January 11-January 24, 2021 Surviving COVID Vaccination! Better than watching the Raven's play. 

  So it has been 2 weeks now since I had my first COVID vaccination and I am still testing negative for COVID, twice a week at work. So far, so good. No real side effects except for the sore arm at the beginning and maybe extra tired during the week coming home from work. Like I just could not get up off the couch. Looking forward to my second vaccination scheduled at work on Jan 29th. And I just signed my mother's consent form-she will finally get her first vaccination on Jan 31st. It cannot come soon enough. Her building is considered an Assisted Living Facility, even though it is affiliated with a nursing home. The ALF vaccination schedule is under the 1B roll out, so her building was skipped when they came by to do the nursing homes under 1A roll out. However, in my building, the ALF and nursing home is considered under one roof, so everybody was vaccinated.  We still keep getting staff members testing positive for COVID. Not sure who, but I am guessing it is new staff getting hired to come into the building. I still believe if you have not yet been exposed to the virus, you are way more susceptible to catching it when you enter a facility that has had an outbreak. Even with all the cleaning and use of PPE. Again, it is a very sneaky virus! Some staff members that caught the virus before Christmas have not really bounced back, mainly with complaints of breathing problems, body aches and pain, headaches. And some of our residents that caught it have not bounced back to their previous levels either. Plus we still lost a few residents from complications due to COVID, a month or so after they first contracted the virus. My building went back to our rule of not working back and forth in our ALF and Nursing home section. So I have been assigned to the patients in the ALF side during the week. But my patients usually only get treated 3 times a week, so some days are busier than others. I was very busy when most of the residents returned from the nursing home/rehab side back to their ALF apartments at about the same time. They all were sent to the rehab/nursing home side after contracting the virus and going to the hospital. They immediately were sent back to their apartments after a two week isolation period, but that did not necessarily mean they were all better. The CDC however considers you "COVID" free because you are not supposed to be contagious after that time. And the isolation period dropped from 14 days to 10 days. But as I mentioned, it does not necessarily mean you are "all better". I was so busy one week that they finally sent over an OT assistant to help me out with treatments. Also the nursing/rehab caseload was low since they were not able to bring in any more patients. Recently, our positive case numbers in the building have dwindled so they have been able to bring in more rehab patients, sometimes up to 4 or 5 a day. So our other OT has been very busy keeping up with evaluations. Make hay while the sun shines. That is not to say that we are entirely COVID free. It seems that we usually have at least 1 person test positive each week, and it is primarily our staff. I see several therapists that I worked with in the past have been receiving their vaccines, as well as my brother in law, Mark S who delivers radioactive treatments to hospitals as his current retirement job. My neighbor Gloria is a traveling nurse and was able to receive her vaccine at a local hospital where she used to work this past week. She said there was no waiting when she went for her appointment. And our physician neighbors received their vaccinations at work in the hospital.  Hoping Mom and Dad Seitz will be able to get their vaccinations soon. I posted my Shot Day photo on Facebook to encourage others to get their vaccinations, as well as sending it to my mom's facility as they have staff members declining the opportunity.  They don't seem to be alone as the news reports of many health care workers declining the vaccination where others that want the vaccine can't get it!

I keep my fingers crossed for my mom's building since they are not vaccinated yet, and they keep having cases of COVID in both staff and residents. My mom has been confined to her apt since Christmas. She has been exposed to positive COVID staff members but thank God has not tested positive herself. She did have a very bad day where she fell a few times and the staff said she just wasn't herself, but she seemed to bounce back and they did not find anything wrong with her, including several negative COVID tests. Jan 31st cannot come fast enough for her! In the meantime, the staff finally let me pick up her Christmas decorations. They were worried her Christmas tree and decorations would spread COVID. I don't blame them. I usually take the decorations right over to mom's storage unit, or leave it in our garage for a few days so I was not so worried about catching anything. Plus I can always spray it with my precious little Lysol that I have left. I finally was able to switch her over to some decorative snowmen to brighten up her room. It's hard to come up with things that might interest her, besides food and sweets! I was wondering if she could manage one of the sticker art books, but I am sure she would need someone to do it with her. I have seen her manage the coloring pages by herself. Not sure the staff has that much time to spare to sit with her and do an activity. I was thinking of putting together a jewelry sorting kit like Sarah Seitz made for Mom Seitz. My mother loves jewelry! But even trying to pick up discount jewelry during COVID times is not so easy. No real garage sales, and even the Good Will stores prices are expensive around here. I keep sending her in magazines along with my supply runs to her place, and I always send her a hand written card to keep her up to date(which she won't remember, but that's ok). She can still read out loud, just cannot come up with her own words usually. At least she was able to get to their hair salon right before Christmas when they allowed the hair stylist back in the building for 1 to 1 appointments. They also tried window visits again but it is too cold to sit outside, so they were setting up the clear barriers with masks inside and then just Facetime visits. I am just waiting for both of us to be vaccinated and hoping we can have an actual, in person visit at that time!

So I am primarily still working M-F with an occasional day off if the work slows down.  I did go in on a Saturday to help out on the rehab side with some evaluations for new patients. So far everyone we have taken in tested negative for COVID. Lets hope it stays that way. We definitely got in trouble when we took in Positive COVID cases. It's a bit tricky to refuse taking back the residents that live in the building if they test positive for COVID when the hospital is ready to discharge. And I am definitely not excited about working for the new contract company. We switched over the beginning of Dec. and they are just now doing a facility wide computer download which means on Monday none of us will have computer access. We will have to do everything on paper, so we tried to hurry and get some of our heavier paperwork done the week before like evaluations or progress notes since we won't have access to any of our previous notes. And we did not get holiday pay for MLK day like we used to with our previous company. Technically we do not get any holiday pay, but since we were transferred during a sale from the previous company, we are supposed to get 6 paid holidays. Not sure that even went through. 

I did enjoy our last week having Scott at home while he started his classes online. He had issues(of course)logging into a live class and had to go through the presentation himself and then figure out the homework on his own. He found out later when he tried to log in the following week that the web page code was old. He needed to have a classmate hook him up.  He also had a quiz scheduled on Friday the 15th, but it was supposed to be a day off, Spirit Day,  since the kids were allowed to come back to campus on that day. The school was supposed to reopen on the 8th of January, but it was pushed off because the Michigan Governor extended a shut down until the 15th. However, school must go on! So the quiz was cancelled, and Scott and Tom headed out on Friday the 15th to drive Scott's Jeep back to Kalamazoo. The week before Scott had to drive up to Elkton, MD on the border of Delaware to get his updated driver's license. Since he turned 21 he needed a new license and turn in his documentation for a real ID. He had an appointment set up in December when he came home from school. Unfortunately, they closed all the MVA offices for several weeks over the holidays due to COVID and they were supposed to sign him up for another appointment. However, he never heard back and when he checked the local offices, they did not have any appointments until February. Plus he could not do any of it online. So Tom joined him and they drove up to the office for a scheduled time slot. I managed to find Scott the appointment-only one available at 4pm on a Tuesday afternoon, about a 1.5-2 hr drive. It actually took a little less time to drive up there since traffic continues to be light due to COVID. They actually got there a bit early so caught some lunch beforehand. Afterwards the clerk told Scott she was going to mail him the license which he was not crazy about, but he did not seem to have a choice. When they were done, they drove to the Costco in Delaware to do some alcohol shopping. (no liquor stores here in Maryland Costcos). Tom was hoping to buy some of Costco's special Irish whiskey I spotted in a recent advertisement, but they were already sold out. And the MVA said Scott's license would take a month for him to receive, but we got it in the mail at the end of the week! Too bad he had already left for school

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 The night before Tom and Scott headed to Michigan, we had Allison over for a steak dinner and to watch hockey. Afterwards Scott packed up his Jeep since the boys headed out very early the next morning. They wanted to beat some snow and ice that was heading our way. They managed to have a clear, pleasant drive and arrived early in the afternoon. Scott was not able to return to his dorm room however until Saturday morning. The dorms had the kids sign up for a move back in time, even though they did not have as much stuff to take up to their rooms as they did in the fall. The school just wanted to make sure the kids did not all try to arrive at the same time. The dorms still limit visitors to one per student, limit the number of people on elevators and also keep the front doors locked. Scott has to check in at the desk every time he enters and show a COVID checklist on his phone, asking if he has a fever, or cold like symptoms. He did not have to get a COVID test when he returned, but they are offering them. Tom on the other hand had to get a COVID test when he got back to Maryland before going in to work again. 

So they ran a few errands, picking up some back to school supplies for Scott and tried to find a place to eat since Scott did not have a move back in time until Saturday morning. Most of the restaurants in Michigan are closed except for outdoor dining and carry out. They ordered pizza on Friday night for the hotel and on Saturday night they tried eating indoors at a campus restaurant/bar with individual booths inside. Someone came in and had a temper tantrum about the mandatory mask law although not sure what the problem was because if you sat down to eat you could take off your mask. People are crazy. The boys discovered the food was good though. We tried to eat there before but it was always crowded.  On Saturday, Scott was able to get in his room and drop off his stuff including his computer and new printer, clothes and school supplies. On Sunday, they drove up to Grand Rapids to kill some time, eat lunch before Tom headed to the airport. Again, very difficult to find a place to eat lunch. Mostly seating was available in outdoor tents, not always heated. Not much open. Tom said airport security was a bit heightened coming back since it was so close to Inauguration Day and the recent attack on the DC Capital flying into the Baltimore airport. But he had a nice, almost empty flight back home. Allison and I picked him up at the airport in the evening and headed back to her apartment for dinner. We stopped into a new chinese restaurant near Allison's place to try it out and were pleasantly pleased with the quality of the food. So now she knows another place for carry out. We also checked out her local grocery store-very nice, not a chain store. And we started the Disney+ series "Wanda Vision"-a Marvel storyline that is supposed to take place after End Game. It's about Wanda a witch and Vision an alien robot who get married and live their lives through the decades like a tv series hinting at "I Love Lucy", "The Dick Van Dyke Show", and currently "The Brady Bunch". We were not sure we would like this show, but it is getting interesting and mysterious. They make sure to leave you with a cliffhanger wanting to know more about the story. Even Allison is hooked. This took the place of our Mandelorian Star Wars series with a new episode very Friday. So the following Friday we had Allison over for dinner and another episode of "Wanda Vision". 

On Saturday night Allison and I caught the Ravens/Buffalo Bills game with our friends Dan and Gloria at their house. The game was on later in the evening, but Dan and Gloria fixed a light dinner. We enjoyed their company, along with Cookie, but did not enjoy the game. Sadly, the Ravens looked terrible and lost. Probably better losing now than having to play Kansas City! Tom and Scott opted out of watching the game. Too stressful. This weekend, Allison came over on Sunday to catch the Green Bay/Tampa Bay game and have coney dogs for dinner. 

Scott discovered that school is just as messed up online this semester as it was when they switched to virtual last year. He still does not have a good handle on his schedule. This semester he is taking a Cost Analysis class, Sustainability, Engineering Leadership and Metal Casting. He was so hoping to have an in person Metal Casting class since it is mostly a lab, but because Michigan Gov Whitmer closed in person classes, his lab is virtual. No fun. I was hoping they woudl at least open up the labs this semester, but it is not looking promising. Meanwhile, Maryland schools remain virtual for the most part. Private schools/catholic schools have hybrid schedules with kids having in person classes a few days a week, taking turns. Our Governor is demanding students return to school now which is causing quite a bit of commotion, for and against. Our county is still pushing for an April 1st start where other counties are looking at starting back sooner. All the winter school sports have been cancelled. Our restaurants are open for limited seating in our area, but Baltimore closed all restaurants for indoor and outdoor dining over the holidays and through the football season. Not good for the economy. 

 Jan 4-Jan 10, 2021

What a start to the 2021 New Year. Almost as crazy as 2020! We watched a President Trump Rally in DC turn ugly with a raid on the Capital building while the Senators and House Reps were meeting to finalize the count on the Electoral college votes for the incoming President. No matter the objections, looks like Joe Biden will be sworn in as the next President on Inaugural Day.  Never a dull moment in our neck of the woods. Especially when politics is involved. 

Our January weather so far has been mild enough to get outside and de- Christmas the house. Work is slow for me since we are still trying to recover from our super spreader, so I had Tuesday off. Instead, Scott and I started taking down the outdoor Christmas lights off the trees and shrubs. I was busy gathering extension cords and reorganizing the garage. Scott put up the ladder and pulled the lights down from the trees before it started raining. On the weekend, when it was sunny and dry, Tom and Scott pulled the lights off the house in the morning and packed them away in the garage. In the afternoon we were busy taking down all our Christmas decorations inside the house. How sad. I so love having all the twinkly lights at this time of year. 

Tom and Allison were back to work this week. Allison actually had to start back to work on Sunday which is the reason we came back from Williamsburg early. Looks like her Northrop finance department kicks into high gear at the beginning of the month and beginning of the year, no matter what day it lands on. She also has been busy working long hours the entire week and has so far put in 20+ hrs overtime! She may not qualify for those recent stimulus checks if she keeps up this pace! Her friends even put their weekly Dungeon and Dragons game on hold since Allison has been so busy although she did get a visit from a few friends with a drive by to drop off some tea and a mug, some candles and a blanket for support. Tom also returned to work in the building, but is also able to complete some projects from home on the computer. 

The best part of my work week was getting the COVID vaccination on Friday the 8th. CVS came to our facility and set up shop in the HR office, giving out shots from 10am to 4pm. We filled out our paperwork the week before so I had a short wait to get my shot. Afterwards they ask that you wait 15 mins to make sure of no allergic reactions. I then took a photo with our advertisement poster and sent it to my mom's facility. Their manager sent out an email asking family to send in photos requesting staff to get their vaccinations as many healthcare workers are hesitant to do so. I was worried about my mom all weekend as I received several calls on Friday from her nurses telling me she wasn't feeling well and had actually fallen a couple of times in her apartment. She is currently on isolation as is all of the building since several staff members tested positive for COVID and she was exposed. Fortunately she has tested negative each time and they tested her multiple times. Can't figure out why she had a bad day. So far all the lab tests look good. They did bring in the Nurse Practitioner to check her out but nothing out of the ordinary. They can't get the vaccination soon enough! They told me to hold off on picking up my mom's Christmas decorations I guess in case they are infected. I did drop off a very cute Snowman picture frame with mom's Christmas card photo and our framed family photo. I had a lot of fun returning to Kohls last weekend to use up my Kohls bucks and do a little after Christmas shopping, picking up some gifts for next year and some snowmen for mom to decorate her apartment after putting away the Christmas tree. 

I've been enjoying reading Christmas cards and letters too. It would appear the the US mail just basically quit delivery after Dec 11th. My mom's monthly apartment payment for December still hasn't arrived which I mailed on the 11th. Dad Seitz still hasn't received his Christmas box which was rerouted through Indiana due to a wrong shipping label(that one was on me!)

 

Scott was busy trying to enjoy the last week off school before classes start again. He had a quick visit with his high school friend Matt, but mostly spends his time chatting with friends online and playing video games or working on his computer art. And Tom and Scott have been sampling some beer at the local pubs, including another trip to Guinness for lunch and a drink while sitting outside at their own fire pit. The only issue Scott has currently is that he was unable to renew his driver's license. When you turn 21, you need to renew your license. He signed up to renew the license in person because they won't let you do it online for the new license. Plus he needs to bring all his personal information for the real ID. However, the MVA closed all in person appointments and never rescheduled him yet. He sent in an email and is still waiting to hear from someone. He needs to renew his license before returning to school since it looks like the soonest appointment he could get now would be at the end of February. 

We finished the week off celebrating our Raven's football team win over the Tennessee Titans in the first playoff game on Sunday afternoon. Allison and our neighbor's Dan and Gloria came over to enjoy the game and a chili and bratwurst lunch. Dan and Gloria also brought wings and peel and eat shrimp. And the day before I made some more chocolate covered Oreos for dessert. I found Tom some Java(coffee)flavored Oreos, Nutella Oreos and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough/Brownie and Cream triple layered Oreos that I dunked in Ghiradelli chocolate along with some more big pretzels. All the desserts seemed to be a big hit. And so was the game! Very exciting! Can't wait for the following game next weekend, and I got to wear my new Tucker jersey. 

Unfortunately I missed our virtual Girl Scout choir sing a long workshop scheduled Sunday afternoon in the middle of the Ravens game. We usually get a full house in January where our GS choir teaches traditional songs to troops. It's a lot of fun but with all things was scheduled as an online event. I would have actually tried this one, but the game cane first!

Happy Birthday to the Birthday Girl, Mom Seitz on January 6th! Feast of the Epiphany! or the 12th Day of Christmas. Traditionally, Christmas decorations should be taken down on the 5th. Any sooner is considered bad luck.  Looks like we were basically on schedule and we can all use some good luck for the New Year!

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Good Bye 2020 and Hello 2021! Bring on the Vaccine!

  I had to work Christmas Eve. Usually I would be trying to get home as early as possible so we could go out to dinner at the local Chinese restaurant before mass. The kids decided years ago that we should have Chinese food as our traditional Christmas Eve meal(mainly because if we were traveling, that was about the only restaurant open!). We would then go to the Christmas Eve Mass at Our Lady of the Angels Catholic Church at Charlestown when we weren't traveling. We always enjoy the beautiful music and decorations in the cathedral as well as the wonderful sermon by Father Leo at the retirement center where I used to work. Afterwards we would drive through the nearby neighborhoods to enjoy the Christmas lights before heading home for some drinks and dessert, a Christmas movie and maybe open a present or two.  For several years we also were able to have my parents join us, but recently it had been harder to pick up my mom for the late evening mass since she usually eats dinner and is getting ready for bed during that time. And if I am working on Christmas Eve it is even harder to get out of work and rush around. We like that time for Christmas mass, around 7pm,  since there were less residents attending. They all prefer the 4pm mass or Christmas morning and the small cathedral fills up fast with residents and family. We used to go to our parish church for mass when the kids attended elementary school there, but it is always so packed. We used to enjoy the kids mass the best-the kids would act out the nativity and they played great music! Scott was even in the play one year as a shepherd. You still had to get to mass about an hour earlier to get a seat. And now with COVID you have to make a reservation for mass and they don't have as many times offered. Plus you had to stand outside while they check your temperature and it was supposed to rain all Christmas day. No fun. I planned on catching the Milwaukee Heart of the Nation mass online on Christmas day. So this year after I got home from work we ordered Chinese food for pick up. Allison came over to join us but we had a 2 hour wait for our order. I put out a veggie and cheese platter to hold us over while I finished wrapping Christmas gifts and the kids picked up our dinner. Scott prepared some homemade egg nog(and we added a bit of rum! Very tasty! We spent the evening watching an Anime cartoon movie Scott was looking forward to as well as Disney channels "Soul" which we really enjoyed while munching on our food and some Christmas cookies before calling it a night. 

On Christmas Day, Friday the 25th, we were up early and I started bringing the gifts downstairs to put around the tree. Allison was over before lunch. I had big plans to make a breakfast casserole, but everyone was finishing off their leftover Chinese food before I could prepare anything, so we got down to business opening gifts! We even had a little snow to set the mood! Everyone got amazing presents. Allison made out big with items she can use for her apartment like a Roomba vacuum cleaner, a tall step ladder, some baking and cooking gear and spices - muffin pan and cutting boards, kitchen shears and knives, candles, a floor plant, kitchen and bathroom hand towels. Also some fun things like Dungeons and Dragons jewelry and tshirts, Baby Yoda socks and Star Wars tshirt, Ravens jewelry, video games, a Mickey Mouse wall clock, exercise clothes and a Capitals sweatshirt. Scott got dorm room items including a new desk chair, ink jet printer, pj pants and tshirts, socks, video games and his most exciting gift, a Virtual Reality Oculus game system. Turns out his high school friend Matt also got the system, so they have been busy playing games together all week. I also tried out the Google earth 3D tours of cities including Rome, Italy. It is pretty amazing-I felt like Godzilla walking around the buildings and scoping out the Vatican and Coliseum from up above and street level. I surprised Tom with some new shirts, including dress shirt, long sleeved waffle shirts and a Hershey Bear polo with the original logo, a new rain coat, one of the newly designed LED strip lights for his fish tank and some kitchen items like a new roasting pan. Scott got him a gift card to Pet Smart to buy more fish and tank items. But it looks like his favorite gift turned out to be the Star Trek Enterprise Tree Topper. Tom has received a Star Trek space ship ornament for every year for the past 29 years. Sadly we missed out on buying the very first ornament in the series and now they are incredibly expensive sold only through online buying groups like Ebay or at the Comic Con events. This year I did not see a space ship ornament at Hallmark, just the large expensive tree topper. I decided I better pick it up for him now because the items either sell out, or they don't make them anymore and if you do get one later, the price is sure to go up. Just like the 1st Star Trek Enterprise ornament. So I dug deep into my wallet and bought one for Tom back in November. He wanted to know how I could spend so much money at Hallmark-now he knows! He was also wondering why I did not get him a Star Trek ornament for St Nick's Day.  Instead he got an Xwing fighter ship from Star Wars. Over the years we have also picked up Star Wars ornaments(space theme) although Tom really just prefers the ships, not the characters. But we like it all, so he gets it no matter what.  He even gets a Star Trek space ship calendar for his office at work. Allison gets a dragon calendar and Scott got Mine Craft this year. And I made everyone a family photo for their desks, our family room and Scott's dorm fridge. Not as fancy as JCPenny photo studio, but I did what I could. We also subscribed to another year of Disney +. 

I was quite impressed with my surprises including a Raven's jersey from the kids with Justin Tucker, our kicker. I got a Lands End coat for all weather including rain, snow and wind which is usual for Maryland, some new gold hoop earrings and hanging jewelry cases. Tom picked up a tray table to place next to the couch. I was going to buy two but he beat me to it.  I also have a new, plastic wood Bluebird house so hopefully no squirrel or racoon will chew on this one plus sunflower seeds to refill my bird feeder. And Tom really surprised me with an electric bike! I certainly hope I can ride it! He assembled it in the basement and he and Scott brought it up just when we thought we were done! As a matter of fact, I brought Tom's Star Trek tree topper down in the afternoon since I had forgotten it in the back of the closet! After all that! He said he thought about trying to buy one after Christmas, but I warned him that most items sell out before Christmas and they don't get anymore. So if you can't find it right away, forget about it. He mentioned the tree topper was already selling for more online than the store price. Turns out, Hallmark got smart and decided not to put this item on sale as they are selling it again next year. Along with several Star Trek characters that interact with the Tree Topper. We discovered that the ship not only plays the Star Trek theme music and lights up with a crazy light show, but if you add the tv show characters, they speak to the ship and act out one of the series. And naturally you have to have a special cord which I just happened to have gotten on sale a few years ago. Tom broke down after Christmas and we bought Capt Kirk to hear him talk to the ship. Tom is mesmerized and so is our neighbor Dan at how hi tech it all is, however we discovered that since they are selling the items next year, none of it was on sale this year. Hallmark just put them away in storage. You can still buy them if you ask for it. For full price. Tom and I discovered that when we went post Christmas shopping at Hallmark for discounts. Right. 

So after all the gifts were opened and the paper and packages were cleaned up, Allison and I gathered up a few plate fulls of Christmas cookies and delivered them to our neighbors with our Christmas cards. It was fun to stop into their houses and wish them a Merry Christmas! We even took Cookie along with us, and actually stopped in for a quick visit to Dan and Gloria's house. After heading home it was time to get dinner together. Tom made us a beautiful and tasty standing rib roast. I added some Cherry Horseradish mashed potatoes and asparagus. Tom asked for a replacement of Cherry horseradish from Cherry Republic in Michigan. I got him a gift box from their store in Ann Arbor along with a sausage, some cherry mustard and cherry salsa plus cherry snack mix. We received a bottle of the cherry horseradish from my Uncle Joe and Aunt Kathy last Christmas that they picked up in Traverse City and Tom fell in love with the flavor. We sat down in the dining room to enjoy our meal and Allison decided we should keep up with our Christmas light tour before sitting down to dessert. Tom stayed behind so I drove our usual route. Unfortunately, our usual route had a few closures due to traffic accidents and a tree that came down with all the rain we had the day before and brought a power line down with it. So no power for part of the neighborhood on Christmas day! How sad.   And the tour of lights was not terribly exciting. One house usually puts on a light show, but cancelled due to COVID. I think we would have done just fine driving around our neighborhood as the lights nearby were terrific this year. Including our house! So when we finally made it back to the house, we sat down to enjoy my delicious Rum Cake and watch "Mulan" the live movie. Overall a wonderful Christmas celebration considering it was 2020. 

Allison had packed her car with all her gifts and headed home. I sat down to catch the online Christmas mass before going to bed since I had to work over the weekend. And the boys went off to enjoy their new video games. I decided to work on Saturday and Sunday to cover Christmas and New Year's Day. Our new company took over on Dec 1st and they don't pay for holidays. So this way I could work and still take off the holiday. And we were not too busy, so I really only had to work about a half day. Tom was off work and taking a break from school and so was Scott. They spent the following week running errands and doing some post Christmas shopping. Tom bought his own artificial Christmas tree for next year for his Star Trek/Star Wars collection. He got a tree from Home Depot for 70% off. He tried to find some Christmas decorations a few weeks before the big day at Home Depot including a lit garland for the front door, but they were already sold out. Looks like most stores had less holiday stock available. They didn't even sell live Christmas trees at Home Depot or Costco this year. Allison enjoyed her time off work as well by visiting with friends, playing lots of Dungeons and Dragons and visiting with Gabe. 

 I spent the week working up to Thursday and then was off for New Year's Day. We all celebrated New Year's Eve on our own. Tom and Scott headed down to Williamsburg early. They spent the evening touring around before heading over to Busch Gardens for New Years. In order to enter the park you still have to make reservations. I had reservations for Christmas Town on New Year's Day for the family, but figured the boys would enjoy going in early while the weather was nice and to enjoy the fireworks. Sadly we found out that we are actually Pass Holders and not Members of Busch Gardens. Guess they switched us over when the park sold several years ago. So even though I put in our membership numbers online that said the event was free for us, it actually cost a discounted price at $50.00 per person! They charged $70 for the event this year! What a way to end 2020-getting screwed all over again! So the boys skipped the event and went back to the hotel. Meanwhile, I was enjoying a quiet evening with a previous co worker from my old nursing home job. We hadn't seen each other since last year so she stopped over for dinner and a drink and lots of chatting. She also brought over her family's Christmas gifts since they live in Williamsburg and I told her I would drop them off on our way down. We had a great visit and I spent the evening watching HBO movies until midnite when the neighborhood shot off some fireworks and yelled Happy New Year! Big Event! All the special events and fireworks were cancelled this year in the area like First Night events. Allison celebrated New Year's with her friends and boyfriend Gabe, playing Dungeons and Dragons. 

On New Year's Day, Allison and I headed down to Busch Gardens. No Rose Bowl parade to watch this year. Fortunately traffic was light and we had a great drive down with just a little bit of rain. We decided since we had to pay for the entrance to the park for Christmas Town, that just Scott and I would go. It was drizzly and supposed to rain harder as the night went on and Allison did not feel like getting wet and risking catching a cold. Tom lost interest when he saw the entry fee. We were all rather upset about the whole event since we have continued to pay our monthly pass fees even when the park was closed. And the website did not specify that we would have to pay as a passholder. We felt the least the Park could do is offer the event to us for free or a bigger discount. Our neighbors also came down to enjoy the event and had the same idea that it would be no charge from the website. They also decided to skip the park. But Scott and I headed in on New Year's Day for the evening event. The park was pretty empty and they actually decided to close an hour earlier due to "inclement weather". Scott was able to ride all the open rollercoasters and we took the train a few times around the park. We enjoyed the decorations, although limited but missed most of the shows. But we enjoyed the holiday music and food in the park, walking through the shops and everyone there was so nice. A young guy even offered to buy me a cookie! But I turned him down. I am a big girl and can buy my own cookies! While Scott and I wandered through the park, Tom and Allison met with our neighbors in our hotel lobby and enjoyed take out dinner and drinks from Outback. On Saturday, our family walked through Williamsburg before heading home in separate cars. Allison and I picked up dinner while Tom and Scott picked up Cookie. They had dropped her off at our friend's house on New Year's Eve before heading down to Williamsburg. Looks like Cookie had a wonderful time visiting with their dog Ripley. The two ended up chasing the flocks of geese at the nearby park!

We finished up our holiday weekend cheering on the Ravens -looks like our football team is headed to the semi finals by the skin of their teeth! We will be watching next weekend. I also had to drop some items off to my mom so I stopped into Kohls to spend my Kohl's Bucks and look for any after Christmas bargains. 

I'll be starting the New Year with the COVID vaccine scheduled next Friday, Jan 8th,  at my facility. Tom plans on going back into work. Allison started back to work on Sunday-finance has a different schedule than everyone else and that is why we went down to the Park earlier. Scott will start classes online on January 11th this year-he usually would be back to school the first Monday in January. Western decided to push off the return to campus date until January 15th, over MLK weekend. So he gets an extended break this year. We love having him around! He spent a day sending out his resume for any possible summer engineering internships. Not sure what 2021 will bring, but it has to be better than 2020!

Want to Thank All family members for Holiday Greetings and Gifts. Tom and I used our Christmas money from Mom and Dad Seitz to upgrade our kitchen gas stove that has more top burners. We have had our previous stove for 24 years when we moved in the house and have wanted to upgrade for awhile. We just could not agree on the type of stove as Tom wanted to switch to Convection, but I still like the gas oven and our electric oven for cooking.  We had the new oven delivered the day after Christmas. So far it works great!

 

Happy St Nick's Day! Happy Advent! Masks on Maryland!

  I was very happy to have a short work week the first of December. Currently our entire building has COVID-over 100 patients, so going to work is not much fun. We have patients that are very ill and some not so sick. We are seeing extreme symptoms from coughing, upset stomach to neurological changes that resemble a stroke. We have patients not wanting to eat or unable to eat. We are seeing very strange cognitive decline-patients unable to come up with words, very confused, very unsafe and falling or passing out. No one can come out of their room. You have to change out of your gowns, gloves, head covers and foot covers every time you enter a patients room. We are now leaving on our face shields and using N95 masks all the time. We can only provide treatment to our patients in their rooms, so we don't bring in too many therapy tools. It all has to be sanitized after use. It has been hard to keep up with patients coming and going to the hospital or being put on hospice. So I spend a lot of time doing paperwork on my computer. And to top it off, we started working for another Rehab contract company on Dec 1st that offers even less benefits than the last group. Fortunately we were able to keep the same Ipad Apple mini so the documentation transition went smoothly. But my keyboard pooped out. I don't think it likes being cleaned with Clorox wipes every day and I just got it in July of this year. All of our OT's are back to work. The CDC has now dropped the quarantine time down to 10 days. Our two PT's came back to work, but my boss is out with COVID. Also the last standing PT that was covering while the other two went out started feeling sick and stayed home for the past two weeks. I would not be surprised if she tested positive for COVID. So far only our speech therapist and the Rehab tech have not been sick or tested positive for COVID. And because we have so many COVID cases, the State Health Dept demands that staff and residents be tested twice a week. On Mondays we have the test that is sent out, and on Friday's we have a rapid test. So far I have stayed negative which is a great feeling! Except before you could have a throat swab. Now it is only in the nose-both sides! 

As we near the week before Christmas, all of our residents and the majority of our staff have tested positive for COVID. We are winding down our quarantine period and if we stay negative for one more week we should be able to admit more patients as well as allow more patients out of their rooms and wear less protective gear. Overall I believe we lost about 25 residents/patients from our COVID outbreak out of  about 100 when the virus was as its peak. Now we are mostly treating residents as they recover from the COVID symptoms. I seem to have taken over the Assisted Living facility as residents return to their apartments from our rehab unit. We have been asked to avoid working in multiple parts of the facility to help avoid spreading the virus. So a few of us have more patients to treat than others. Some days I only have a few patients and other days I have a full schedule, about 6-8, so I never know what I am doing each day. But when I get off early it gives me time to run errands like to the post office, grocery store or bank. And I continue to gather items for various donations. At Thanksgiving it was food for our County Food Bank and recently Toys for Tots all through the Girl Scouts. This week I was packing up some odds and ends clothes that Allison outgrew that was still floating around for a neighbor whose staff member adopted her 4 grandkids.  

And since I have been testing negative, it allowed me to feel more comfortable going out Christmas shopping. I had several errands to run and just did not have time over the Thanksgiving weekend to take advantage of the Black Friday sales. Fortunately most places seem to be carrying the sales on past the holiday weekend. I had a wonderful time at Kohls and the Mall. (Although someone was shot and killed in the mall parking lot that night after it closed). For the most part that area of the Columbia Mall is pretty safe. They have just been building like crazy, especially around the mall. It is turning into a small city with lots of restaurants, entertainment venues and apartment buildings. So some businesses stay open later and I guess it invites more crime. Mostly the stores have been shut down during the year and not alot of traffic. It was picking up again when I visited-especially at the Bath and Body Works store. Their line ran down one end of the mall and back to get into the store. Santa also set up shop at the mall, but you have to make a reservation to see him-he looked lonely when I walked by. And if I couldn't find items at the store, I was able to order most items online. For us so far, Amazon has been doing a terrific job delivering our packages.  I also don't think the porch pirates are as profitable this year since most people are home to pick up their packages. We also used our lock box at the front door that I got Tom for his birthday and that works very well for small expensive items to be dropped off, especially if the weather is bad. If not, our packages usually sit out in the elements since we don't have a roof over our front door entrance. I also had packages to mail early in the month(although I got the wrong labels on the wrong boxes heading to Dad Seitz and Eric and Sarah-sorry for the mix up) as well as picking up my mom's Thanksgiving and Fall decorations from her apartment and getting her Christmas decorations from her storage unit and dropping them off. Fortunately her building has remained practically COVID free. They have had 1 or 2 staff members test positive that do not work directly with the residents. If they have a two week time period with no COVID, they can return to eating in the dining room and participating in socially distanced activities like BINGO. Fortunately they were all able to enjoy their Thanksgiving meal out of their rooms before they went back to lock down. I was happy to see the staff helped mom put up her Christmas decorations in her apartment. I also dropped off my mom's St Nick's day gift-some chocolate treats, peanuts and cookies, Christmas jewelry, magazines and a Christmas coloring book with colored pencils that you don't have to sharpen. Something to help keep her entertained while in lockdown! I also framed our family's Christmas photo card for her to put out along with our Christmas card. And the weekend before Christmas I packed up all of mom's Christmas presents and dropped them off. I figured the staff would be quite busy passing out packages and it would be better to get an early start since they have to disinfect everything before it goes into the building. For Christmas I wrapped up some new clothes for mom-pants, shirts and sweaters. Also some lotion and body spray, jewelry, a family photo calendar and a photo quilt. I wish I was more technologically adept with the computer photos-I was locked out to most of my pictures without knowing it. But I think the quilt came out pretty good after all. I was a bit rushed when I put it together over Thanksgiving weekend because it was 70% off!

Our family celebrated St Nick's Day aka Little Christmas on Dec 6th by opening our Christmas stockings. We like to share Christmas gifts like ornaments and jewelry, clothing so that we can use them now before the big day. And of course it wouldn't be a Christmas stocking without a few special treats. In Allison's case, I thought she needed a few Holiday items to help with entertaining her friends at her apartment. She got a 4 place snowman setting(plastic plates and bowls) as well as a matching tray and even a plate and mug for Santa's cookies. I also packed up some extra Christmas items for her like a Christmas tree card holder and some decorative Holiday drink mugs while hauling decorations out of the attic. I think she especially liked her Disney Mickey Mouse Christmas sweatshirt! Tom received some low carb treats as well as Star Trek and Star Wars ornaments. Everyone gets an ornament or two. I always shop for ornaments on sale after Christmas and put them away for the next year. Tom has his own Sci Fi Tree with Star Trek and Star Wars vessels and characters. Allison has a cat themed tree and Scott has video games like Mario. And we had a "kids" tree with tv characters and toys/games that we usually put up in our front foyer with my snowman family. Scott put up our Christmas tree over Thanksgiving weekend and I put on all the decorations. I collect rocking horse ornaments and glass blown ornaments, usually from all the different places we have visited. I added a black bear to the tree this year from the Smoky Mountains and Tom got me this year's Hallmark's rocking horses. My decorating is a bit slow these days since I have to haul things down from the garage rafters on a narrow pull down ladder. But eventually I get it all done. Plus I like to leave my snowmen up over the winter so I don't have to drag everything back up the ladder right after Christmas!  Tom and Scott also did an incredible job putting up Christmas lights on the outside of the house over Thanksgiving weekend. I added some LED candles to the windows and a fresh garland for the lamp post and wreaths next to the garage door. I understand the neighbors are calling our place "The Rainbow House". Tom says it looks like a clown threw up. We even attracted the local food truck to our corner. One of the neighbors has been coordinating Food Trucks to come to the neighborhood since the onset of the shutdown in March. We like the Greek on the Street. Scott, Cookie and I ran out to order our dinner the other night-I told them I would not charge them for the light show as their customers waited on our lawn for their orders. Meanwhile Cookie thought we were having a party! She was so excited to see all the people and ran to greet every one there before we headed out on her walk.  Recently we had a BBQ truck stop by and they ran out of the good stuff-ribs and chicken in about 1 hr. 

We have had fairly mild weather this fall. I managed to clean up the rest of the leaves around the bushes and front door with my leaf vacuum in between rain storms. Tom thinks I am obsessed but the leaves aren't going to pick up themselves! He just decorated around them. I wanted to get them bagged up and picked up before the county stops yard waste collection for the season. It actually warmed up enough days this past fall for my lilac bush to bloom a bit, some daffodils stuck their heads up out of the ground, my bluebirds came by to visit their house and we even spotted an entire small cherry tree in bloom! (global warming). We had a beautiful weekend day to go hiking through the woods with Allison at local county park. We just had to dodge the mountain bikes and mud puddles. We have mostly had rain, but recently we had our first snowfall/sleet and ice of the season.(not global warming) Tom enjoyed getting out the snow blower and clearing the driveway, sidewalks and even the road in front of our house to the corner. It was nice to come home from work during the middle of the snow/ice storm and be able to pull into the driveway. Meanwhile, the cars and people were slipping and sliding in the parking lot at my work. And the snow made our Christmas lights look even more festive!  The neighborhood seems to be really getting into the spirit of the holiday with all the lights. What else do we have to do! With the cold weather though it is getting a lot harder to find places to eat outdoors. A few restaurants left up their tents and are still serving outside, but most don't have heaters. Last time we all went out to eat I had to wrap a few blankets around myself. Not too fun. 

At this time of the year I would not have much free time. Usually I am running every weekend to a Girl Scout choir Holiday event like the German Christmas Village, Tree Lighting Ceremonies, Holiday Parades, The Christmas Tree Festival, as well as performances at the Baltimore/Ohio Railroad museum and nursing homes including my mom's facility. And our family would be attending the incredible, free Holiday concerts by the Army Field Band and Jazz Band at our local high school and Lyric theater downtown. Then there is always some free Holiday choir and orchestra concerts put on by the local high schools as well as theater productions which I usually try to take my mom to if there is time. I also try to join her at the Senior Center Holiday Party,  the Sr Center luncheon at Bob Evans and the County Senior Thanksgiving dinner which of course all was cancelled this year. And last year Allison and I visited the County Christmas Mart for the first time which was a lot of fun and included a painting event where we made our own little Christmas trees, bought some gifts at the market and enjoyed some tasty treats all indoors. 

Since I have had extra time this Holiday season, I put my energy into sending out Christmas cards with a letter and family photo. Although I understand not all the cards have managed to get delivered yet. Besides our family Christmas cards and Hanukah cards, I sent out cards with a photo for my mom. After sending out the cards, I was busy wrapping gifts. And then I spent the weekend before Christmas in the kitchen baking several different types of cookies. I even put Scott to work helping me bake. I put together about a dozen cookie bins for fellow rehab staff and some neighbor families. Then I got busy on our Christmas dessert. I decided to make a rum cake this year. I don't think I ever made one for us. When I was in high school I used to make one for the Bozyk family and my old boss at the pet store. It was his favorite. Hope Tom and the kids enjoy it too!

Scott has been busy these past few weeks finishing his Fall term. He had many quizzes and tests to take, homework assignments to turn in and even a group zoom presentation. Plus he had to attend a few online classes. He made it through his finals and finished the term with two A's and two B's. Excellent job Scott! He's already signed up for his Spring semester and was supposed to return to Western to start classes on January 11th. However, now the state of Michigan is asking Universities not to return to campus until January 16th, but classes will still start online Jan 11th. I hear Michigan is not the only state to do this. Here in Maryland the kids are still doing distance learning in public schools. They keep pushing the return to school date out farther and farther. 

Allison has been busy working from home with an occasional stop into the office. When she isn't working, she is enjoying spending time with her Dungeons and Dragons group. They usually try to get together in person once a week and Allison is able to host game night at her apartment. She also has time to visit with Gabe on the weekends, usually at his house. It will be a bit strange to go back to doing all the activities we enjoy, like going to the movies or concerts, sporting events, eating indoors at restaurants and shopping without wearing masks! 

Tom has mostly been going into work since he has his own office, however, the company told everyone to stay home last week for the rest of the year as several employees tested positive for COVID. Every time someone has COVID they have to completely sanitize their labs and office spaces, so they decided it was not worth it right now. So Tom is currently focusing his time on rewriting his thesis proposal for his current advisors and awaiting final approval. 

Here in Maryland the new vaccine has been rolled out to our hospitals. One of our previous Speech Therapists has taken the vaccination and reports so far no strange reaction. She was very excited to be one of the first to get vaccinated and help get us back to a more normal life. Looks like our Nursing Home residents and staff, including myself, will be upcoming in the next few weeks for getting vaccinated. It will certainly be a wonderful Christmas present!

Sending out recent Birthday wishes for Sheila Bozyk who celebrated on Nov 28th, Linda Seitz whose big day was Dec 12th and Cookie Seitz had her 12th Birthday on Dec 13th! Happy Birthday Ladies!