Sept 1-Sept 15, 2021

  Official end of summer came with Labor Day weekend. We did not have any plans to travel this year. We actually received some very sad news on the first Saturday of the month. Tom's mother Bonnie Seitz passed away after struggling with Alzheimer's dementia for about 5 years. Although very sad, at least she no longer had to suffer with such a terrible disease. Tom and I plan to travel to Florida for her funeral later in the month. 

Meanwhile, I am still unable to visit inside the Assisted Living Facility with my mom. They keep having 1 or 2 cases of COVID in the building-either from an outside medical person coming in to provide treatments/hospice care or from the residents themselves. Some actually have been vaccinated, or seem to have picked up something when they were hospitalized. Don't really know for sure, but one thing is for certain, if there is a positive case the whole building gets shut down for at least 2 weeks. Staff are trying to at least get clearance from the Dept of Health to allow the residents to come out of their rooms to the main dining/activity room. I know Mom B has a hard time remaining in her room. Fortunately the weather was nice enough that I was able to get a 20 min porch visit with her. Can't wait to visit inside the building again-especially since her birthday is coming up on the 19th. I have been busy picking up some gifts for her-some new shirts and sweaters. And she loves body spray, jewelry and of course, chocolate!

I would have enjoyed a 3 day Holiday weekend over Labor Day, or even extra pay for working, but my contract company does not provide paid holidays. So for me it was just like every other day, except all the managers were off at work. Tom and Allison enjoyed a 4 day weekend since they had their usual Friday off. Scott also enjoyed a little 3 day break. He officially started classes on Weds, Sept 1. Looks like Western had some bumps getting up and running again. The students were having difficulty hooking up to the WiFi in the dorms. The school decided to do away with the cable. And Scott thought they did not turn on the hot water in his bathroom. Turns out being on the top floor, last room requires a bit more time for the hot water to travel but eventually he was able to take a shower! One thing that was definitely hot were the dorm rooms! They are older buildings with no air conditioning. Just lots of fans. Scott has been running his non stop-makes it tougher to sleep at night, but I am sure Michigan weather will not fail him and will soon turn cold enough! He did discover however that the engineering dorms installed new washer/dryers and no more quarters! Scott reports laundry is now free! I am sure somewhere we are paying for the service! For now he has settled down into quite an intense schedule with 4 classes and 4 labs with his longest day on Thursday running non stop from 1pm to 10pm-3 hr labs all in a row. But at least they are in person classes! So far. Fingers crossed. 

I did manage to squeeze in some fun activities over the Labor Day Weekend. Allison and I visited the Maryland State Fair. Looks like everyone has been missing the fair. The parking lots were overflowing-we had to park in a lot outside the grounds and walk a bit, but it gave us the chance to stop and watch a horse race. Good thing Allison and I did not bet on it because out of 4 horses running we came in 3rd and 4th on our picks! Guess we needed Grandpa Seitz there to help us out. We did enjoy roaming around the pens checking out the cows, sheep, goats and skipped the pigs. They had a chicken hatching area-always fun to mess with the baby chicks. And we love to check out the 4H projects and entries for best produce, photos, drawings, arts and crafts and sewing projects. Plus the buildings are air conditioned-it was plenty hot outside. We also had a chance to sit and watch some draft horse maneuvers-one incredible team of horses-all black and exactly in sync. Reminded Allison of a military parade. You could almost hear the theme to Darth Vader playing in the background! Naturally they won every event. 

On Sunday, Allison headed to the Renaissance festival with her D and D group and boyfriend Gabe. They mostly sat at the bars enjoying the entertainment while munching on their favorite treats along with some favorite drinks! Plus they took some time out to try their hand at archery and axe throwing. Meanwhile, Tom and I decided to host our friends Beth and Barry for a prime rib dinner. We hadn't had them over in quite awhile and we owed them a dinner for all the times they watched Cookie for us. Plus we wanted to hear all about their trip out to LA in August to visit their son who was completing a computer engineering internship near USC. We had given them a few ideas of things to do besides the usual tourist attractions in So Cal, like Disney and Universal Studios. Turns out many places were still closed due to COVID. But it sounds like they had a great visit anyway. 

And since Allison spent her Labor Day weekend at the RenCen Fair she joined me there the following weekend on Sunday. I ended up having to work the Saturday before and did not want to go to the fair late in the afternoon(it gets very crowded and usually very hot). I love looking through all the shops at the fair, besides enjoying the silly entertainment. Plus cheering on the knights at the joust. And eating my favorite fair foods like chocolate covered cheesecake on a stick! Allison and I usually dress the part and this year I bought a fox tail for my walking stick. We had a wonderful day together-so glad it was back! We headed home in time to pick up some chinese food for dinner before Allison went over to her friends for an evening of D and D. I tried to see if I could finally get a dip in her community pool when we returned but they had already shut it down for the season. Maybe next year?  

We also passed the 20th anniversary of Sept 11. I listened to all the televised memorials while I was at work that day. I'd still like to get up to New York to see the memorial or stop into the Shanksville, PA memorial which we pass on our way to Michigan. 

And finally I got over to the medical clinic for a yearly check up and blood test for my upcoming planned hip surgery. I also asked for an assessment of antibodies for COVID in my blood work. Plus while I was there they managed to get a flu shot into my arm. Seems a bit early, but I would rather get it over with now since there is a discussion about the COVID booster shot 9 months after your last injection. That would get me to the end of September, and I really don't want both vaccinations at the same time. 

Now we are looking into traveling to Florida for Tom's mother's funeral in the coming weeks.