August 16-August 31, 2021

  As we come to the end of the "summer break" we headed to Michigan to drop off Scott at Western Michigan University. He spent the week before prepping for his move back to the door. This year he has a single room with it's own bathroom. He is so happy to have his own space, although it is the very last room on the top floor. So lots more stairs(or longer wait for the elevator). 

  He had to work at Home Depot right up to the night before we headed out on the road. I left him my van during the day so he could load it with big ticket items along with his Jeep. And Tom and Scott got his Jeep road ready with an oil change as well as air conditioner and tire check. Plus Scott managed to squeeze in a visit with his high school friend Matt. Scott actually is still considered an employee of Home Depot and could even work up in Kalamazoo if he wanted, but we think he is going to be rather busy with his class schedule. 

  In order to return to Western, students either have to show proof of vaccination or get regular testing. Scott tried to send a copy of his vaccination card, but apparently that was not proof enough. He had to download his vaccination form from Kaiser, our medical provider and email it to the health care center. I also had to do the same for my job. Maryland nursing homes made it mandatory to have all employees vaccinated or be tested every week. Even though I have the vaccine, I still have to get tested every week, and we are still wearing medical masks and continue with use of face shields(those are worse since they fog up). Scott will have to wear a mask in class and in the public buildings on campus. He can take it off in the dining hall while he is eating. Looks like some schools that have started back already are dealing with Covid outbreaks and quarantines. 

  At my mom's facility, they keep getting 1 or 2 people testing positive for Covid, even those that have been vaccinated. So the building is placed on quarantine and keeps getting extended for 2 week time periods. Which means no in person visits or traveling outside the building. So I have not been able to see my mom for weeks. My facility has not had any positive cases in the building, so we have been opening out doors with visiting hours and also continue with visits outside on our porch. Although the temperatures have been very hot. And the rules based on CDC guidelines and Maryland Dept of Health are rather confusing depending on whether you are vaccinated or not. Overall it just seems to make things more complicated. Hoping to be able to see Mom Bozyk again in September!

  Tom however was able to fly down to Florida to visit with his mother in the nursing home over a long weekend. She has struggled with dementia for several years and is currently on hospice. Since she had been declining, Tom wanted to visit while he still could see her and also had time to visit with his Dad and Sister and Brother in law. I would have loved to have joined him, but I was working crazy long hours. Our facility has been steadily bringing in patients with many discharging back to the hospital multiple times with ongoing medical issues. Apparently our local hospitals are busy with COVID patients and a lot less staff to handle patients. And so many people have put off going to the doctor over the last year and a half during the COVID outbreak that they are discovering they have more than 1 problem to treat. So all these admissions and discharges mean more paperwork for me as well as the staff trying to catch up with their vacations. So I was the only OT working along with two assistants. Turns out we were all off on the Friday we drove Scott up to school. Thankfully the two assistants were able to help out a bit in the morning, but I really don't like to go into work "for a few hours". It usually means I end up working longer and have a difficult time getting out of the building! So instead I put in a 12 hr day the night before. And wouldn't you know we finally got some extra help the week before from an Assistant that the contract company sent but she only lasted 2 days before informing us that she had been exposed to COVID from her boyfriend so she couldn't come into our building anymore, even though she tested negative. So we continue to work weekends which makes for a 5-6 day work week. 

  Again, all this extra exertion and being on my feet 8-12 hrs a day has worn out my hip! I finally had my dentist appointment and got clearance from my dentist for surgery in the next 6 months. Now I have to finish watching a video on the hip replacement surgery and get my bloodwork done before they will schedule me. I already sat through the anesthesia video. Kaiser medical group is very thorough. I wanted to check my Covid antibodies with my blood test so I am waiting for approval from my doctor to add that to the mix. And on top of all of this, I received a summons for jury duty in downtown Baltimore starting Oct 1st with instructions that I should plan on an 8 week service for a trial. Not so sure I am going to make that appointment with upcoming surgery planned! Plus I would love to see work pay for that! They only cover 2 days of Jury duty and after that you would be expected to come into work for any time that you are not covering jury duty. The last time I was called up a for a major court case was when I was pregnant with Allison and I was summoned for Jury Duty in California for the OJ Simpson case! Looks like I have interesting timing!

Since I was at home without Tom, I took our neighbors Dan and Gloria out to dinner that Friday night near my old workplace in Sykesville.  The two had never been to the town and they enjoyed my introduction to Becks Bar and Grill. The place was packed, even outdoor seating had a 40 min wait so we opted on the 20 min wait indoors. A bit loud but they enjoyed the food and drinks and would love to return to try out some of the other eateries, shops and the distillery in town. I was just sorry the restaurant had to stop serving their signature crab cakes due to lack of crab meat. The industry did not have enough people coming back to work at the fisheries and waterfront so no one to catch and pick crabs so the crab meat that is available is incredibly expensive. So I opted for a soft shelled crab sandwich-just as tasty. On Saturday morning I had to work, but I took advantage of my early afternoon to catch up with a previous co worker and celebrate her birthday with lunch at Outback. Afterwards she stopped into our house and we sat on the back deck and chatted while sipping wine. We have not spent too much time outside this summer since it has either been too hot or raining. My chair cushions and deck carpet have not had time to dry out all summer!

  So we headed out on Friday August 27th in two separate vehicles. Tom and Scott left early but really did not have anything they could do when they arrived. They used to get Scott his parking pass or pick up books since so many offices are closed on the weekend. But now everything is online, so Scott just had to repurchase another year's parking pass which is virtual-no stickers for the car. The campus police just check license plates that are registered. Not the very best system. And Scott usually buys his books online, but really needs to wait until the classes start, or whenever he hears from his profs via email. So they wandered around the closing mall in Battle Creek. Tom got us reservations outside of Kalamazoo since the hotel prices were jacked up closer to school. Battle Creek is about 30 mins from Western. And it's next to the best Sweetwater Mills donut shop(more variety!). Allison and I arrived around dinner, and Scott and Tom picked up Erbelli's pizza-very tasty. We only had 1 rather large rainstorm in Pennsylvania that Allison had to drive through on the way there. We left after Allison drove over to our house and we dropped Cookie off at Dan and Gloria's house this time. Scott was not scheduled to move in until Sunday officially. I called and spoke to the Housing Director and for a small fee, they allowed us to move into the dorms at 5pm Saturday evening. All the freshmen get first dibs on moving into the dorms since they attend an extensive orientation program. It is just too hard to schedule work off for all of us or try to drive back home on Sunday after moving into the dorm. So we had time to kill on Saturday. We decided to revisit the Battle Creek Binder Park zoo. We toured last spring on the way back from picking up Scott from school, but it was so cold, most of the animals were not on display. This time it was quite hot and we all packed bottles of water. We were pleasantly surprised with the actual size of the zoo since it was mostly closed down when we last visited. There was a whole Africa section that we missed last time, so it was quite the hike around the trails. And Allison and I even got to feed the giraffes! Plus I love that we get  half price zoo admission with my Baltimore zoo pass. 

  After our zoo hike we headed over near campus to try out a bar/restaurant that I have been interested in trying since Scott started school. Latitude 42. I also downloaded an app that you mark off with a code after visiting 8 different breweries in the area and you can earn free stuff like sunglasses and tshirts. I got $2 off my beer at Lat 42. We all decided the food was ok, a bit dry but tasty. And we had plenty left over for Scott's mini fridge. We also still had time to stop into Meijer's for some quick shopping. I was disappointed in their Western paraphernalia. Usually they have a huge display with lots of clothes, jewelry and tailgating items. Not this year. And Meijer's reorganized their store a bit like Target making it a bit harder to find things and less selection too. Probably more from COVID. But we picked up a few things for Scott's room that he forgot to pack(cleaning supplies, plastic drawer set for his bathroom since he doesn't have a counter top). Just a sink, toilet and shower. The basics. I also noted that Vernors changed their recipe and now sell Zero Sugar Vernors. And the price was a bit high at almost $2 for a 2liter bottle. I decided to just get a few bottles to try out the new taste. We still had extra time so we stopped into Costco too. We usually bring back some treats for our friends who are watching Cookie. This time we dropped Cookie off to Dan and Gloria's house early Friday morning. They are missing their dog who passed away last year so they were happy to keep her for a few nights. I managed to find some Traverse City potato chips and Tom usually loves to shop at the alcohol bins for something special for Dan at the Michigan Costco since our big box stores and grocery stores in Maryland don't carry liquor. 

  Finally we headed over to the dorms and the dorm guards let us in. We unloaded both cars while Scott checked in and got his room key and a wheeled bin. Tom and Scott loaded the carts and moved into Scott's room while I guarded the stuff at the sidewalk and Allison moved the cars to free parking spaces. We started setting up Scott's room-he had a futon to reassemble, but it was just too hot in the rooms. So we unloaded a few containers and decided to stop in on Sunday morning when it was cooler to finish. We were pretty tired and very hot(wish the school had passed out water bottles). Mostly we had to dodge the RA's who kept trying to get Scott down to the freshman orientation in the lobby. We had eaten lunch a bit late so we stopped into a small diner in downtown Battle Creek for coney dogs. The place was very family friendly-a bit disorganized and lots of kids and elderly(walkers and wheelchairs). But the food was good and not very expensive and the wait staff were very friendly. And downtown Battle Creek looked interesting. This was the first time any of us had actually seen it. I just wish they still ha

d the Kellogg Cereal factory tours. They ended them back in the late 1980s. And our family never went when we were kids. We ended our evening watching the new Hugh Jackman movie "Reminiscence" on cable which I have to say was stupid. 

  On Sunday morning we grabbed breakfast and coffee at Biggby(Michigan coffee shop) and then picked up our very fresh donuts at Sweetwater Mills(yeah pumpkin donuts!). We stopped into Scott's dorm room so Tom could help loft the bed and reassemble Scott's futon while Allison and I hung some clothes and unpacked a few more boxes. Scott had all day to set up his computer system, make his bed and organize all his decorations as we headed out on the road. Still very hot so Scott was moving a bit slow. We were chasing a large tstorm on the way home and finally ran into it in Pennsylvania about an hour out of Breezewood. Probably a good thing we stopped in Toledo to the Libby glass store and ate lunch at Tony Packos(more coney dogs!) The storm made it hard to see the road and all the large trucks made it hard to maneuver, but we finally made it home. Dan and Gloria had dropped Cookie back off at our house since it turns out their daughter dropped off her dog for the week while she traveled to the beach with her boyfriend. Cookie was happy to see us and have some company for the night!

Allison helped unload my van and headed back to her apt. It will be a bit quiet around the house again with both kids gone!