Happy Ground Hog's Day! Feb 1-Feb 7 

  The Ground Hog swore he saw his shadow on Feb 2nd. Not sure how since it was overcast and snowing in Puxatawney, PA as well as here in Maryland. But supposedly he did and now we are to expect 6 more weeks of winter, according to the little rodent. So far he is right. We have had cold temperatures and another snowy day so far this week, but nothing extreme. We even creeped up to the 50s which pretty well melted everything we had last weekend. And with a little bit of warmth, I noticed my daffodils are all starting to peek up out of the dirt. And the bluebirds keep coming back to visit their nesting house. So no shoveling for me this week. I did have a poor start to my Ground Hog's Day. I forgot my purse at home and had to drive all the way back to pick it up. I thought I would take a quick route home via the freeway and it turned out to be the slowest with a traffic jam! I felt like Bill Murray in his Ground Hog movie. Just glad I did not have to relive that morning!  Our neighbor Gloria planned on taking Cookie for walks when I was at work, but I have been home more now, so I take Cookie out pretty much every day when the weather is decent. I just don't like walking her when there are lots of muddy puddles on the sidewalk from melting snow(she manages to walk through every one of them and gets filthy!) So on Sunday morning, she got a bath in the kitchen sink!  I  had a few days off work since things have slowed down in my section of the building.  We had a positive COVID case,  so we are still following CDC guidelines and recommendations not to work between our two facilities-the Long Term Care/Rehab unit and the Assisted Living unit where I have been seeing residents. So my boss thought it would be better if I consolidated all my patients to less days of the week rather than going in  for just a few hours every day and only seeing one or two residents at a time since they only get treated 3x/week. 

The extra days off gave me time to drop off some more video tapes to Costco to download to DVDs and to look through some of the Bozyk photo collection. I picked up my mom's Valentine's Day decorations from her storage unit and while I was there I pulled out a few more boxes of photos and video tapes. I have also been working on the Bozyk/Borg family tree online, trying to pick through my mom's notes and journals. I also keep updating my address book since a few of my Christmas cards came back undelivered due to family members/friends moving with no forwarding address. Thank goodness for the internet since I am almost always able to locate people online or even through Facebook(it has some good use!). However, I just can't seem to get enough information for my family tree, especially for those people from the 1800s unless I pay for a service like Ancestory.com. And I am having some difficulty with the photos since many of them are not labeled, so I don't know who is in the picture or where it was taken. And I don't really have a lot of family members left to ask that may know! I do enjoy the challenge however of figuring out the history. Tom asked why I find the Family Tree  so interesting. To me it is like completing a puzzle, which I especially enjoy. Plus I like learning  the history of our families to see where we all came from. 

So I am trying to preserve the photos and videos that I have and Costco has the best prices on their services. And I recently found out that they will be closing their instore booths and providing less services online by Feb 14th, so I was eager to drop off as many items as I could before that deadline. Since we expected some snow over the weekend, the stores were all busy and packed. Especially Costco. I could barely get into the parking lot as the line for gas was blocking the driveway. And with the Super Bowl on Sunday afternoon, the crowds have not lessened. Good thing Maryland's COVID numbers are dropping, along with our positivity rate currently at 5.9%.  Tom and Allison are next on the list for a COVID vaccination. They recently received their letters from Northrop outlining their need for vaccination since they are considered essential workers in the field of manufacturing and Defense. Especially for Tom who is currently working on top secret space projects and needs to be in the facility, meeting with other staff members. However, every time they have someone in the group test positive for COVID, they have to shut down and do a thorough cleaning. Both Tom and Allison signed up on several websites, getting "in line" for a vaccination. Allison continues to work from home. She even interviewed for a permanent position of her choosing with data analysis/Finance and got the job! She will start her new rotation in June and will receive a top security clearance like Tom. So she will probably have to at least go into work at some point. However,  even after COVID days have passed, many companies are looking at offering their staff the opportunity to continue to work from home as needed. Which can be a nice option. Even schools are looking to cancel snow days, providing students with the opportunity to keep learning remotely, online. Unless of course there is a power outage. Which fortunately we have not had widespread. We did get some heavy snow and ice and a portion of our neighborhood lost power, but nothing extreme. 

We ended up enjoying the Super Bowl game with our neighbors, Dan and Gloria. They invited us over for dinner and the game Sunday evening, including Allison and Cookie. Allison ended up carrying Cookie over to their house to avoid further puddles since I just washed her! Tom and I brought Buffalo Chicken dip and dessert- brownies, plus I made an apple crisp. Dan and Gloria served Maryland Crab soup with steak, german potato salad and a green salad, as well as having chips and salsa and some homemade peanut butter cups. Way too much food, but so very good! And the game was interesting to say the least. No one in our group really wanted to see Tom Brady take home another Super Bowl win, but it was nice to see Tampa Bay have that opportunity over Kansas City since they just had a win last year. And that is how the crazy game turned out! Looks like Tampa Bay and Tom Brady were favored after all. 

And since I had some time off work during the week, I decided to sign up for my swim class on Friday morning. I have not been to my exercise class in a year, and it felt wonderful to get back in the pool! It is just not an easy feat. They don't offer as many classes as they used to. You have to sign up ahead of time with a two day window before the class begins and often the class is already full. They can take 20 people in the shallow pool and we are lined up in the pool with lane dividers, 5 per lane,  to keep 6 ft apart. You get your temperature taken when you enter the building and have to wear a mask except when you're in the pool. I skipped the shower afterwards since I did not want to wash and blow dry my hair. They removed all the blow dryers anyway. So I changed and came home and took a shower. I am hoping I can continue to get into the classes since it felt so good(and so normal!).

Happy Birthday to Eric Seitz! He was gifted a day off work to celebrate his day on Friday , February 5th with his girls! 

Feb 8-Feb 14th, 2021 Happy Valentine's Day! 

We wrapped up this week with a subtle Valentine's Day celebration. Tom is still not vaccinated and does not feel terribly comfortable eating inside restaurants yet. And we don't really enjoy eating a meal while freezing outside in a tent, even if it has a heater. Plus there are not very many of those around anyway. Instead we stayed home and swapped Valentine's goodie bags and enjoyed a homemade steak dinner.  I spent most of the week wrapping up Valentine goodie bags/boxes and cards for Scott, Allison and my mom and delivering/mailing them out. Plus I sent Mom and Dad Seitz a framed photo I had printed off our Christmas pictures. At least the mail is now getting delivered in a timely fashion. I also treated myself to a mani/pedi Sunday afternoon. I had to go in later though since we had a horrible ice storm that left my car and the driveway/streets coated in a sheet of ice. 

I have been collecting tax documents for us and for my mom. I also spent some time speaking to our broker. I was surprised to hear that our Merrill Lynch advisor left the company and switched to Morgan Stanley. He had been with ML for 20 years. I guess he decided he had more flexibility to make recommendations for his clients at MS than he did working for ML. So I decided to switch my account over to him  since I  trust him and enjoy working with him which we have been doing for the past few weeks. But I left my mom's account at ML. They are owned by Bank of America which she uses and it is just so much easier to keep track of all her finances with one stop shopping. Not to mention it was quite the challenge over several years to get it organized and is doing just fine. If it ain't broke. So I used some of my days off to make the phone calls and set up a new account online with Tom's help as well as contact the new advisor at ML. Turns out it is a guy I worked with initially when I opened Mom and Dad's account, so we had a nice chat catching up. 

I also spent a day off making a dentist appointment. I called during the week to see if they had any openings for a check up. I have not been to the dentist in over a year. We usually go at least twice a year, but I wanted to wait until I had my second vaccination. Turns out they had a cancellation and were able to see me. We have a wonderful dentist. She and her techs/hygienists have all been vaccinated. They continue to wear extensive PPE and have large filters in each exam room. You have to wait outside for your appointment and then they come get you and take your temperature. They actually opened their front door because they were hot with all their PPE on, but it was a bit chilly for the rest of us. However, good air circulation! Tom and Allison had already been to the dentist last year. I was surprised they felt comfortable with a dental appointment during COVID. But with all the precautions from the dentist office, the risk seemed low. 

Tom actually just got a hair cut in a barber shop for the first time since COVID began. Funny he felt less safe with a mask on getting a 20 min haircut in a barber shop than a 30+ min dentist appointment with his mask off. Anyway, he has been trimming away at his hair for the past year, but had an upcoming class that he was teaching and decided he needed to be a bit more presentable. He mostly stays home, so was not so worried about how he looked. Even when he goes into work he is usually by himself in his office. And when he is not working, he is busy writing his Thesis. His class ended on Friday before Valentine's Day. He basically is writing a book and has 5 chapters scheduled. He is currently on Chapter 2 and has had to go back several times for rewrites per his professor. Appears Tom is trying to put too much info into this project and the prof keeps asking him to cut back. Makes it tougher to decide what not to include since Tom knows all the info is important. At this point, the profs are just trying to get him through the process to get to his PhD. 

Scott is working diligently on his online coursework, trying to stay warm in Michigan. The dorms actually were out of heat for at least a day-not sure why. Usually the kids are melting in their dorm rooms and keep their windows cracked open so they don't overheat as they don't have control over the temperature in their rooms. Good thing he has plenty of warm clothes and blankets. 

Allison is working hard from home on this rotation. She continues to enjoy meeting up with her friends for sessions of Dungeons and Dragons and visiting with boyfriend Gabe on the weekends. She really misses working out in the clubhouse at her apartment complex. The building has been closed down for remodeling for several months. Instead she is working out in front of the tv and I pulled out some hand weights for her to increase her work out level. She is excited that her college friend, Jen, recently bought a house near Salisbury and can't wait to visit after she is finished moving in with her fiance. Her other friend Sophia also bought a house with her fiance in New Jersey. I imagine there will be a lot of road trips once the COVID spread slows down while America gets vaccinated. Even Scott is hoping to visit with a girl in person that he has been talking to with some online college friends in Louisiana for about a year. I will just be excited to visit in person with my mom! She is scheduled for her second vaccination on the 21st of Feb, so I made a reservation to visit on the 28th of Feb. Still wearing masks, but a big step forward!

 

Jan 25-Jan 31st, 2021

. Covid Shot 2

We ended this week with snow. So far this has been a fairly mild winter with not a lot of snow or ice. Not to say that it hasn't been cold. Before this snow storm blew in it was quite frigid and windy. It made walking Cookie a bit challenging.  Although my neighbor Gloria is going to try to come to my rescue. She has been off work since last summer as a traveling Cardiac Nurse OR Manager and is bored. She has volunteered to take Cookie for walks during the week. That would be terrific since I sometimes get home late and have to take a COVID shower before doing anything around the house. Including walking Cookie. And now Tom has been going into work a bit more frequently, so Cookie is home alone during the day again. Missing all the company. So Gloria was able to take her for one walk before the weather turned. And then she had to travel with her husband Dan to Ohio for a  family funeral, so it is a work in progress. 

And when Tom is not going into work he is at home in the basement working on his computer. He noticed the house seemed a bit colder the past week, especially down in the basement where he has his office. Turns out our furnace had stopped working. It did seem like the house was a bit chillier than usual. We also have a gas fireplace set on a thermostat so we weren't freezing, but there seemed to be a bit of a cool breeze moving through the house. Tom did a quick lookover but couldn't figure out the problem. He wanted to call a repair company that specifically works on Lenox, our furnace brand. Mainly to make sure they could get any parts necessary. Turns out there are a few Lenox parts stores in the area, so it really did not matter who we contacted. But I did contact a Lenox repair company on Monday night. I was able to take off Tuesday from work since my caseload was light. When I contacted the repair company though Tuesday morning they said they don't service our area anymore. Would have been nice to know when I checked their webpage and called and made an appointment the night before. No matter, we went with Plan B of calling the company that worked on our air conditioner 4 years ago. They did such a great job then, and did not fail us this time. I called Tuesday morning and the repair man was out by 10am. He was the same guy that fixed our air conditioner and he remembered the issues we had with that unit, better than I did. (like mice chewing through the wiring outside!). He quickly discovered that our furnace motor was burned out and he was able to locate a replacement part which he picked up and installed all before lunch. Unfortunately he reported that since COVID, the cost of parts doubled and are more scarce since most come from you know where-(China). He tossed around the idea of replacing the whole unit, although that would include both the furnace and air conditioner. To be fair, our gas furnace is about 24 yrs old, so it has held up pretty well. Even the guy that sold the part inquired about installing a new system. But as Tom said, paying less than $1000 for a repair is much better than a $12,000  replacement for now! And it seems to be working quite well. Just in time for the snow we had this past weekend. We also had a small snow and sleet storm blow in on Monday, but the roads were pretty clear by Tuesday afternoon. Waiting to shovel. 

Other big news this week was my scheduled #2 COVID vaccination on Jan 29th. CVS came in again on Friday. Turns out I was off on Thursday from work as well to work on Saturday. I was not crazy about working the day after my vaccination. I had heard the second shot could be more intense. I would agree, but it hasn't put me completely down. Unlike my first Pfizer shot, this one caused my arm to swell more with more pain/discomfort in my neck and across my shoulders although it did not last as long. The weirdest feeling is having my lymph nodes swell quite a bit with pain under my left arm where I got the shot to the size of a softball! It is listed as a possible side effect. Made working a bit uncomfortable the next day, but Tylenol seems to be really helping with the discomfort/muscle pain/headache and swelling. Hot shower feels good too!  

Although staff have now received both vaccinations, we continue to wear masks and face shields at work and get tested twice a week. I was surprised to see one of our nurse's aides at my facility tested positive for COVID last week. Turns out she did not want the vaccination. I thought everyone got the vaccination, even those that were initially hesitant. This info is difficult to know since I have to worry about my mom sitting in her apartment, not vaccinated yet, relying on nursing aides to care for her that may not want to get the vaccine. Especially since there are still staff members at my mom's place testing positive for COVID.  Not only that, but it brings up the question of where are these people catching the virus -from out in the community, at home, or is there still some traces of the virus in our building? And you still have to worry about new patients coming into our building and possibly catching COVID. We have slowly been taking in new patients, but not enough to keep all 4 of us OT's busy all day. And we are still not allowed to travel throughout the building to treat patients, so I have been primarily treating the residents in our Assisted Living wing. 

 I also get continuous updates on my mom's health and her facility is testing the residents consistently as well. Especially if they were exposed to someone who tested positive for COVID which seems to keep happening on and off. Fortunately, mom got her first vaccine on Sunday, Jan 31st. CVS sent in about a dozen employees to get ahead of the upcoming snow storm early on Sunday morning. They had 100 residents to vaccinate as well as  100 staff!  

Besides having the furnace repaired, I spent my days off going through the Bozyk family photos from my mom's storage unit. I had planned on taking old video tapes and kodachrome 8mm film in to Costco to have it converted to DVDs. I checked their service online and discovered that they were closing down all their in store Photo Centers by Feb 14th. Granted I have not utilized the photo center in quite some time. I used to get all my film cartridges processed there(it was very cheap!).  But since everything is digital now, I don't have to drop off any film. And if I want any photos printed now I usually send them to Walgreens. Their prices are very good and they usually have discounts for prints or special projects like calendars or the quilt I printed for my mom. But Costco had better prices for video transfer. So I was busy looking through all the photos/videos and movie reels to drop off at the store before the deadline. Looks like I could still use their service after the deadline, but then you have to mail it in. This way I could just drop off the film at the desk. Should be done in a few weeks. Can't wait to see what I end up with! I was also interested in having some photos restored-colorization restored and tears repaired however it is about $30 per photo-a bit rich for my wallet. And while I was looking through photos, I was also trying to pick up names here and there for my Family Tree. I managed to add some more names and dates and discover some more family members. I also discovered that one of my Great Great Great Aunts on my mother's father's side(Borg) married into the Phillips family. The family had 10 children and one of them discovered oil in Oklahoma, establishing Phillips 66 oil company. Another of the Phillips boys had a very large ranch in New Mexico and donated a portion of the property to the Boy Scouts, known today as Philmont Boy Scout Reservation! Scott's BS troop scheduled a trip and trained for the long hike when Scott was in his last year of scouting, but we all opted out. Too much work preparing for the strenuous daily hikes. I also discovered a ceramic nativity set that my Grandmother Borg made which I had given up on ever finding! I looked through all of my parent's Christmas  boxes in two different houses and never found them. It has been 6 years since I moved my parents to Maryland, and lo and behold I found the statues in a small cardboard box at the bottom of a box of photos! We didn't have time to look through all the photos when we were moving, so I never came across it. Not sure why my mom packed them in that box, but I am glad the mystery is solved!

I also check in with Scott via Skype. He was still struggling with his online schedule and assignments-the school and staff seem to have a difficult time ironing out all the online issues at the beginning of the semesters including due dates for assignments and correct zoom codes to log in to live webcasts, but after a few weeks things seem to be straightening out. Looks like Scott will be all virtual however. We were hoping at least one of his engineering labs would be in person, but not for now. Scott also had to sign up for housing for next school year, so he chose a single dorm room on the same floor in the same hall right across from his current room. This one however has it's own bathroom which Scott prefers. No more sharing the one shower and one toilet! Here in Maryland, the public schools are still primarily online and the Governor has announced he wants to return to the buildings by March 1st. Looks like our county is still pushing for an April start date. Teachers are still hesitant to go back into the classrooms until they get their COVID vaccinations. Our state is passing out COVID shots to categories 1A and 1B-all hospitals, nursing homes, first responders, Group Homes and Assisted Living Facilities as well as those 65+. 1C will be essential workers like the postal service, grocery store employees, teachers. Even Tom and Allison in Manufacturing/Defense. Tom and Allison are still waiting to hear from work on how/where to sign up.  

Well, looks like I need to bundle up and do some shoveling. Not sure how much snow we are going to get but I want to be able to get out of the driveway on Monday to get to work!

 

 

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

. 

 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!