since my boss gave me my Friday off. And it looks like we are going to stop coming in on Saturdays since there is just not enough work to go around right now. On the other hand, we were told staff could not request vacation at this time. Plus some staff have had to take their vacation hours to make up time just to get paid. We therapists thought we could be useful working along with the nursing staff since we have enough of the training, but so far we have been fully staffed with limited illness and call outs. Which is good, but  they really don't need the extra help at this time. There are a few local facilities that have switched to Covid only patients. I understand there were some therapists working in the hospitals along side the nursing staff assisting with turning the patients on their stomachs to improve their breathing.  It reminds me of the history of my previous facility in Downey, California. Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center was filled with iron lung patients during the polio outbreak which helped them breath when their respiratory muscles were too weak, much like the use of the ventilators today. Except the iron lung worked on the outside and lately I think the iron lungs might have been safer. Some Covid patients have had problems with blood clots leading to strokes or even amputations apparently caused by forcing too much O2 into the lungs. The OT profession partially grew out of nurses assisting with Activities of those patients placed in the iron lungs with limited mobility. Not only may some of the Covid patients benefit from OT services, but PT and Speech Therapy to assist in their breathing and speech following intubation. However, not everyone wants to especially work with COVID patients. I can understand why. Especially when some of the patients seem to become reinfected, or don't actually recuperate and pass away later at home. We have had some very sad stories in our area. And the Maryland Governor and the Md State Health Dept has requested that all Nursing Home residents be tested, along with the staff. Our facility is on the bottom of the list for testing since we have not had any positive cases in our residents. And the Assisted Living Facilities do not fit in the same requirements, so Mom B probably  won't be tested unless necessary. Not sure how long it will be until I have to be tested.

Scott finished his Spring Term and received a certificate for making the Dean's List. He started his Summer I session on May 4th in Engineering Statistics. He has a class and a lab session. Mostly they use the lab session to do assignments. Right now he is studying Probability and they are using lots of Covid numbers for their stats assignments. How convenient.

Tom also finished his recent online PhD class, number two out of three. His third starts in June. These classes are for "no credit", but paves the way to setting up working on the Thesis. He actually had more of these classes required of him, but he bargained down the requirement with the Dean last year. Seemed a waste of time and money to take an extensive amount of "no Credit" classes to complete research when  he already has enough information collected and learn how to write annotated bibliographies which he already knows how to do. And that is what this final phase is supposed to be(besides taking your money!). So he finished the second class and his current professor contacted his previous professor so they both can help guide Tom on narrowing down his Thesis project. Tom really liked his last professor since he has a good understanding of Tom's subject. And since Tom has been working from home, and we really can't go anywhere, he has had more time to focus on his class and Thesis project.

And he had some time after his class to work on a few projects around the house, including upgrading my computer(mine has been running slow which takes me longer to write my blog!)  He also replaced his pagoda cover over the grill. Last year he bought a cloth covered pagoda that he placed over the grill to keep the snow and rain off when we're grilling. But the cloth cover did not last, so he bought a hard cover pagoda. Seems to be working so far! 

We also had a bit of a warm up at the beginning of the month, so I could not help myself and went out and stood in line at Home Depot with the rest of the neighborhood to buys some flowers and pepper plants. I was just concerned that the supplies would be limited if I didn't jump on it when I was there. I was also using Scott's free time between semesters to help with the planting. He is my little gardener(mainly since he doesn't have as bad of allergies as Tom and Allison). He was very excited to help me work on cleaning out my flower garden and replanting some potted plants, as well as putting in new plants like jalapenos and cutting the lawn. And we started some veggies and flowers from seed, hanging them in zip lock bags in the kitchen window. I usually wait until after Mother's Day to make sure it stays warm, but it was so nice out and I was tired of looking at my dreary flower pots. Naturally, we had a blast of cold from a Polar Vortex last week and I had to cover up my new plants due to freeze warnings. They had some damage, but I think they will make a come back. I've also been busy trimming bushes and raking up leaves and trims, cleaning up the flower beds.

Nature seems to have noticed less people around. Our backyard certainly has been busy with wildlife. Our mama bunny came back to have her family under our shed. And we have had tons of busy birds nesting and feeding at our bird feeder. It makes life interesting!  They say the air is so much cleaner with less exhaust from vehicles and manufacturing plants operating. And it is definitely quieter! So few planes are flying overhead towards BWI, and much less traffic noise from nearby I-70. It is especially eerily quiet at night. Less traffic on the roads although lots more bicyclists and people out walking and taking their dogs for walks, especially in our neighborhood. You have to be careful when you are driving down our local streets since there are so many more kids and adults out in the road now. People got comfortable with less traffic, and are trying to walk with social distancing. And I think people have forgotten how to drive! Lots of speeders and people running STOP signs. Our local police noted they passed out over 700 speeding tickets in one weekend alone on I-95, with people driving around 95mph and faster! Our county alone passed out 400 speeding tickets. And DC was having trouble with motorcycles and 3 wheelers in large groups driving on sidewalks and streets, not following any traffic rules. The most traffic we see nowadays is from Amazon delivery service and Landscape trucks. People just decided they can drive any way they want I guess with less traffic on the roads. However, rules still apply!

So while everyone is stuck at home, pretty much the entire neighborhood has been out doing yardwork or hired landscape companies. That is about all we can do right now. And everyone(including us)have been busy trying to clean out closets and garages. The only problem is that you have no place to take your stuff if you're trying to get rid of it. The resale shops and Goodwill are all closed, as well as the local dump. Instead our neighborhood does the "for free" at driveway or sells things on our web page. Allison has been collecting items for an apartment-she added some lamps and a recliner chair from our friends, Dan and Gloria. She's hoping to find her own place this summer. Our neighbor's son recently moved out to his own apartment, and their daughter moved to another townhouse with friends, so they had extra furniture. Scott snagged a fog machine(great for Halloween!). I boxed up some of the kids extra socks they outgrew and some of Tom's and Scott's clothes for local donations as well as extra kids books.  Our neighborhood has also organized food and water donations for local and downtown Baltimore shelters/food banks which we participated in. I even dropped off some prepackaged brownies(tip from Mark and Linda) to the women that provided us with free face masks in the neighborhood, as well as some to the staff at Mom B's place. Can't do homemade since everything needs to be anti virus vacuum packed!

Allison is still working from home and will officially switch to her last intern placement at Northrop in August. Tom had thought Allison could use her own space and had talked about looking for an apartment this summer after the start of her last work rotation.  She was waiting to see what building she would be working in before settling on an area to look for apartments.  Not that we are trying to kick her out. I love having both of the kids around. They are such a big help around the house, and Scott and Allison get along very well. I think Cookie especially loves the extra attention! But we figured Allison would love her own space, so on a cold, windy Saturday we decided to do some apartment shopping. Mainly just to get an idea of locations and narrow down the choices. We really were not able to tour anything. All of the Leasing offices are closed. You can contact someone on the phone, but they don't want to show anything or have you fill out an application unless you are ready to move in right away. So guess we will take a look closer to the summer months. She did see some buildings closer to work that she is interested in.

We continue to keep entertained by catching up with movies and tv shows. Tom rented "Knives Out"-it was ok and "Ford vs Ferrari" which we really enjoyed. And the kids rented the new "Scooby Doo" cartoon/movie which was also OK. I think I liked "Sonic" better. And the release of Chef Gordon Ramsay's "24 Hrs To Hell and Back" in Olde Ellicott City came out on Tuesday, May 12th. I had signed up as a volunteer with Howard County Ecoworks to assist in some clean up in Old Town during taping of the show, but they changed the date and did not need me. So I missed out on meeting Gordon Ramsay. Poop. Instead, Ecoworks invited me to a "Watch Party" where they play the show on tv in a local restaurant and serve food(BYOB-buy your own booze). Naturally, that was cancelled due to the corona virus. So we enjoyed it here at home. It was crazy watching the two devastating floods in Olde Town again, with cars and people getting washed down the road and the water rising to the second level of the buildings. It was interesting to see how the county has mapped out a plan for removal of some of the buildings near the river, but they seemed to blame the flood on water rising in the river. Which has happened in the past due to hurricanes. This time it was the other way around with water rushing down the street to the river. One of Tom and Scott's favorite restaurants was featured in the show, The Phoenix Emporium. The owner held out as long as he could, but finally sold his building to the county as he is located at the end of the street on the corner right before you arrive at the river. Instead, Ramsay helped him and his staff move to a Brewery/Restaurant up the road after the owner purchased the company, Ellicott Mills Brewery. So now it's Phoenix on the Hill with a new menu and seating arrangement that we have not had the chance to try out. He also spruced up a small sandwich cafe off the back parking lot. They put in a fire pit and you can purchase a s'more kit and make it yourself outside. That looks like fun! He also reorganized a 3 story coffee shop with a barber shop on the top floor. The business seems to have more to offer now. It looks to take the place of our previous coffee shop that will also be knocked down which is a shame. That building had quite a history, starting off as a funeral parlor!  By the way, several of these buildings are said to have been haunted!  Sadly there are still quite a few empty buildings in Old Town, and with the virus lock down it has not helped them get up and running again. After watching the show, Tom felt obliged to drop in on our favorite wine store there, The Wine Bin, owned and operated by an MSU grad and Michigan family to pick up a bottle of wine "to go". Restaurants and shops will not reopen until our area is in Phase II and III. After the show aired, the local news played some interviews they had with Gordon Ramsay after the taping. He mentioned how much he liked our area and that it reminded him of home. He said he called his wife and told her they should consider retiring in this area!  He also owns a steak restaurant in downtown Baltimore at the Horse Shoe casino which I would love to visit with Tom (some day).

Well, I need to get to my mail in ballot for the Primaries. Recently we completed mail in ballots for a replacement for our local congressional rep who passed away last fall, Elijah Cummings. I would rather not be involved in this vote since the District covers our county, along with Baltimore City and Baltimore County. I would like to wash my hands of Baltimore. They have made some very poor choices in leadership over the past few years. So far they have had two women mayors, both kicked out of office during the past 5 years due to crimes. One wrote some kid's health books, sold them to Johns Hopkins and several other medical systems in the area, took the money but never printed or delivered the books. She was sentenced to 3 years in federal prison, but has not yet started her imprisonment yet due to the Covid scare. The previous mayor was kicked out after they found she stole gift cards from the office and bought herself gifts and she is currently running for the office again as the top choice! So we recently had two candidates running for Congress-two african american candidates. One was an elderly male running on the Democratic ticket, held the position before, had been the head of the local NAACP and was forced out for doing a poor job, along with womanizing complaints and the other candidate was a young married mom who heads a local non profit organization to assist disadvantaged women with jobs,  running on the Republican ticket and she lost. Maybe she got the wrong press when she defended Trump's review of Baltimore as a 'rat and rodent infested city'. So much for all the daily propaganda that Baltimore is a city in crisis and needs to make drastic changes. Meanwhile, the homicides continue, even during the corona virus lockdown-but the rats are definitely out!  And the current interim Mayor feels that the government should financially bail out Baltimore, although it was losing money before the pandemic. Mainly because tourism was down since people were afraid to go into the city, especially after the Freddie Gray riots 5 years ago.  Doesn't really feel like Baltimore wants to change for the better. We'll see how Baltimore comes through this.