May 1-May 16th, 2021

Happy May! So many special days in the first weeks. We celebrated "Star Wars Day" on May the 4th(may the "4th" be with you), followed quickly by "The Revenge of the Fifth" on May 5th. AKA Cinco de Mayo. Scott and I made nachos for dinner. 

And just when you thought the celebrating couldn't end, Mother's Day was upon us on May 9th! I had a special day planned for my own mother. As the country rolls out the COVID vaccine, more restrictions are being lifted here in Maryland. Mom B's facility still won't allow visitors into the building to roam freely. They are still setting up 20 min visits in a small room on the main floor, but they added something new. A 2 hour visit outside the facility! I made a reservation to pick up Mom on Sunday afternoon to come over to our house for dinner. Turns out, Tom and Scott were headed out on Sunday for a trip to Arizona. 

Tom was teaching a class for work in Phoenix, Arizona, and he figured he would take Scott with him since he had finished his finals. He was hoping Scott could join his class for management green belt training, but it was a full, closed program. Instead, Tom figured Scott could spend some time relaxing at the hotel pool or doing some sightseeing while Tom was in class. And then the two could spend the evening together going out to dinner or sightseeing. 

So our family decided to celebrate Mother's Day at a local restaurant on the Friday night before, having dinner together. We finally got to eat inside one of our newest, favorite restaurants, The Pirate Bar by Allison's apt. Afterwards we stopped at her place to watch Disney's "Mighty Ducks" series.  Then on Sunday morning, Mother's Day, I was treated to breakfast by Tom and Scott. I also received some interesting Mother's Day gifts. Tom picked up a new, retractable outdoor hose for our backyard garden and a modified petal for my bike for my bad hip. Scott got me a Kohl's Gift card. Allison bought me the Dr Pol Michigan Veterinarian book. (Can't wait to read this!). As Tom and Scott headed off to the airport Sunday afternoon, I headed over to pick up my mom. Allison joined us and we brought my mom over to our house after the staff brought her down to the front door. Mom could barely get through our front door  and past Cookie! Cookie was so excited to see her. We settled my mom into our recliner chair and Cookie settled onto her lap. We then put in a Bozyk home movie that I had transferred to a DVD, Turns out it was the Bozyk family holidays and special celebrations starting with my brothers Dan and Dave as infants, followed by myself and younger brother Mike as we grew up. It also had other family relatives including both sets of grandparents, aunts and uncles on both sides of the family, Bozyks and Borgs at Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter. There were special events like graduations and first communions and even a trip to Busch Gardens Tampa! I did not remember that! Plus video of the West Bloomfield tornado damage. We had to stop the DVD to enjoy dinner that I was trying to put together while watching the film. 

I made us ladies a T bone steak with corn on the cob, baked potato and crescent rolls with some watermelon and trifle cake for dessert. All very tasty and my mom cleaned her plate! Then our time was up(actually a bit over). We did not have time to open her Mother's Day gifts-some clothes, chocolates, perfume and hand lotion as well as some magazines, so I packed them up to take with us. Along with some flowers. Mom certainly seemed to enjoy the visit, and we loved having her back at our house! A much better visit than 20 mins chatting in an empty room seated 6 feet apart with masks on. At least they lessened those restrictions too recently. If you are both vaccinated, you can take off your masks and sit together and give hugs. So much better. And you can bring potted plants/flowers now if you want. Good to know. Guess the CDC figured out plants don't get COVID. 

Meanwhile at work, which I have been doing a bit more of lately, we still are required to wear masks and face shields, have temperature checks and get tested once a week. For awhile I was not able to go between our two buildings since we continue to have at least one positive COVID person in our building every week. We are still on "lockdown". Seems we continue to have at least one person test positive each week, especially with new staff coming into the building. Our facility is trying to play catch up from a slow, quiet year of losing patients, residents and staff. So I am getting busier as they have more people moving into our Assisted Living Facility and are bringing in more patients from the hospital. They stopped quarantines for anyone leaving the building. Just for new patients coming in-two weeks on isolation precautions. We still have not opened up our rehab gyms and continue to treat everyone in their rooms. And visitors are still not allowed to just come in and visit. Including me visiting mom at her facility. Fortunately Maryland's COVID positivity rate has dropped from 5.0 last month to 2.0 recently. 

Even our Girl Scout camping event seemed like a last minute decision to hold. Allison and I have been volunteering to run a weekend camping trip the first days of May for older girls. We have helped out with 3 events so far. Girl Scout council was still not allowing Troops to meet in person, but they decided to allow GS sponsored programs to run. Including our weekend overnight program. Supposedly we were all so well trained in COVID protocol. Instead we just followed the lead of our council staff member. Allison and I picked up dinner on Friday night the first weekend in May and headed up to Conowingo camp near the PA border and Port Deposit on the Susquehanna river. Traffic was terrible, with several accidents on the beltway, but we finally managed to get there after about a 3 hr trip(should only be 1.5hrs)! I had packed the van the week before including a small 4 person tent in case Allison and I wanted to sleep outside away from staff with our masks off. Really did not want to try sleeping with our masks on. And Girl Scout council decided we should all wear our masks inside and out for this event except when eating even though the outdoor mask mandate had been lifted in Maryland.  Scott actually had a great idea to pitch the tent inside our large lodge which Allison and I decided to do for added protection while we slept without our masks. Turns out we did not have much choice about sleeping inside since the tent fly(top cover) was missing from the box so no cover from the elements. Better for us to sleep inside especially since it was supposed to rain that night. Turns out the strong cold wind that came in over the night would have been just as bad. Sounded like the roof was going to blow off the building! I felt bad for the troops of girls that decided to tent that weekend rather than sleep in the cabins. But they all seemed to manage. So we pitched our tent inside and blew up our air mattresses and tucked in for the night after the staff meeting, dinner and assisting with printing up our staff tshirts. They asked Allison at the last minute to colorize her tshirt design so they could print up some iron on decals. She had Scott help with the process since she as a bit busy at work the week before when they decided to order the shirts! We were looking forward to an exciting day of activities after planning for 2 years!  Unfortunately, some wonderful person at Girl Scout council decided it would be a great idea to install motion detector light switches in the building.  So we could not shut them off and it kept the overhead fluorescent lights on all night, shining down on our faces. Even when we tried blocking the sensors, they still went off.  Allison and I tried blocking the lights from our faces with small blankets over the tent, but it still shone through. Just enough to keep us from getting a good night's sleep.  For some reason it briefly went out at 2am. So we all got about a good 30 min rest that night. 

When the birds started chirping at 5am, it seemed like it was a good time to start rolling out of the sleeping bags. Allison and I rested until almost 7am and then it was time to get dressed, get our activities set up and eat breakfast. This year we had about 75 girls attending. We usually have around 200. I thought it might be nice to have a small group, especially since we haven't run camp since May 2019. We had planned this event for 2 years with a Medieval Times theme. But it seemed that even with our extended planning, no one really had time to prepare, or try to keep in the spirit of the theme(except for Allison and I). The week before I bagged up soda can tabs and yarn to make chain mail bracelets during Arts and Crafts. I had spent the year collecting tabs and I had more than enough. They also made small needle work projects on the plastic canvas. Allison was teaching archery(very medieval). She dressed in her Renaissance outfit complete with her Dragon tail(Allison's camp name is Dragon). I was her assistant and she said my outfit looked like Link from the video game complete with my Samurai sword(not specifically medieval)but it seemed very popular with the girls. And Scott and Allison decorated a large cardboard box like a dragon for a shooting target. Allison also made several cardboard characters to place at the top of our rock climbing wall including a princess, prince and baby dragon that needed saving. We rotate the groups through various activities during the day, but Allison can only have 4 girls shooting at once, so I kept the other girls entertained with some caldron ring toss. Plus we had to wipe everything down between participants, so it was good to have an extra set of hands helping out. I was going to assist with the canoeing activity but decided I did not need to spend a day lifting and hauling heavy canoes with a sore hip. We also had a hiking activity, gardening and a nature presentation-not especially keeping with our theme. One of the activities was an Alchemy presentation with small experiments. Sadly our volunteer for that activity had to drop out because her Dad was on hospice. She dropped off all the supplies though and they made snow globes with small plastic dragons(I grabbed a few for Allison!). And our meals were supposed to be similar to Medieval Times-eating without silverware(fingers only) which did not happen except for sandwiches at lunch. Not exactly a Renaissance meal, but manageable. We tried to keep most all of our activities outside and still had our bonfire at night with separately packaged s'mores for the girls. And singing GS songs with masks on. Fortunately we had a beautiful day and just enjoyed being outside with all the girls. We even spotted a hummingbird circling the feathers on Allison's arrows. 

For some reason we finally got the light switch to work that night. Allison and I tried turning off the breaker lights, but that switched on the even more annoying emergency lighting system! We covered the switch sensors with masking tape and even a hat and it still went on for about 30 mins when I walked past before finally switching off for the night. So at least we got one good night's sleep. I was running our Scout's Own program on Sunday morning after breakfast. It is a time to reflect on the weekend's activities and be thankful for our time together(instead of church). I put on a Renaissance costume including my flower ring on my head and passed out noise makers for a drum circle with my home made drum. We gathered at our pond and I talked about the pagans during medieval times that worshiped and honored the land and all the plants and animals. The pagans enjoyed drum circles since they felt it brought a connection between the earth and the heavens. And how all that ties in with Girl Scouts respect for our environment today. Even mentioned a new initiative that Girl Scouts developed this year to pledge to plant or protect 2.5 million trees in the next few years. Then we sang a few songs about the Earth and concluded the event. ( I thought it was all very appropriate for wrapping up the weekend theme and Allison was a big help putting on my small part). And the girls seemed to enjoy their noise makers! After cleaning up our area, we were headed home after another successful GS program. 

Allison and I decided to stop into the park at the base of the Conowingo dam on our way home. The dam was open and water(and fish)were pouring through which attracted the wildlife, including eagles. We parked along the river below the dam with a whole lot of other people fishing and taking photos with powerful camera lenses of all the circling eagles along with Cormorants, Osprey and Turkey Vultures. Very amazing. We had to get home though since we were dog sitting Cookie. Tom and Scott decided to drive down to Busch Gardens for the day to celebrate Scott's end of his semester. And they were able to enjoy some more of the Food and Wine festival tasty treats. 

When I got home I unpacked the van and got busy on laundry. My Maytag washer has been very busy this past year as I wash my uniform every day after work. I am still trying to catch up with washing all of Scott's clothes and linens from school too since the washer seemed to be having issues. Besides making a lot of noise, especially noticeable on the second floor, it also started to get off balanced. And then it was really only washing the clothes, not spinning after the cycle. We figured the washer/dryer set was probably around 10 years old if not a bit older. So it was time to buy a new washer(another Mother's Day gift so to speak). In the meantime, I was packing up all our clothes and sending Scott over to Allison's apt to do our laundry. Thanks guys! Allison did a beautiful job folding everything. Gma Seitz would be proud. I really did not have time to research washing machines. I needed something fast and the last time we bought the washing machine, they had started with the High Efficiency models and no agitators with low flow water supply. Tom and I went looking at washers at Home Depot only to discover they figured out people do want the agitators back in the washing machines. But now that we got used to not having them, and stuffing them with big blankets and such, they had washers with both choices! Pole Agitators and low agitators. Each have their own merits on cleaning. Can't really tell unless you have one to try. Tom ordered a washer from Lowes-they were on sale and free delivery, and they would haul the old one away. We decided to go with another Maytag since we have a Maytag dryer. And to get one without the agitator since the designs have changed quite a bit without pole agitators. Turns out he accidentally ordered one with the agitator pole, but it is even bigger than my old washer. As a matter of fact, I cannot reach the bottom of this machine, even on my tippy toes. Thank goodness I have a reacher!  So I was still able to stuff it with a big blanket and no tears. The new washers come with all sorts of gadgets-this one can hook up with a smart phone to tell you the wash cycle is done. Big deal-put it in the dryer for me too! At least I can always add more water if I want with a separate control. And it has a see through lid. Don't need to see the clothes washing. So far it seems to be working well. In the meantime, Tom did try to see if he could repair our old washer. We were surprised to see the inside of the drum had rusted, and inside the Maytag are Whirlpool parts. Tom actually replaced all the worn out parts, but when he rehooked it up, the old hoses inside the machine started leaking. It was just too expensive and too complicated to try to replace those, so we opted for a new washer. I was just happy to be cleaning clothes again here in our own house! Although now I see they made washing machines that have the option to remove the pole agitator when doing large, bulky loads. Really. 

So far this year we had the furnace repaired, replaced the hot water heater, sump pump, a garage door opener and now the washer. Tom does enjoy a trip to the dump(and since Scott was home he had some help getting rid of the old appliances). 

And Scott was so happy to be done with school and his finals. Turned out he got an A, C and 3 B's. Pretty good for having to basically teach himself 5 courses online for an entire semester. The Engineering Cost and Analysis class gave him the most trouble-basically an accounting class where Tom taught him all about the mini tab program, except the prof wanted the kids to do most of the calculations by hand. And even though he got a BC on his final in casting, he still got a B in that class. Looks like the kids will be heading back to school in the fall with real in person classes. No word on Michigan Universities demanding vaccinations yet, but Maryland has already reported all college kids here have to have their COVID shot before returning to school. 

I think he was especially excited to travel to Phoenix with Tom. Scott is not really into swimming or sitting by the pool by himself, so he opted for a few quick sightseeing trips during the day. He was able to take an Uber for transportation to the Phoenix zoo and then the Phoenix Botanical Gardens. I think he was most amazed at how hot it was there-temps in the upper 90s after our cooler spring weather in the 60s and 70s. He really enjoyed seeing all the huge cactus. And when Tom was done at the end of the day, we tried out some very nice restaurants and even went to a movie tavern for dinner and to see "Mortal Combat" which apparently was really bad. But it was the first movie seen  in a theater for them in over a year!  Tom only had to teach class for 4 days, M-Thursday. They were supposed to fly home on Friday, but decided to take a side trip up to Vegas. Turns out it was about a 4.5 hr drive. Tom rented their own car and they drove up through the beautiful Arizona landscape on Friday. Scott wanted to visit a new attraction called the Omega Mart-a interactive art museum with lots of lights and modern displays, including crazy food items in their grocery store. Admission is a bit pricey, but Scott had a great time roaming the facility with a lot of other people for several hours with Tom. The whole facility is built inside its own mall, so Tom took a break and relaxed with a Starbucks while Scott spent time playing the interactive game inside the facility. They also visited the strip, and pulled a few handles on the slot machines for all of us, but Vegas is not like it used to be with the coins and the buckets and the clinking noises. Not to mention they got rid of most of the cheap slots and tables. It's also more crowded-very difficult to walk down the main street since they have built shops and restaurants right up to the sidewalk. The new, large casinos were built far back off the strip and it used to just be dessert out front. Now it looks more like New York City with lots of buildings and little room to roam. So they ate at Bobby Flays Burger Joint and parked themselves in just a few casinos including Circus Circus and Caesars Palace. Tom said there are not very free parking areas in Vegas but Circus Circus still had an open lot. Although Tom noticed how dumpy that casino looks now. And small. On Saturday they flew home out of Vegas with a stopover in Chicago(so Tom got me a Chicago dog and some chocolate covered pretzels from "Crock of Nuts" while Scott brought home some caramel corn at the airport). All very tasty!

And now that Scott was done with school, he was trying to figure out how to spend his summer months. He did not get any engineering internship offers, so he decided to look for a part time job. Turns out almost everyone is hiring in the service industries. He walked into Petsmart and Home Depot and they did not even bother to interview him. Just gave him the paperwork to fill out. I stopped into Home Depot with him to shop for plants when he went in for his supposed interview and I had thought they must have thrown an apron on him and asked him to start working. Especially since it was so busy. He said they initiated all the paperwork with a quick orientation, although his training would involve several weeks of online videos. He decided to take the Home Depot job since it paid better and offered more hours than Petsmart. Surprisingly they hired him as a cashier and actually gave him several job choices. So he starts on the Monday when he returns from Arizona! 

Tom was supposed to go to a Hershey Bear Hockey game on the Sunday after they returned with Allison. Turns out she did not want to miss her Dungeons and Dragons group in the evening and Scott was a bit pooped out from the trip. I was busy attending a 4 hr online class on Lymphedema management for OT continuing ed credit so none of us were really free. He tried asking our neighbor Dan but he was home taking care of his wife Gloria who just had a total shoulder replacement on Friday. So he was going to drive up by himself-too tired to chat with neighbor guys he has not seen in awhile so he did not ask anyone else. He was all talked out from his 4 day lecture and too tired for the 2hr drive there and back, so he decided to stay home and watch it on tv. Turns out it was a great game, but they the IHL is not having playoffs this year because of COVID. Stanley Cup playoffs starting however and the Washington Capitals are in the running!

And speaking of running, the Preakness horse race went on in Baltimore on Saturday the 15th. They allowed about half of the people into the racetrack and kept them separated on the infield. No big events held leading up to the race, like the balloon festival here in Howard County. There was a bit of controversy around the races this year as the 1st leg  was won by Medina Spirit who tested positive for drugs after the race. However, they let the horse run with a clean test in the Preakness, although  Rombauer took the win. So no triple crown this year.   I just had time to come in from cutting the lawn to catch the end of the race. I had to go into work for a very long day on Friday but a shorter day on Saturday, thank goodness. I was covering for the other therapist who had to drive down to Florida for a funeral over the weekend. Not a great time to go since the east coast was suffering from a gasoline shortage with our pipeline computer system being hacked with a demand for ransomware. So gas stations all along the east coast were running out of gas while people ran to the gas stations with all sorts of containers to stockpile. By the time they put a limit on how much gas you could buy, most stations between DC and Florida had run out. Or jacked up the prices. Can't we catch a break?

Other special and happier events for our families-Shout out Happy Birthday to Mark Seitz, May 8th! 

The family also received some wonderful news on the Bozyk side as Sarah(Bozyk) and Patrick Hudson are expecting their first baby in November! So Gma Bozyk will finally be a Great Grandma! They will be bringing their baby back from the hospital to a brand new house they are building in New Orleans. 

An exciting year of babies as Stacey(Seitz) and Matt Draper are expecting their first -a baby boy-in August.