July 6-July 10, 2020 Week 17 COVID

We are busy getting ready for our upcoming Seitz family vacation in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. The weeks and months leading up to this trip have been rather stressful as we have been busy watching the COVID spread. Here in Maryland the numbers hospitalized for COVID have been decreasing. Looks like Texas, Florida and California have the worst numbers especially in large cities. At work, we started getting tested every week now, including the patients and residents. I am still happy that they do the oral testing at work. I am not happy with our new Rehab company. We have been so overwhelmed with learning a new computer program on a smaller Ipad Apple Mini. We don't have the best internet connection in our building, so it really slows things down when trying to type out notes. Plus we had to put all our current patients information in the computer so we could move forward on documentation. It took me a week. They also are attempting to start us on their usual program routine which includes two meetings each week, both for 1 hr. Most of the meetings are set up for continued learning. That would normally be a nice addition, but not right now. Probably would not have been as bad if we had our limited number of patients. However, starting July 1st, our facility decided we needed to start taking in more patients. Including some that have tested positive for COVID. An added stressor while planning on going on vacation.

And to top it off, one of our OT team members is out for two weeks with a COVID diagnosis. We also found out that our new management will not provide extra pay for sick time with a COVID diagnosis. You can use your own time off, 80 hours worth of time, but we don't even have any time earned since we just started. So they said we could start taking negative time and work it off later. Great. Plus they let one of our OT members go for now, so we are really short on help. I already had an argument with my boss and fellow OT about working 6 days/wk. I politely declined. I am happy to work on the weekends if I can have a day off during the week. Or sometimes they need extra help for an hour or so, to do evaluations. I can be flexible, but I don't want them to get in the habit of expecting us to work 6 days/wk. We apparently talked management into rehiring our OT assistant, at least as a part time/as needed/PRN staff member, but they have not yet brought her back.  I have been working 10 hr days, treating 10 patients each day. Not easy during normal operations, but even worse when you have to worry about PPE and disinfecting supplies and equipment. At least they started giving us the N 95 masks to wear on the COVID unit. As I mentioned before, I declined to work with the known COVID patient. I did not want to take any further chances on catching something before vacation. Also we have patients spread out around the building and they need to be seen in a certain order to avoid spreading possible COVID germs. Which makes it tougher for all of the therapists to see the patients on the same day. Also, once we go onto the COVID unit, we cannot see any other patients the rest of the day in any other part of the building.  It does not help that the facility has also been moving people off the unit during the day after they complete their 14 day quarantine with no symptoms and not telling us ahead of time. It really messes up our treatment schedule. We are still seeing patients in their rooms, one at a time. At least I got a better handle on the new software, but it is definitely not user friendly. I am getting a bit of last minute technology training with our new systems. I was just excited to find my speaker button on my cell phone when I had to run two family meetings from the COVID unit! That is saying something when I compare myself to our good friend and neighbor, Dan who does not even own a cell phone! I am just glad I did not have to figure out how to do Telehealth services-doesn't exactly work when you are in a hands-on profession. I have been very impressed with our Speech Therapist who spent several hours treating patients in another facility over the phone.

So I have been trying to get some things done for our trip in the evenings when I get home, although it is tougher when I get off work so late. I did get my tires checked at Costco and filled up on gas on Friday night. I also dropped off supplies to Mom B. since I was going to be gone for a week. And I had to get her laundry back to her, so I was busy washing clothes. Plus packing for our trip. I usually don't have to worry about packing cleaning supplies, or extra pillows, but it seemed like a good idea. I have been stockpiling some cleaning supplies, paper goods and snacks for the trip, along with some tasty meat. Don't think we are going to do a whole lot of eating out in restaurants during this trip. Tom was hoping I could have Friday off to pack or even leave early. That was our original plan when I only worked 4 days/wk. Instead I had to go into work on Friday. We also thought we could spend some time on a few side trips on the way down to Tennessee, but that was before COVID.

Tom and Allison enjoyed dinner at a coworkers house with her family during the week. Allison also traveled up to Girl Scout Camp during the week after work to participate in a virtual online Campfire Sing a Long. She was so excited to sit out by the campfire and belt out GS songs on a cell phone. I was impressed they even had any internet connection out there!

I  put Scott to work getting ready for our trip since he is done with his online class and is not working. I had him cut the grass and water all our plants. Although I am not sure why we even bother to try to grow veggies. Between the deer, our one chipmunk and now the squirrels, we have lost all our tomatoes as well as all the blossoms off our zucchini and cucumber plants. The deer also ate up my Tiger Lily and Day Lily flowers in the back yard as well as my potato vine and zinnia flowers next to the garage doors. Tom ran out and picked up a squirrel cage to see if he can trap a few a decrease their population. We seem to have a small squirrel family in our yard that love our sunflowers in the bird feeder. I must admit, the squirrels are adorable and seem rather young. They love to play and chase each other all over the front and backyard, but they are a pain. I have caught them chewing on my bee house, and it looks like they nibbled on all the green tomatoes. I found a tomato in the driveway. Looks like the only thing we can grow for ourselves are the jalapenos.

 I also had Scott drop off and pick up Tom's shirts from the laundromat and drop off Cookie to our friends, Beth and Barry after he gave Cookie a bath. He was also busy cleaning up his room, cleaning the turtle tank and installing the new automatic turtle feeder I picked up for him.

Fortunately I got off work a bit earlier on Friday, ran my errands and came home and packed the van. We also put all of our bikes on the bike rack, so we were ready to roll early Saturday morning.

July 11-July 19th. COVID Cabin Vacation! Week 18

We headed out for Tennessee early on Saturday morning for our Seitz Family vacation. We were joining Grandpa Seitz, Tom's brother Mark and Wife Linda Seitz, their son Eric, his wife Sarah and daughter Claire and their daughter Stacey and her husband Matt. Unfortunately, Tom's sister Susan and husband John opted out this year, and the Seitz family friend, Alex from Germany was unable to travel to the US.  We could not check into the cabin until 4pm, and the drive was about 8.5 hrs. A very nice car trip since it was the back roads through Virginia on I-81. A whole lot less traffic than traveling south on I-95. Although these days there is a lot less traffic on most roads. I noticed it has been a bit busier, but still not the normal traffic jams. And people are still driving crazy because there is less traffic. Also the protests across the country for social injustice has slowed a bit, but COVID seems to be spreading more so in the South and Western states.

We arrived around 3:30 Saturday afternoon and started unloading the van until 4pm while the cleaning crew finished up. The cabin is located in a cluster of rental units built off the side of a small mountain near the Pigeon Forge strip. The cabins are built on the side of a mountain, 5 stories tall! We all enjoyed our own rooms and bathrooms, as well as a large game room and movie theater, family room and big kitchen table to share meals. Pigeon Forge is basically a tourist town and looks like a combination of Orlando and Myrtle Beach. Lots of tourist places like The Titanic Museum, Wonder Works and the Hollywood Wax Museum. Lots of dinner theaters including the Dollywood Stampede and buffet restaurants, putt putt golf courses and water parks. And traffic on the main strip was incredible! Bumper to bumper, and that's in COVID times. We can't imagine what the traffic looks like during normal times!  There's also an outdoor downtown shopping and entertainment center called The Island surrounded by two rivers with a walkway. It was nice to be so close to all the activity, but being in our cabin felt very isolated. Although we had a little bit of an issue with noisy neighbors hanging out on their deck late at night. Not exactly spreading out room on the side of a mountain!

We had to stop into the grocery store for some extra supplies for the week and ran into the Kroger. So did everyone else on the planet! We could not believe how busy the stores were. Very crowded but most people were wearing masks. I was just excited that I could still use my parent's home phone number for discounts! We enjoyed some hot dogs for dinner and Allison and I got busy on a few puzzles.

On Sunday morning I put on my Wisconsin Catholic mass on tv. Afterwards our family decided to tour a local knife store(world's largest!). Besides looking at tons of knives there were  popular swords from video games and movies/shows like The Game of Thrones and The Hobbit. We also toured the civil war museum and crystals/fossil collection and kitchen item stores located in the basement.  Tom and Scott visited the cast iron store nearby and Scott bought himself a mini cast iron pan. we opted to get lunch to go at The Monster Mash Burger joint. The whole place has classic monster posters on the wall and they play monster themed music. The kids especially enjoyed listening to the theme from Disney's Haunted Mansion. We also wanted to do spend part of the day doing some hiking in the nearby Smoky Mountain National Park. We headed to a few popular trails in the mountains after lunch with waterfalls through the town of Gatlinburg. Also very touristy. Unfortunately, the trails are very popular and there is no parking on the small roads running through the mountains. So we drove past the trails and out of the park(after a short cut straight up the curvy mountain roads and then down again which completely terrified Allison and I think killed my car air conditioner!)  We still were interested in some hiking, so we found a paved trail along the Pigeon River in a park that Eric, Sarah and Claire had walked earlier in the day before heading back for a rib dinner. We wanted to stop into the Bush's Bean museum and store, but sadly they were shut down for COVID.

On Monday we celebrated Allison's 25th Birthday! We were still interested in hiking and this time headed to The Smoky Mountains through  Townsend, a much less crowded tourist town. We found a wonderful dirt trail traveling alongside a rocky river. We discovered that you needed to go early before any other tourists woke up if you wanted to do anything. The park opened at 8am, so we started our hike at that time and had no trouble getting parking and hardly saw any other hikers on the path. It was so wonderful to spend time in the mountains.  After returning to the cabin for lunch, Tom, Allison and I headed over to an indoor shooting range to try our hand at machine gun shooting! The range had a special 30 min range time with ammo and a lesson on shooting an M 4 automatic military grade weapon. Plus a tshirt! We bought a session for Allison and some extra ammo for me to also take a lesson too. We had a great time and even had a few gentlemen come over and watch us shoot! We all had  dinner together and enjoyed some custom cupcakes we picked out for Allison at a nearby bakery while she opened a few presents I packed as well as some gifts from the family. I think little Claire loved Allison's birthday balloon the most!

Happy Birthday Wishes to Nicholas Bozyk whose special day landed on Friday, July 17th. Happy Birthday Nick!

On Tuesday the Seitz men headed off for a White Water Rafting trip. Allison, Stacey and I decided to try and find some bears in the Smoky Mountains. Everyone recommends driving through Cades Cove in the Smoky Mountains to catch a glimpse of the bears. We did the long, non stop drive on a one way road through the Smoky mountains. We did spot lots of turkeys and deer, but just missed the bear sighting according to the Park Rangers! It was still a beautiful drive with lots of meadows and woods and the big mountains in the back. In the afternoon I tried to visit the community swimming pool, but it was packed. Instead, Allison and I found a sandy spot to swim in a river near the entrance to  the Smoky Mountain National Park. We certainly had quite an experience climbing down the rocky river bank and crossing the swift, rocky river to the opposite sandy shore. The water was very refreshing and very clear. We had fun looking at all the fish while wading in the river and relaxing on the shoreline .  The men also reported having a great run on the river and none of them fell in!

On Weds we took Grandpa tubing on a local river. This was his first tubing trip and mine also. We figured it was going to be a relaxing, lazy river kind of event. Unfortunately, the entire population of Tennessee also showed up and the river was so low, we spent most of our time getting stuck on boulders. The river was a solid yellow of inner tubes for 2.5 hrs, and I relied on Scott and complete strangers to push and pull me down the river. Meanwhile, Allison was busy helping Grandpa and cousin Stacey(with her recently operated on ankle) make their way down the river. I was too worried to get out of my tube since I did not think I would be able to get back in!  I also knew I would have a hard time walking down a rocky river bed. Since I had never been tubing, I did not know what to expect and was not upset by the experience. But our seasoned "tubers" assured me it was terrible and want me to go with them in Maryland. Anyway, it gave Grandpa and I an adventure to really remember!  And if that wasn't enough of a thrill for the day, a few of us decided to try out the nearby mountain coaster rather than take our chances at Dollywood during COVID times. A small group tried out the coaster first thing in the morning-a small cart pulls you up the mountain and then you ride down a curvy rail with hand controls to manage your speed. They had so much fun we went at night when the lights were on. And it was packed. The group stood in line for an hour before boarding but everyone had on masks and they kept everyone separated. I just hung out and took photos, but it was a beautiful night and felt like a visit to the Amusement park.

July 15th Happy Extended Tax Day!  Fortunately(or unfortunately), our family had completed our taxes back in April. Mom Bozyk's taxes were extended, so I was busy signing paperwork and making out checks to the government before our trip. Our accountant waited to submit the sale of the Florida house since Mom had to pay a hefty capital gain sales tax. We checked out the Florida house since it was flipped and posted for sale on Zillow. What an amazing transformation and the house was initially  up for sale near $1 mil. Dad Bozyk sure knew how to pick the waterfront properties!

On Thursday we decided to get out our bikes. We all had a hard time deciding on a bike trail. No one wanted to ride up and down hills. There was a long paved trail alongside a road outside of The Smoky Mountain National Park that half of our group decided to try out after revisiting the river hiking trail. Our family opted for the paved bike path in town. We parked at the end of the trail in a park and unloaded. We headed down a beautiful pathway along a river, behind The Island. Since it was early enough in the morning, the pathway was pretty clear and we quickly rode through a small neighborhood into The Island Shopping and Entertainment area. None of the shops were open, so we continued on to the end of the bike path at another park where an outdoor, social distancing high school graduation was going on. We also drove past The Pirate Voyage Theater(Dolly Parton production) and stopped to check out their barking seals in an outdoor pool!  The shops were beginning to open as we returned to The Island so we locked our bikes and stopped into a few shops, including Parrot Mountain. They have a local zoo that houses just exotic birds and you can actually purchase hand fed baby birds. This was their local store and they had several bins of baby birds as well as adult parrots on display. Allison and I had a great time chatting with all the birds! After lunch at the cabin, Tom, Allison and I decided to tour a local cave. Scott was not as comfortable heading into the crowded cave with COVID issues, but we figured we could keep ourselves separated. However, it turns out a whole lot of other people decided caving was a great idea, and unfortunately most people did not wear masks and our group was rather large. But we decided to give it a go, kept our masks on and kept moving forward while keeping our hands clean with hand sanitizer. It really was a wonderful cave to explore with an underground river and waterfall and a very large, open underground cavern. And a whole lot of stairs and small bridges over the underground rivers. We spent 1.5 hrs hiking through the cave which was a great relief from the excessive heat and temperatures above ground in the upper 90s. And when we came out, it was raining. Allison especially enjoyed watching the thunderstorms roll in over the mountains from the deck of the cabin. It's amazing how loud the thunder is in the mountains and quite a light show with all the lightning. The rain was a nice break since the temperatures were in the upper 90s all week.

Friday was fishing day! Our group had to split up since we only had one pontoon boat which took 4 of us at a time, plus the captain, Ryan. Scott joined the early morning group and Allison and I went out before lunch. The temperatures were getting pretty hot, and fish are not usually biting as much later in the day but Allison and I managed to each catch a fish-a hybrid for Allison and a bass for me. Allison seemed to have the lucky pole! Since it was later in the day, the lake was not as crowded and we were all just so happy to be able to spend time on the lake with a relaxing boat ride. The lake was about an hour drive from the cabin with a large dam at one end and multiple small islands scattered along the entire length. We even spotted a few nesting eagles.  A wonderful end to a wonderful vacation. That evening I ran back into town to pick up a few souvenirs and watched the wave of the new tourists arriving for another busy week.

Thank you so much Grandpa S for another terrific family get together! Wish we did not have to worry about the COVID virus, but we did enjoy a break from the daily stress we have all been under since the beginning of the pandemic in March. It was terrific getting to spend time in a new part of the US, especially The Rocky Mountains. When we weren't exploring tourist areas, we enjoyed relaxing at the cabin, reading on the deck, doing puzzles, watching movies in the cabin movie theater, relaxing in the hot tub, spotting wildlife including a feral kitten and enjoying little Claire's conversations and activities! Tom even managed to get in some school work and Allison connected with her D and D group via internet one evening. We also enjoyed some tasty meals together including ribs, burgers, spaghetti, pizza, steak and of course, Taco Tuesday!  It was nice having a grill out on the back deck to prepare our own meals.  Here's hoping for a family visit again next year that is COVID free!

We also had some wonderful news from Eric and Sarah Seitz. They are expecting another little girl in November and picked out the name Emma Kathleen.  Claire will have a partner in crime!

June 29-July 5th, Week 16 Covid  Wear a Mask!

Happy Birthday America! The 4th of July landed on a beautiful and very hot Saturday. With Covid, there were no parades, concerts, fireworks or parties this year. We were looking forward to the return of our BSO(Baltimore Symphony Orchestra) 4th of July concert and fireworks. We missed it last year while the BSO was on strike. Instead, we spent the day preparing food for an evening dinner party with our neighbors. We joined Dan and Gloria for a rib dinner with Key Lime Pie for dessert. Scott and I were not too hungry though since we broke down and enjoyed some coney dogs during the day. We were inspired by the 4th of July Nathan Hot Dog eating contest. I also pulled out some old fireworks and Scott and Allison had a great time in the evening shooting off all kinds of old noisemakers. So did the rest of the neighborhood it seems. Boy was it loud! Poor Cookie sat on everyone's lap that evening.

On Sunday evening we enjoyed a "Hamilton" watch party with Dan and Gloria. They came over for pizza and salad and we watched together. Tom enjoyed it more than he thought he would. Allison and I really enjoyed it and Dan and Gloria did too. We also enjoyed an ice cream cake to celebrate Allison's birthday early. We are planning on traveling to Tennessee to visit with Tom's family next week and Allison's birthday falls on July 13th. We decided to celebrate a bit early by opening some of her birthday presents that we did not want to pack. She got a lot of clothes, mostly exercise clothes and shorts. Plus she was asking for an electric kettle to make her hot tea, and Tom bought her a sushi making kit since she and Gabe really enjoyed trying to make their own. She also picked out a new Vera Bradley purse online since they were on sale. We also discovered Vera Bradley face masks so we each bought one for our upcoming vacation to Tennessee, and I purchased a duffle bag. So Sunday morning, we opened some of her gifts and enjoyed cake with Dan and Gloria that evening. We were so surprised to see Dan and Gloria had bought her a present as well-and it turned out to be a Vera Bradley cosmetic case!  Too funny. Allison and I also treated ourselves to a mani-pedi on Friday. I desperately needed a pedicure. Our salon takes reservations and does not have very many people in the shop at once. All the seats are spread out and have plastic barriers between the staff and customers. After Allison and I had a pedicure, we asked if we could get a manicure since they were taking precautions. And we were all wearing masks. It felt like heaven!

I also spent Sunday afternoon visiting face to face with my Mom! The facility opened the door of their hair salon and I was able to sit outside and chat with my mask on for about 20 mins. It was the first time since March that I was able to see her. Naturally I did all the talking, and Mom seemed to enjoy watching the large, fluffy clouds blowing past, as well as the wind in the trees and the birds and planes overhead. I am sure she also enjoyed getting a breath of fresh air. She has been taken out to the courtyard occassionally for a walk and picnics at times. But mostly the state is demanding residents stay in their apartments.

June 22-28, 2020 Week 15 Corona Virus Pandemic

So I finally received a job offer last Sunday night from the contract company, RehabCare. Apparently my email bounced back(recruiter spelled Seitz wrong). Our Rehab staff was busy emailing each other last week. At first, our full time OT was the only one to get a job offer. I got my offer last Sunday night and one of our OT assistants received her offer on Monday. Our other OT assistant did not get an offer. Both of those girls have been at the facility for 10 years. I feel really bad for the staff that did not get a job offer. Our rehab manager was offered a position, as was our 2 PTs and one PT assistant. The other two PT assistants are not interested. We also have two Speech Therapists. One was sent to another facility but both received job offers. None of us were offered our current salaries. We all took a pay cut. But at least this contract company pays for Holidays and Continuing Education after 90 days, plus a 401K plan. Not like the last contract company I had to deal with at my previous job. They did not offer any of that. And this contract company considers 30 hrs work week full time, so I don't have to commit to 40 hrs.  We will start with our new management on July 1. I have been busy filling out all their online paperwork. Not easy in a big Tstorm when the power kept flicking on and off. We had so much rain we thought for sure Ellicott City would flood again. Good thing it stopped when it did. Our neighborhood streets were beginning to back up and flood. We had lots of trees and branches down from wind and soaking rain and half of our neighborhood lost power. So far this year though we have not had many severe storms.

Meanwhile I needed to take my 3 Personal Days so I would not lose the pay, so I took off Weds to Friday. I will get paid for my vacation time, but we lose all our sick time. Our company must have been feeling sorry for the staff, (or they received some government funding) because we all got a Covid Bonus check. It's just that the therapy checks were smaller than the rest of the staff. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth though. Helps cover a bit of our lost sick time. But now we have to start all over building up Paid Time Off. I still have vacation scheduled for July with the Seitz family in Tennessee, so I already informed the new company that I am taking the time off. So far it is not too busy, so the staff should be able to manage. My coworker was supposed to take off some time too for her daughter's wedding, but the family decided to postpone the ceremony until next year. Pretty much the entire staff postponed or cancelled their vacation plans. Our supervisor was supposed to travel to Hawaii after their daughter's high school graduation. Right now if you travel to Hawaii, you are put into quarantine for 14 days. I could do that if I was independently wealthy! Of course, I would end up staying longer than 14 days! The question is, when you get some place, what is actually open or available. Maryland is currently in Phase 2 of reopening. The mall opened and Allison and Gabe took a stroll through the building, but Allison said not all the stores are open. It's hard to tell sometimes what is or is not open at this time. Restaurants opened indoors at 50% capacity. Most Marylanders are wearing masks when they go out. Even gloves if you have to touch a lot of things like shopping carts or the gas pumps. The staff at the stores are still wiping down the carts after use or have cleaning supplies available at the doors to wipe down the handles. Our YMCA reopened, but I am not interested in working out on the machines. The exercise classes are still being held outside.  I attended the pool aerobics classes, and those have not been restarted, just swimming laps. And you need a reservation.

Most importantly my hair salon reopened! Allison and I could not take it anymore, so we headed in to get our hair cut. Almost Heaven! They check your temperature, everyone is wearing a mask, including us through the whole process and limited number of people. I would have loved getting highlights, but was really not planning on spending that much time in the salon(usually takes over an hour for highlights and cut). Instead, our salonist, Ellie had my hair washed, cut and blow dried in about 20 mins. Same for Allison. She is even offering to cut hair at your house.  Now it is much more tolerable wearing all the safety gear at work with shorter hair! Tom and Scott are still holding out. And to top it off, Allison and I are getting a pedicure next week! Probably skipping the manicure. I don't mind someone working on my feet, but I can skip the fingernails for now.

And the Maryland zoo reopened! Since we are members, we took advantage of the Members only days and Allison, Scott and I went on Friday. Weds and Thursday sold out. You have to buy tickets ahead of time and make a timed entry reservation. Keeps the numbers down and people spread out. They are only open from 10-4, and reservations were every half hour. We got in at noon on Friday after Allison got her hair cut and brought in our lunch. It was nice to get out for a big walk around the zoo, and see the cute baby chimps! One of the zoo curators said they need to put away the cute babies cause it leads to too much grouping of humans in one area. A few displays were closed, including cramped, indoor spaces like their cave with Maryland night creatures.

I also spent some of my time off running errands-dropping off supplies for my mom. Still cannot visit in person. Her facility  recently was told the state wants the residents to continue to remain primarily in their rooms, including eating all their meals in their rooms. Also they want all staff in Assisted Living Facilities and Nursing Homes to be checked for COVID weekly now as well as the residents. I lucked out having the oral test last time. Not sure my nose will be able to tolerate that much poking! If and when they start. That's a whole lot of tests per facility. By the time they get everyone tested and get the results back, it will be time to retest! And it definitely is not an easy virus to follow. Our facility has decided to start taking in more hospital patients. Even though they are testing patients before they come to us, we are finding some are testing positive for covid while admitted to our facility, even after just a few days. And even after testing negative twice. And some have symptoms, like fevers and a cough and others don't. And the staff that work with them are testing negative. So hard to follow. But in order to stay in business, the facility has to admit some patients. They are all put on two separate units now, in their own rooms and restricted to their rooms. It makes it a little tougher to provide therapy, with less therapy equipment and little mobility. And wrapped up like a Christmas present with gowns, masks, face shields and gloves. Isn't it time to retire yet?

I also did some shopping at Costco, although they continue to have less and less on their shelves that you really need. Still can't find the cleaners I would like including Lysol spray or wipes and hair gel. I did manage to order and pick up some cheap face masks-good for outside or quick runs to the store. And I stocked up on some meat products. Still low supply here or expensive. Basic items like milk, eggs, cereal, canned/frozen vegetables, frozen french fries or pizzas, even ice cream are more plentiful. And that includes paper towel and toilet paper!  Our neighborhood continues to have fund raisers for food pantries as well as clothing collections. I put together two trash bags of mens/womens tshirts and shorts for a neighborhood clothing donation to downtown Baltimore. Looks like places including Good Will have reopened.

When I'm not trying to figure out what is open I am still busy reorganizing closets. Like I said, there really was no place to drop off donations, but I think they are getting started again. In the meantime, I am having fun looking through old photos and letters from friends and family I dug out from the back of the closet. Scott even helped me out by reorganizing and cleaning out our food pantry. Good thing the dump is accessible!

I also had to take Cookie back for a  quick check up during the week due to her infected anal gland. Fortunately she is all cleared up and I had the vet peek at her paw since she had a nick from the recent grooming. All's well. Still dropping off in the parking lot for the vet visits.

The highlight of the weekend was celebrating our 33rd Wedding Anniversary on Saturday, the 27th. Tom and I tossed around some gift ideas, but really could not agree on anything just yet. Tom wants to change out our gas stove for a gas range/convection oven combo. I really don't want to give up the gas oven which is what you have to do. Plus we already have an electric oven. I know the convection oven is faster and more consistent, so I wouldn't mind trying one. But not willing to give up my gas oven. And we talked about buying a new outdoor cooler, but they are a bit pricey. We could also use a new footstool/coffee table, but the quality leather furniture is so expensive. And we can't agree on another style. I like the storage units, but ours was bonded leather which wears off. We do agree we would both like another soft sided water bed mattress(also very expensive). So for now, we settled on cards and flowers. Plus I picked up Tom some new shorts for vacation.  We also discussed going out to dinner, but the whole experience is a bit dampened by coronavirus. So we opted for having our neighbors Dan and Gloria over for dinner on the patio and a movie. I had to work that morning, so Tom and Scott were busy cleaning, decorating and cooking a prime rib roast, potatoes and corn on the cob as well as bacon wrapped asparagus. I made an apple/berry cobbler with vanilla ice cream when I got home from work and Tom made creme brulee with a kit we have had in the cupboard. Everything turned out delicious and we enjoyed watching "The Invisible Man" on our outside movie screen. Gabe also joined us for dinner. Dan and Gloria had the chance to meet him. He and Allison spent the day together, out to lunch with a walk around the lake and a paddle around  lake in our double kayak. We have been storing our kayak at a coworker of Tom and Allison's house. They live on a small lake and they love taking our tandem kayak out especially with their young daughter. And we love having the kayak being used rather than hanging in the garage rafters. So Gabe seemed to enjoy his first kayak experience. If we can figure out how they can transport it, I think they would enjoy taking it out on our bigger lake at the local park.

Our local schools are finally out for the summer, but not much happening for the kids this year. Pretty much all the summer camps have been cancelled or have limited numbers. The community pools are all closed. Amusement parks have not yet reopened.

All summer sports are cancelled. Kids are going to have to figure out how to entertain themselves this year. Scott also finished school completing all his homework and classes at the beginning of the week and ending with a 3 hour final on Weds. Now we just have to wait for the grade! He is just so happy to be truly on summer vacation. He spent a few days hanging out with his old high school friends-out to lunch and watching movies, playing video games. He is just so happy to be done!

June 15-June 21, Week 14 DC(During Corona)

When it rains, it pours!  On Tuesday our Rehab Manager called all of us into the office for a phone meeting with the Rehab Director and the Facility CEO. We were notified that we were all basically laid off. They were turning our Rehab dept over to a contract company, Rehab Care/Kindred. Same thing that happened to me 2 years ago at my last place of work. I usually try to take jobs where I am working for the company rather than a contract company. More stable and usually better benefits. Rehab Care has had several lawsuits for Medicare fraud. Some of my current and previous coworkers have worked for Rehab Care and they did not like it. But it's not like there are a lot of choices in jobs at this time. Most facilities are low census, or too afraid to bring in new staff for fear of spreading Corona Virus. We have been working very limited hours with limited patients. Only now have we started to bring in a few new patients. The facility moved residents to another hallway to open more spaces in hopes of bringing in more patients.

The crazy thing is the Rehab Dept had a great first quarter for revenue this year, and we were even voted Best Rehab services in the Baltimore area! Guess it doesn't matter now. It was nice of them to give us such short notice. I have personal days I was saving for my vacation in July that I have to use next week or I will lose the time. Not to mention all the sick time I've lost. The only thing I will get is my vacation paid out. I have been working under the current company for almost 2 years and had saved up vacation and sick time. Now I will have to start all over! Again! On Thursday, representatives from the new contract company, Rehab Care came to our facility in the late afternoon, driving up from North Carolina and Virginia Beach. I opted to go into work later so I would not have to return home, take another shower and dress and go back into work for the interview, only to go home and shower again. Two showers/day is enough for me. Anyhow, I went into work around 1pm and treated 3 patients. Then we had a meeting with our current management and the contract company to ask/answer any of our questions before individually meeting with the representatives. I came prepared with my resume and current pay stub, identification and we also had our drug screening on the spot. They weren't calling the meetings interviews, but I don't know what else you would call it. Mainly these groups just want to know if you want to work and to figure out how much they are willing to pay. I didn't hear back from them for several days. My coworker was offered a position, but it seemed that she was the only OT. Finally, on Sunday I received an offer email. They had attempted to send me an email on Saturday, but must have misspelled my name because the email kicked back to them. Anyhow, they offered me less money which I expected. I decided to take the offer though since there is not a whole lot out there right now. Plus I will still get paid holidays, a 401K, paid continuing education and remain in my current building. Also only have to work  30 hrs not 40 hrs to be considered full time with all the benefits. Unfortunately, it looks like our two OT assistants did not receive job offers. However, if things pick up again, they plan on rehiring more staff. Meanwhile, I just heard one of the new patients is positive for COVID.

I guess we will be perpetually testing for COVID. I did go to my doctor and got tested for the antibody immunity. Unfortunately I was negative for antibodies.

Tom and I also stopped by our neighbors Dan and Gloria's house during the week to share our condolences for the loss of their 17 year old beagle, Buddy. They had taken him to the ER over the weekend since he was declining rapidly, and they wanted him to hang in for a few days so their kids could see him. On Monday they took him up to the vet and had him put down after their regular vet discovered that he was full of cancerous tumors. We were all surprised he lived as long as he did since it looked like he had a stroke several years ago and walked crooked. I brought over a Sympathy card and stuffed beagle as a replacement and we all had a drink(or two) in honor of Buddy.

Besides the pandemic, the world is still going crazy with continued protests and violence following  deaths of people during police arrests, primarily african americans. There are still calls for defunding the police, protests in the cities and now statues and monuments are being knocked down, destroyed or defaced if considered racist all over the country. One group of protesters in Seattle, WA even took over several city blocks claiming their independence from local government. Here in Baltimore small protests continue thankfully with no rioting, burning or looting. The residents seemed to have  changed their minds and are demanding defunding the police department. Thank goodness there are still some rational people out there stating there is always room for reform, but to completely get rid of a police force is ludicrous. There is an idea that cities need more social reform with money being spent on social programs rather than police departments including more mental health services and social workers. Those services are always a good thing, but to think that social workers could replace police officers is a little crazy. I  have many social worker friends who I am sure would not want to be sent out to an active crime scene without a lot of police protection. Especially unarmed. Neither one is a terrific job. It takes a strong person to be a SW and deal with other people's issues(drugs/abuse/murder/theft and just plain crazy).  As an OT, I have also had to deal with people with the same issues during my 33 years of practice. Sadly there is no quick fix. Meanwhile, homicides continue to rise in Baltimore. The latest loss-a 23 year old pregnant mom and her toddler murdered by the unborn baby's young father.  Baltimore's Attorney General already has pushed to decrease arrests for drug use/marijuana and prostitution. Her husband just won a position on the City Council and is calling for police defunding. Should be interesting. They continue to complain about the quality of  life in Baltimore and the Baltimore school systems.  Residents feel if they made improvements in those areas, then crime would decrease. The residents continue to ask for more money for the schools. Several years ago they voted to approve building multiple casinos in the area with the revenue going to the city schools. Although the casinos are doing very well, no one can really say where and how much money was invested in the schools. And they continue to close Catholic schools in the city as well. There is a current investigation into the Baltimore School system budget while the last female mayor, Catherine Pugh is sent to Federal prison for 3 years for selling thousands of copies of children's book to the school system and Johns Hopkins Medical System that they paid for but never received. Who is watching who in Baltimore? Meanwhile, the gentleman standing in line behind me at Walmart was talking on his phone about planning a trip out to Utah to buy guns at the pawn shops since the supply in Maryland was low and more expensive. Lovely.

Still back to Corona, Maryland is easing into Phase 2 of reopening  Restaurants may now seat people inside at 50% capacity. The malls opened-limited access and social distancing. Most important, our hair salon is opening! Allison and I have appointments next week. Hallelujah!  Tom and Scott are holding off until corona is over. I will have to buy them hair scrunchies eventually. Parks are opening up their basketball courts and playing fields with limited numbers allowed. Still no organized sports, so no ultimate frisbee for Allison. Some camps are opening on a limited basis. Boy Scouts finally called it quits, but plans to allow scout families to use their campground. I wish GS camp would do the same. Instead, Allison plans on camping with some friends in July, probably in W Virginia. No large events, like the Capital Jazz Festival which is held nearby in Columbia every June. The drive in movie theater has opened and is showing 2 movies every weekend(reruns).  AMC plans to open soon with a few new movie releases(social distancing and you have to wear a mask-how do I eat my popcorn?). The Baltimore Zoo is reopening. The kids and I have reservations for a members only admission and then Allison plans on going with Gabe. And we are being allowed to meet with Mom B outside for 20 minutes, face to face in July! Masks still required and no kisses or hugs, no swapping items like pictures or cards. And no dogs allowed! Still have to drop items off at the front door for disinfecting before she can have it. I continue to pick up her laundry and drop off supplies, cards and pay her bills. Recently the facility sent a few photos of Mom B enjoying a staff mini parade in costume. They loved that Mom B followed them out in the hallway and joined in the dancing! We are party girls! Glad to see she is in good hands.

Public school has one more week to go.  Same for Scott's Summer I semester. He has been busy wrapping up the last of his Engineering statistics classes and lab, quizzes and homework until the final which is scheduled next week. The prof had a group chat on Thursday evening to discuss the final.  He also plans on continuing the class online in the Fall and wanted to know how they all felt it went. I don't think Scott minded the online portion, but he would have preferred doing more calculations using Mini Tab rather than by hand, the very long, old fashioned way before calculators and computer programs.

Even Tom has discovered that using Mini Tab for calculations and organizing data just makes more sense in his classwork. This last class he is taking turned out to be a bit more research based while writing papers. Tom discovered his prof made a technical error after Tom corrected his work using the Mini Tab program. The prof did not seem to think it was a big deal. He said most students don't catch those errors. So that's supposed to make it right? Oh boy.

We celebrated Father's Day on Sunday. I gave Scott the day off from cutting the grass since he had several assignments to work on and get ready for his final.  I tried to cut the grass on Saturday and naturally when I put on my shoes and socks it started raining. And it did not stop pouring until late at night with a few rumbles of thunder and lightning. It was nice to sit in the garage on the First Day of Summer with the door open  and watch the downpour. Cookie was with me but not excited about the rainstorm. It is very relaxing to watch the bluebirds and wrens in our yards as they stay busy feeding their babies in all the bird houses as well as my hanging flower basket. And the bluebirds can be quite aggressive and will chase down the squirrels that try to eat out of their personal bird feeder or get too close to the birdhouse. Us they don't mind so much and will sit on top of the birdhouse and watch as we come and go in and out of the garage and backyard. Sunday was better weather-only a few sprinkles. I also did some more trimming and spraying for weeds this weekend.  And when I wasn't doing yardwork, I was busy cooking. I had Friday off again since it wasn't too busy at work so I did most of my errands on that day. I planned on making Tom some hot crab dip as well as a low carb lemon meringue pie. I went to 6 different grocery stores looking for Knox gelatin for the recipe and no one had any in stock. Slowly our grocery stores have been restocking, but quite often they are low or completely out of key ingredients. I also had trouble finding broccoli and green onions. Instead, your'e forced to buy more expensive items including organic vegetables or go without, or travel to multiple stores at different times. . Or make substitutions like buying sugar free lemon jello for my Lemon Meringue Pie. It took me two days to make the low carb pie-hope it turns out. Meanwhile, Allison decided to take a tip from her Uncle Mark and made several peach pies. She wanted to share a pie with her boyfriend Gabe's family which she finally met on Saturday. And Tom decided to go Low Carb Holiday and wanted his own pie. Glad we had back up since mine was still in the fridge!  Allison took over a bottle of wine with her dessert pie for lunch at Gabe's parents' house on Saturday. Unfortunately Gabe's parents are diabetic, but they tasted Allison's pie and agreed it was delicious. Gabe is currently living in his parent's house after moving out of his apartment when his roommate decided to move. Gabe's older brother and pregnant wife are also living at the house, as well as his younger sister who they just moved back from New York. So Gabe is very excited to go house hunting for himself and that is how the family spent the rest of the day, including Allison. They were actually able to go into several houses since they are empty. Gabe wants a house closer to his work at Aberdeen which is north of Baltimore. House hunting is tough, especially when you are on your own with a more limited budget. And nothing in Maryland is cheap. Sounds like Gabe's parents gave him some good advice however on what to look for in a property.

So on Sunday we got up early since Tom wanted breakfast at the Little Market Cafe in Olde Ellicott City. He and Allison stopped in for lunch on Friday and loved it. Allison had to go into work and pack up her desk, getting ready for her new rotation in August. She will be moving into the big building where Tom currently has his office. For now she just brought everything home and Tom helped carry all her computer monitors and desk stuff out to the car. So they stopped into the Cafe for sandwiches. Seating is outside and you order at the half door. This was one of the restaurants featured on Gordon Ramsey's recent visit in February. Both Allison and Tom agreed that the sandwiches were delicious and wanted to try the breakfast menu. We all ordered bagel sandwiches on Sunday and ate outside at one of the tables placed around the patio. We arrived when they first opened and could not believe how busy they were getting after an hour. And quite a few people brought their dogs. I guess dogs are allowed but we had decided to leave Cookie at home. There is a little bit of seating inside, but it is very cramped, so mostly it is an outdoor cafe. They even built a fire pit and at night they will light it and sell s'mores kits to make and eat right there. After breakfast we decided to stroll the street since it was mostly empty and shops did not open up until noon. Plus a few restaurants were getting ready to open at that time as well and putting up tents and tables in the larger parking lots to accommodate spaced seating for meals. It was a nice way to kick off the day. When we got home, I got busy on the lawn while Tom and Scott hit the computers doing homework. Allison went on a hike with her girlfriends during the afternoon to our local State Park-busy as usual. Scott had an opportunity to visit with a few of his high school friends-enjoying a picnic, watching movies at a friend's house and also hiking. When he isn't visiting in person, he is usually spending time playing games on the computer with friends while at home, or working on computer drawings for a video game he has been helping to develop over the past year. He really hasn't had much free time since he has been so busy with the statistics class crammed into 2 months. He is looking forward to finishing
next week with the final.

We finished off the day with some gifts for Tom including a new Hawaiian shirt, some low carb snacks and new cast iron fry pans since he loves Allison's pan and she will be taking it with her when she moves out! So Tom needed a replacement.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Father's Day(as best as it can be right now!)

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.