Special RantMOM Pandemic Postcard: the retirement community

(One of the biggest reasons RantMom chose the retirement community she did was the garden and the vegetation. RantWoman has more or less lovely picture of the vegetation outside RantMom's retirement community, but for some reason her corner of the interwebs is not letting RantWoman transfer the picture from her phone to her blog. So readers get to imagine a nice row of blue, orange, red things blooming along the wall facing the street. Readers can also imagine really good bus connections.) 

RantMom gets to have a "how are we doing in the pandemic" interview at her retirement community today. RantMom wants to know whether the RantSisters think she should definitely mention anything. Umm, RantWoman has a bunch of things to mention but not things she necessarily expects RantMom to say the same way.

Things RantWOMAN appreciates:

--The facility takes appropriate steps to deal with all kinds of circumstances. RantMom gets restive when there are quarantines because of norovirus, but to RantWoman this reflects conscientiousness.

--Ditto for watermelon popsicles served the other afternoon when there was record heat. RantMom reported that staff walked through and made sure everyone was staying hydrated, that their AC worked, and maybe a couple other details

--Ditto also for working out details of isolation when RantMom was testing positive and now for working out visits, laundry, and visits inside for one daughter who RantMom says comes to help care for her father. RantWoman is very glad RantMom does not need that level of support but also glad to know there are options if it became needed.

--Seated yoga on the in-house cable channel. RantMom probably would not independently have sought out yoga, partly because her pre-pandemic schedule was pretty packed.Now though RantMom mentions yoga almost every day when she talks to RantWoman and RantWoman is really glad to hear.

--Tech support about using iPads for Zoom conversations with neighbors. Little sister has done a TON of tech support. RantWoman has not quite lost her touch in spite of vision loss: RantWoman is happy to cheerlead and say things like "do you see the red box with the X in it in the upper right hand corner? Click on that .However, RantWoman is less patient than she would prefer and less able to cheerlead RantMom about her technological insecurities. So RantWoman is really glad that Little Sister and community staff help. And RantWoman celebrates when for instance RantMom can get into her preferred church services independently..

--The list of suggested activities in the daily emails to family. RantWoman has only sampled a couple and has thought of encouraging RantMom to share a couple of the travel-oriented ones with her siblings. RantWoman keeps running out of time though.

--RantMom can now exercise basically when she wants. RantWoman thinks there is some kind of sign up to be in the garden during specific time windows. RantMom seems basically to ignore the signup process and walk in the evening whenever she can. RantMom had serious light sensitivity issues and does not like to be out in the middle of the day. So far, ignoring the signups seems not to be a problem.

--Ditto for walking inside the building. RantMom is VERY glad the community has opened enough for more movement inside the community. RantMom has a walker with arm rests. It is tall and unworkable for life outside the community, but it definitely helps RantMom practice walking more erect, and she has been glad that things have opened up enough that she can walk the halls with the walker every day.

-- RantMom is very glad there are group Zoom sessions with other residents.RantWoman likes knowing a bit about RantMom's neighbors, how they are doing etc. This is partly because RantWoman has shared meals with some of them.

Things that make RantMom restive:

--Meal selection, timing of meals, and the fact that she has no option for not paying for meals she does not eat or using those as a credit if she ever gets to have family come back. RantMom did not do a lot of comparison shopping about meal payment programs before settling on her choice. RantWoman also thinks the staff is probably doing the best they can in the face of staff stresses and what RantWoman expects may be hiccups in the food supply chain.

--RantMom also has Grandson Delivery service now well adapted to the community's touchless dropoff practices. Except for ice cream this means RantMom does have choices.

Things that make RantWoman grumpy and querulous

--Staff who previously had to work more than one facility. RantWoman is glad that a measure restricting staff to only one location was instituted.

--The elevators. The elevators are small and cannot hold more than 1 person at a time under social distancing rules.   

In general, RantWoman would be just fine with skipping the pandemic entirely but that seems not to be an option.