Friday 11/12/2021
Went for a walk first up. Then among other things, I clicked “List Item” on the eBay listing for the IBM manuals.
At 2pm it was time for the “survival celebration”, starting with a presentation by Rhonda and other staff members in the Auditorium, followed by snacks and drinks for all in the dining room.
The point of the party was to celebrate a whole list of milestones:
The four-year-long upgrade project has wrapped up, with the last “campers” returning to their permanent apartments at the end of July. There were lots of pictures of this process: every apartment on every floor had its ceiling opened up, new heat/cool piping installed, new wiring, sprinklers and fire alarms, new double-glazed windows and doors, new carpet and paint. That’s about 180 apartments on 8 floors.
This job was finished ahead of the planned schedule — despite the pandemic freezing all action for several months.
Completion of HVAC repairs on the second floor. The second floor was newer than others and wasn’t to be upgraded, but its coolant piping had to be completely replaced because it wasn’t done right 5 years ago when it went in. Every unit had its ceiling cut open and then repaired.
Also finished ahead of schedule.
As part of refurbishing the third floor, half of it was converted into “IL+”, or assisted living lite, expanding our service offering (more income!). This included moving the nursing headquarters and office to the 3rd floor.
Transition from Sodexo to our own in-house dining services, and from cafeteria service to table service. This involved remodeling the kitchens while still turning out meals, and training new staff in new procedures and methods. Still in progress, but getting better and (I hear on the grapevine) now running at about the same cost as we paid Sodexo before, after an initial overrun.
Implementation of electronic health records, replacing manual folders and files: just completed.
And of course, surviving two years of Covid pandemic.
And finally, in researching for the presentation, Rhonda had discovered that the original ground-breaking ceremony for the construction of Channing House was almost exactly 60 years ago this week!
So this was a big deal day
The dining services staff had worked hard to present a wide assortment of attractive snacks, so many and so tasty that pretty much everyone was saying, “won’t be down for supper tonight”. I didn’t, although about 7pm I got a bit peckish and had a slice of cheese and bread.
During the party, Frances, head of the very active Racial and Social Justice Committee, buttonholed me to tell me that she had just secured Judge LaDoris Cordell, a local celebrity, as a speaker for next February, and that she expected we would be able to have her speak live in the Auditorium but also appear by Zoom to residents of seven other local senior residences. OK, Frances, no pressure there.
Coincidentally I, Bert, and David M are to interview IT director Vanessa tomorrow, who specifically wants to talk about zoom simulcasts. I had sent her The List a couple days ago.
For entertainment I rummaged around in my box of DVDs and noticed I had a two-disc set of Led Zeppelin. Which I don’t remember buying and certainly have never played. So I listened to Led Zeppelin at Royal Albert Hall in 1973. Going to be “Dazed and Confused”.
Codgerville 