Dear Joe and Kathy

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have been quite busy trying to get back to life here in Baltimore! Since COVID is still a thing, and there have still been a few cases at Mom's place, we have not quite back to our normal schedule. At this point we can visit at her facility, but only in her own apartment. We can also take her out, so I have had her back to our house a few times. And both Tom and I have been fully vaccinated, including booster as well as Mom. So has Allison, so I don't mind bringing her to our place. Mom celebrated her 86th birthday this September. I had to bring the party to her since Tom and I had to travel down to Venice, FL to attend his mother's funeral. Sadly we lost Bonnie to Alzheimers. Tom's Dad still has the place there in Venice, but is considering getting a condo in Indy near Tom's brother and sister in law's house and their kids and grandkids. He was thinking about traveling there during the summer since he used to have a house near Indy in Carmel. Since Tom's brother Mark is retired, the two have been finding projects and activities to keep them both busy. Tom's brother just hiked across the Grand Canyon in one day, from the North Rim to the South Rim in October. Tom's Dad did the drop off and pick up and Mark finished the trek in 8 hrs!

So I did a quick Bday celebration with Mom at her place in the evening. She's not moving as easily as before, so it takes a bit of coordinated effort (and extra time) for me to bring her to our house. She is having more trouble navigating the few steps in and through our house, and needs a bit more coaxing for following directions. I am sure being locked up for over a year with COVID did nothing to help out her situation. As it affected so many others. 

Exciting news for the Bozyk family-she became a Great Grandmother for the first time! Granddaughter Sarah (Bozyk) Hudson and her husband Patrick had a little girl on Oct 28. They recently built a new house near New Orleans and added Gracie Augrain Hudson. Sarah is the oldest granddaughter -daughter to Dave and Sandra. We attended the wedding with Mom 2 years ago at Christmas in New Orleans. 

I am still busy working at the nursing home. We still have to wear masks to work and face shields and get tested for COVID every week. We have only had a few cases pop up at a time among staff or patients. 

Looks like I only have about 3 weeks of work left this year as I am scheduled to get a hip replacement on Dec 30th. This line of work is hard on the body and I have worn myself out after 34 years as an OT. Looking forward to being able to move again without pain! I will be off for 3 months. Not sure if I will go back after that. I also won't be able to see much of mom for awhile. As it is I have working quite a bit lately, 5-6 days/wk so it is hard to get time to spend with her, but I try to set aside time to drop in and deliver supplies with a quick kiss or bring her home for several hours on a Sunday for dinner. 

I got the invite for Eric And Diana's wedding. Sounds beautiful. Not sure we'll be able to make it. Tom's work kinda frowns on him traveling to Columbia unfortunately. And I am not sure that I'll be finished rehabbing my hip by then. Feeling special to be invited! I will have to thank them both!

I also got the email from Francine. I believe we have all the paperwork we need sent to her. Guess we wait again and see what happens. I wonder who was not interested in the deal. Anyway, the saga continues. 

Sounds like you are all doing well getting back together as a family! Allison is busy working and loving her job at Northrop. She has been dating Gabe for a year and a half now. They make a very sweet couple. Scott is busy with his Senior year at Western. He is home for Thanksgiving break and won't be back again until Dec. He and Allison had a great quick trip to Disney World and Disney studios over his Fall break in October. They wanted to experience the 50th Anniversary, Halloween and Star Wars at Disney. They both flew down and only spent a few days but certainly crammed alot of fun activity into that short week!

Glad to hear from you! Thanks for staying in touch! Kathleen
 

 Oct 15-Oct 31st!

     One of my favorite months has come to an end on Halloween Night! We have been having such beautiful weather, we thought it would be nice to sit outside with our new fire pit to pass out candy and watch the kids trick or treating. Unfortunately, a chilly wind kicked up during the afternoon and we opted to stay indoors. We also had an incredible amount of rain during the week and all our wood was soaked too. I did pick up a small bundle of logs from Lowes just in case. I will have to save it for later. I was a bit disappointed however in my new fire pit I ordered last year during the pandemic. You could not find one at the stores, but I got this one for a good price. Problem is, it is just a bit smaller than my last fire pit. It may be going with Allison! The old one had quite a bit of use and finally rusted out. It's nice to sit out around the fire with friends on the driveway and cook some marshmallows or watch a movie on the garage door. When the weather cooperates. 

Instead we hosted dinner for our friends inside the house while passing out candy. I managed to get the last of our Halloween decorations out, although I could not open the dining room windows to place Alexa and our spooky music. It would appear that Tom managed to paint them shut from last year! No matter, we had lots of spooky items all over the yard and in the house. And Scott was home (briefly) over his Fall Break from school, so he helped my hang a stick figure from "The Blair Witch" movie in the cherry tree out front. I also decided to make life easy for cooking and tried crock pot ziti for the first time. It was very good and made even better by a batch of sausage that Tom cooked up. Along with plenty of appetizers and brownies for dessert. We all enjoyed our dinner and watching the kids arrive at the house with some terrific costumes. Tom and neighbor Dan passed out the candy. The boys  were funny-very business like. And Tom likes to pass out large candy bars. The kids were so excited! And very polite. We figured we passed out around 100 candy bars. Tom took the leftovers to work to bribe his staff. Unfortunately a few teenagers decided to run around the neighborhood and steal all the candy bowls that were left out along with a camp chair or two. Not cool. At least they left a pile of empty bowls at the end of one of the streets. Also glad our house did not get "egged" or cars broken into which has happened in the past. (Remember Devil's Night in Detroit?). 

I also stopped into Mom B's place in the afternoon to drop off supplies. I was going to sit with her and carve my pumpkin but they still will not allow gatherings in public places in her building and it was just too hard to set up in her apt, so I quickly carved it up at home before the guests arrived. Mom and I did get to share some Halloween candy though!

At least I had a bit of a break from working long hours.  I am still scheduled for every other Saturday, but I was able to take a day off work on Friday over Scott's break. I actually didn't have to go in until Sunday. We had been running low on patients since we were shut down for a few weeks with COVID. Still getting tested every week-now we just test ourselves. Even if you are vaccinated. And still wearing masks and face shields. Since I wear them all day I usually don't wear anything when I go outside or to the stores. Especially since I know I'm COVID free from all the testing and triple protected with my booster and flu shot.  It's nice to be able to start getting back to doing all the enjoyable activities we did before the pandemic. Like having trick or treaters come to the door! Tom refused to pass out candy last year with the risk of COVID spread. 

Some activities remain online however. Our Girl Scout committee had our first online zoom meeting since our live camping event last May. We have a smaller planning group this time around-some staff had to drop out, but we managed to decide on next year's theme along with several activities in less than an hour(looking like a Space Theme this year). Unfortunately our GS Program Director just informed us that she is leaving and will be moving to the UK for another position. Not sure who is going to take her place-she was responsible for running all the summer camp programs and specialty camps!

Scott had his Fall Break from Oct 20-23. He and Allison plotted back in July to travel down to Orlando to celebrate Disney's 50th Anniversary. They also wanted to visit the park during Halloween and experience the new Star Wars ride "Rise of the Resistance" at Disney Studios. We tried to fly Scott home on a Tuesday afternoon before his break,  but he had a midterm during the day and could not make the one non stop flight scheduled early in the morning. He was really looking forward to this break since he has been working so hard with a rather challenging semester. He had two midterms scheduled before his break and two when he returned. Instead we flew him home early on Weds with a brief visit at home, and he and Allison both flew out on Weds night to Orlando when she got out of work. They took a Lyft to their hotel from the Orlando airport-Tom set them up in a Hampton Inn near the parks. On Thursday they took the Lyft over to Disney Studios and had an incredible time visiting the park and seeing all the new Star Wars display and Toy Story world. The park has put a hold on some of the big shows, so they finished all the rides and shopping fairly early and headed over to Disney Springs for some shopping, bar and restaurant hopping before calling it a day. On Friday they were up early and visiting Disney World. Disney has just discontinued their fast passes and is trying a new system(pay for Fast Passes on a limited basis), but no set times like before. The kids said it was a mess, but they opted to stand in line for their favorite rides, fortunately for just about 45 mins. And they discovered a few new places in the park-an Adventurers restaurant near the Pirates of the Caribbean where they managed to have a splendid lunch. After the Disney Pyrotechniques show and fireworks,  they headed over to the Polynesian Hotel for dinner and also enjoyed a Rum Punch drink in a huge tiki cup, complete with fire! Scott certainly enjoyed visiting Disney as a legal 21 year old to sample some of their drink creations. And both kids found out the Dole Pineapple Whip ice cream is even better with a shot of rum also served at the Polynesian Hotel. They ended the day sitting on the beach with the tiki lights at the restaurant watching the fireworks shows at the other parks. I think they especially enjoyed all the food and drink specials in the park, as well as the new bucket ride between the parks. If they had another day I am sure they would have loved a visit to Epcot, although that park is going through quite a bit of renovations with new rides. They both flew home early on Saturday. That gave us another day visiting with Scott, catching a movie and dinner before he left back to school on Sunday.  So I was glad to have had Friday and Saturday off to visit with the kids and get my errands run. And Saturday night Allison went off to dinner with Gabe and his family at a Korean Steak restaurant to celebrate Gabe's birthday. Afterwards we invited them over for homemade apple crisp to wish Gabe Happy Birthday. 

Allison, Tom and I also took Gabe to his first Hershey Hockey game. I think it was his first hockey game as well! before the game we stopped at the brewery for a beer and big pretzel. We also had to stop into Hershey's candy land so Gabe could stock up on candy for his neighborhood. It was just one week before Halloween and most of their specialty candy was already gone! The game was a lot of fun, although we were a bit shocked by the half time entertainment. They decided to play Dodge Ball on the ice. Tom immediately said it looked like a terrible idea. Sure enough, before they could start playing, the guys ran out on the ice and a big guy fell backwards, his helmet flew off and he cracked his head open. Nothing like a front row seat to ER as they carried him off on a stretcher and cleaned up the blood with a squirt from a water bottle and the zamboni. Lovely intro to hockey.  

And since the October weather was so nice, Tom and I met with some of his coworkers for Happy Hour after work on that Thursday when the kids were in Orlando. One of Tom's previous bosses wrote a book based on the ghost stories of  Ellicott City. She used her grandmother's name since she previously lived in the area(an in case the story was bad!). Plus she apparently based some of her characters on people she knew but did not want them to know! Anyway, she had a small book signing while we enjoyed some Guinness beer and food. It was also nice to chat with some of the Northrop staff-both new and quite seasoned like Tom.

As a matter of fact, Tom just celebrated his 35th year with Northrop! He was a bit surprised to see his name on a banner in the cafeteria at work. He also received a free gift. He picked out a copper patio heater from the gift catalog which already arrived and he set up-can't wait to try it out! He didn't have an extensive number of choices (we already have several work clocks!). 

Other exciting accomplishments to celebrate in the Seitz family-Kudos go to Mark Seitz who hiked across the Grand Canyon at the end of October! He started at the North side of the Canyon-Dad Seitz dropped him off and then took the 5 hour drive around to the south side to pick him up the same day. Mark did the hike in an incredible 8 hours, starting early in the morning around 4pm in the dark. Sounded a bit scary making his way down the winding trails to the bottom, crossing the Colorado River and back up the other side. He did run into a few other hikers and even took time to mail off some post cards from the bottom of the canyon! Congrats Mark! We are all just glad you made the trek safely and successfully! (We heard some people don't make it!)

And we'd like to send Happy Birthday Wishes to Emma Seitz who turned 1 on Oct 28th! Also to welcome into the world Gracie Augrain Hudson(ne Bozyk) born on the same day, Oct 28th to parents Sarah and Patrick in New Orleans. Mom B's first Great Grandchild!

 

October 1-15th, 2021

Finally one of my favorite times of the year! Actually, a favorite season for the whole family. It's the start of all things spooky! I can't get enough scary and horror movies, tv shows and stories. I even piggy backed on Scott's Netflix subscription and binge watched "Tiger King"-the buzz word from last year and waiting for the upcoming continuation. Just saying, lots of crazy people living here in the US. As a side note, a farm near DC has 45 zebras along with camels, not sure what else. But 4 of the zebras escaped and have been roaming the farmlands and woods in that area. 2 were killed in a snare trap(set for the zebra?). Then animal welfare busted the farm saying the animals there were not being cared for properly. More to come. Glad they weren't raising tigers! 

Things have been a bit strange in our area. A man was captured after killing an 80 year old woman(friend of his mother's) in Western MD. He then drove to Ellicott City in her car to kill his step -brother and his wife who he worried was killing people with the COVID vaccine since he was a pharmacist. Then he stole his brother's red convertible corvette and escaped to West Virginia where he was caught. Shocker. Hard to hide in a red convertible corvette in West Virginia.  The couple lived down the street from my boss. She said it was a very hectic day in her neighborhood. And Ellicott City was just named one of the Top Ten Cities in America to live in. Interestingly enough, we were also named "Korea Town" and a monument was erected along our main road, Route 40(National Road) at the end of our neighborhood. We have a very large Korean population in our city and lots of restaurants and businesses Korean owned. And just so happens our governor is married to a Korean woman. So they made a big fuss about the announcement. Don't know how it came to be-didn't get to vote on it. And our nearby city of Columbia, MD was recently named the safest city in America. Followed by a 2 person shooting. Can't keep up with all the crazy. 

I think life is trying to readjust to post lock down COVID. Prices are way up for everything(yes it is inflation) and items are difficult to find on the shelves. Both Tom and I have started doing more shopping(more for me than Tom) since I cannot find some basics like gel toothpaste or my Suave shampoo at the stores. At work, things continue to fluctuate. We recently had two staff employees test positive for COVID, and a positive COVID patient, so we had to go back on lockdown and unable to bring in more patients.  We were back to K-95 masks and face shields. We also could not go between our two buildings, so it really limits how many patients I can treat in a day. Fortunately, I was able to get my COVID booster shot at work after a few hiccups and paperwork. It was still early on for the release of the booster shots and it seemed to be causing some confusion.  I was also surprised at the side effects this go round. I woke up with a rash all over my face about a week after getting the shot! Our whole staff got the shots and complained of being itchy and very tired, along with a fever. Northrop is demanding their employees get vaccinated. Tom went to get his booster shot but got the runaround at the local drug store. He finally got his booster at the grocery store pharmacy. Allison is holding off until the end of October when she returns from her trip to Disney. Although we both had our flu shots already. 

We also kicked off our spooky month of October with a visit to Howl O Scream at Busch Gardens. Allison, Tom and I headed down on Thursday night after work. That gave us the whole day on Friday to enjoy the decorations and catch a few shows. Before heading in though we caught a morning movie-Venom 2. Tom decided he wanted to see the Sopranos back story movie but left about 30 mins into the film reporting it was terrible. He then joined us in Venom, but he did not especially like that movie either. Allison and I did though! We really enjoyed Venom 1. Meanwhile back at the park, we met up with our neighbors Dan and Gloria who joined us for the weekend. Unfortunately though Dan was not feeling well and called it an early night. We did enjoy all the haunted houses, and even our favorite jewelry booth was open at the park. Allison bought an amazing Dragon necklace and I got some adorable Baby Yoda earrings to go with my Yoda ears. The biggest disappointment in the day was the food choices. When Busch Gardens was actually owned by the Busch Distillery the food and drink choices were phenomenal. They had Halloween themed desserts-we adored their pumpkin cheesecake. And they had several special bars and eateries set up around the park, along with an Escape Room. So all of those things were left out, but we still had a great time. On Saturday we stopped into the outlet stores for Allison and I to do some shopping at Vera Bradley before heading home by way of the back roads.  The weekend certainly put us in the Halloween mood. And the mood for fall, although the weather has actually been quite mild. Warm actually on some days. 

Allison and I enjoyed an outing to the apple farm to pick a big bag of Winesap and  Empire  apples that we shared, along with picking up some farm cheese curds and fresh apple cider. I think this was the first year that I was sweating while walking through the orchard. I really enjoy picking apples from the smaller trees that are grown on a trellis though-no ladders! And I can get to all the really good apples myself!  We also had a great time at our church's Fall Festival. They did not hold the festival  last year with COVID, and Allison and I have not gone to the festival for awhile since we were camping the last time it was held. I especially enjoy their rummage sale. I spent the week before the event digging through some of the kids leftover games and toys for donation and then dropped off several big bags in the evening. They also have several arts and crafts booths, snack tables, a silent auction and raffle and plant sale. Allison and I picked up a few fun items at the rummage sale along with some jewelry at the craft tables and a plant for Allison. And they got the whole event done before a very rainy afternoon. Allison and I also spent the afternoon doing a little bit of shopping. 

Tom and I also have been spending a bit more time with our neighbors Dan and Gloria  before Gloria has her second shoulder replacement done. We enjoy going out to dinner and even caught the new James Bond movie, No Time to Die. Must say was not one of the best Bond movies, but it was definitely long-at least 2.5 hrs!  Tom, Allison and I also introduced them to a Hershey Hockey Game. We drove up to Hershey, PA early on a Saturday to have  a beer at a local brewery before stopping into Hershey's Candy Land to stock up on Halloween goodies. Looks like they both enjoyed the new experience, especially Gloria!

This is definitely Tom's favorite time of year for the sports! He has certainly been enjoying the football games and getting together with the neighbor guys each week to partake in snacks and critique the NFL while watching the games. And then there is Hockey! We have also been checking in on the college ball games. I was sorry we missed traveling to Michigan this year for Scott's Western Michigan Homecoming weekend. Honestly, Scott was so busy studying for his midterms he really would not have been able to visit with us. And the local high school Homecoming weekend was on the day of the church Fall Festival so we missed the parade. Too many activities! Turns out they had to reroute the yearly parade since the church parking lot is usually the starting point and it was filled with tables and activities for the fair. Maybe next year. 

I have also been getting the fall yard work done while the weather has been so mild. I was able to plant all my fall mums and pansies, pick up some pumpkins and my hay bale as well as a corn stalk for the front door decorations. On top of the fall decor, I was slowly putting out all the Halloween decorations as well. And this is the time of year to take advantage of some warm sunshine to plant grass seed or transplant bushes or trees.  I had quite a few spots in the front and back yard that needed some top soil and seed including areas where Tom killed off some pesky Bermuda grass. The neighbors caught me early on a Sunday morning up to my elbows in mud after church! I also finally transplanted a small birch tree that I should have moved last year, but Tom and I could not figure out where to put it. I finally made an executive order of where to place it in the front yard. But it did not go so easy! River Birch have long, shallow roots which were hard to dig up, especially since it was growing so close to our backyard fence. I really appreciated Cookies assistance when she came over and lay down under the shade of the tree while it was laying on its side! We'll see next year if it survived the move. And I have already started bagging up leaves and twigs in the yard and the street. Our leaves have not really started changing color just yet. Maybe closer to the end of the month. 

 While I was busy with work outside the house, Tom found a project in the house to keep him busy. He ended up basically rewriting his entire thesis since it is being reviewed and edited for format followed by a committee approval before he can move on to completing the research surveys. So since he is waiting around for feedback, he found something to keep himself occupied. He stripped the wallpaper from Allison's old room, repainted and hung crown molding as well as cleaning the carpet. He also had some patching to do since it had some old roof leaks in the ceiling by the chimney that were repaired many years ago. It was much easier to get the work done since the room is empty of Allison's furniture and Scott moved all his school and dorm room supplies out when he went back to Western. Now Tom is anxious to pick up a bed and furniture to make the room guest worthy. We did pick out a light lavender color for the walls and decided it needed more delicate furniture. We were introduced to a huge used furniture/lighting/appliance etc warehouse in downtown Baltimore from our friends Dan and Gloria. The warehouse takes used items from Maine to Florida and was absolutely huge and packed with everything from massive marble fireplaces to small glassware, statues, chandeliers, couches and chairs, desks, entire kitchens! Huge furniture sets that look like they came out of a castle! The prices drop every week on the items. We found a beautiful bedroom set, but decided it was a bit too heavy for the room. Also were hunting for a new dining room chandelier, but we just ran out of time to keep looking. We'll have to venture back again some time. 

I also finalized my hip surgery date at the end of the year on the 30th of December! Far enough past my COVID booster shot-they wanted me to wait a few months although they really don't know what a good time span is since no one has experienced this yet. I was able to schedule my preliminary PT appointment and get my walker! (I actually could have waited for the pediatric sized walker, but I figure I won't be using it too long anyway!)

We have especially enjoyed spending more time with Allison! She has also been busy though with plenty of her own activities including a backpacking camping trip with Gabe and another couple-friends of Allison-on the Appalachian Trail. They had a beautiful weekend, and even took a large labradoodle dog along. The dog is quite well prepared for camping and hiking and even has his own booties! I guess he was a bit too nosey though and wandered into another campers area early in the morning. I guess it upset the guy and he was giving their group a hard time. You never know who you are going to run into on the Appalachian Trail. Had me worried since officials were looking for a possible suspect of the Gabby Petito murder case. Her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie was thought to be hiding out along the AT. Turns out he was eventually found deceased in the local park, Carlton Reserve in Venice Fl. They were busy hunting him in the park when Tom and I were visiting Florida to attend Tom's mother's funeral. Did not realize there was such a large wildlife reserve so close to the area we have visited over the years, including time I spent there as a kid with my family. So sad that it became a crime scene. And seems that crazy crime is a bit too close lately. Don't get me started about the state of Baltimore!

As if we didn't have enough to worry about with COVID. Maybe scary October takes on a whole new meaning! Looking forward to the upcoming Holidays to lighten things up!