…Since Ann and I have been out on a date that I truly can’t remember our last time out by ourselves. It may have been years ago to see The Da Vinci Code. Yes, that’s sad…
Last Sunday night, as I was finishing Gigi’s taxes and watching Robert Plant clean up at the Grammy’s, MaryAnn & Sandy brought down the roof…literally! Out of the blue, at about 8 pm, their kitchen roof just collapsed. The plaster was just so old that when a little gave way, the whole thing came down, taking with it their drop ceiling, new lighting and making a mess of everything! …so much for that tax check Gigi was getting back…
On Monday, Matt went back to school with a walking boot. Some of the kids have given him hell, calling him “Boot Boy.??? He has kept a good spirit though it all and takes it all in stride. He is anxious to get back to playing sports. He said it’s hard to sit on the sideline and watch his teammates, knowing that he can’t go out and compete. I told him it’s a good thing, stoking the fire in his belly. Abby decided not to do Science Fair this year, as she had trouble doing the leg work (her project was on static electricity), expecting Mom to do it for her. She found out the hard way that she has to do the work. Thankfully, it was an elective this year. Next year, it will be mandatory.
Monday night and Tuesday saw a huge change in the weather. Where we had been at -11° a week ago; on this past Tuesday we reached 67°! With it, also came a heavy dose of wind, achieving sustained velocities of 30 MPH with gusts up to 60 MPH! There was damage all around town, including our home as well. I took time on Monday night to go out and secure all of the debris on the side of the house where they had dug up everything the week before, fixing our water line. We lost a couple dozen shingles from the back side of the house; we saw a stop sign sheered off at the base a block from Grandma and Gigi’s house, noticed a 2-car-garage-sized, metal pole barn overturned in Hartsville (on our way to work) and discovered several sheets of siding ripped off my work’s facility. All told, we received about another two inches or so of precipitation. With the big snow melt and all the rain, there were flood warnings all over this part of the state.
The warmer weather has been therapeutic for Lola. She loves being outside and chasing birds, bunnies and squirrels. She is incredibly fast and can jump as high as the fence. It is so enjoyable to watch her buzz around the back yard! 🙂 Tuesday night, Luke lost another tooth, so he was excited to see have the Tooth Fairy visit… On Wednesday, we received a very nice card and picture from Grandmaw & Grandpaw Bryan, along with Valentine’s cards for the kids. We can’t wait to go visit them over Spring Break!
On Friday, Ann took a half day to help Abby’s teacher hold a Valentine’s Day party when all hell broke loose in Greensburg. On the front page of the Daily News was an article about the boys’ junior high basketball team. There was an alleged locker room incident that got out of hand and what was most likely a couple of boys horse playing and being teenage boys, became an ugly, bullying, hazing event that pushed the boundaries of a sexual assault. Whatever it was, it was definitely inappropriate. There is a big cover-up on the part of the school, as the alleged boys come from well-to-do families with connections to the school and community. There was a secret meeting held at the school a few weeks ago where the administration spoke with the boys and told them not to say anything to anyone, etc. One of the things that bothered Ann & I (among many other issues) was the fact that we were never contacted / informed about the incident. There is a great discussion on the Greensburg Daily News forum, located here.
On Saturday, we gave the kids their Valentine’s Day presents and had Christie & Terry’s oldest daughter Heather come over (Alex also came with her) to watch Luke & Bu while Ann & I went out on the town! The kids had a blast; although Matt made it clear that he wasn’t being watched, he was just hanging out! LOL! Ann and I drove to the south side of Indy to go to Outback for dinner. We got an early start and got up there shortly after 4. However; by that time there was already a three and a half hour wait! So, we decided to go in to Greenwood – to a place we used to go when we were first, called Shallo’s. After dinner, we came back to Greensburg to catch the new Liam Neeson movie, Taken. It was a fast-paced movie that went by very quickly. We had a great time and decided we needed to do this much more often! 🙂 Today, we had fun just lounging around and watching the Daytona 500 (just like the Super Bowl this year, the pre-game was actually longer than the race itself!).
I have an abundance of pictures for this week’s Way Back feature, so let’s get to it. Again, we start with the old and work our way forward… Let’s start in the sixties. First up, we have a picture for my cousin David who emailed me this week. I hadn’t heard from him since the ‘70s. I believe the last time we saw each other, our fathers were already divorced and we met up at Chuck’s condo in Indy. I was so young that I can remember riding David’s Fisher Price ATV Explorer! LOL! This picture is from January ’68 at Granny Scheu’s home, in her dining room just off the kitchen. In this picture are Aunt Mary, Grandmaw Bryan and David. Next is a Valentine’s Day date with Grandmaw Bryan and Grandpa Scheu in February 1968. Guys; do you have any idea where you were in this picture?? Here is Grandmaw Bryan in her first apartment in Lafayette in the spring of ’68. Mom, where was this?
Next it’s on to the seventies… Here’s a Christmas gathering in the mid seventies (circa ’73-ish?) in Granny Scheu’s kitchen. Pictured are Uncle John (with his Yuletide glee!), Grandpa Scheu, Aunt Mary and David’s sister, Kathy.Here’s Ann in her room on Main St. in the late seventies. This is an old picture I thought I’d lost from my baseball team in California (summer of ’79). We lived in Temple City, but played in West Covina. It was about a 15 minute bike ride to and from practice and games. There was also a park right by the fields, where I used to ride my bike to go swimming in the pool. Here are another couple photos from ’79 in Cali. The first is in our back yard during my birthday party in October. My good friend Eddie is on the left and my good friend Neil is on the right. I stayed with Neil’s folks while Mom was giving birth to Rob. I loved those Battlestar Galactica action figures. Notice that I am also wearing my Battlestar shirt! 🙂 SciFi channel recently brought that series back a few years ago and I still watch it to this day…it’s even better than the original… The second pic is of Grandpaw with Rob in our living room on N Soreno Dr in December.
Now on to the eighties… The next one is a few months later, when we came back home to show off Rob to Grandmaw & Grandpaw Brown. This was taken outside Lou Atha’s house in the spring of 1980. Here is another picture of the all of us at Great Grandma Bryan’s house (I think Vird & Belinda were living there at that time) from June of ’80 (or ’81?). Pictured (L-R) are Nathan, myself, Katie & Robby. Here’s one from LaPorte. This was our first winter back, so we were living in the big house on Kenwood. The time stamp on the back of the photo says August, but that is surely wrong. I would guess a better time would be January of ’81. The next picture is of my first baseball team in LaPorte (Allis Chalmers) during the summer of 1981. Mom, this is when you guys became friends with the Boardman’s (they were living in their first house on Pine Lake). Next up is an old picture of Grandpa Scheu in the kitchen at the Parkside Deli in ’82. Next up is a picture of me at football practice for LaPorte during my sophomore year in ’84. Here are a couple great pictures of my lifelong buddies. Both of these were taken outside Uncle John & Aunt Juney’s house on Lingle Ave. in Lafayette in my ’64 Galaxie 500. I took that baby on many a road trip. I remember hating that car when I first got it, but it was a party magnet. What a great old car! The first one is of one of my best friends, Mark Crum and the second is of my cousin Barney. These were taken in the summer of ’86. Next up is a great picture of Grandpaw Bryan and Great Grandpaw Brown at Uncle Kenny & Aunt Marilou’s house. This looks like it was probably a fish fry out in their barn. I would guess this is circa summer of ’87. Also in the summer of ’87 is this one of my good friend Mark Kosior and Robby in August, shortly before I left for football camp, my freshman year at Franklin. Also posing in the picture is Mark’s hot rod ’70 Mustang. That was one bad car!! …3-speed that would get rubber in all three gears! 🙂 Here’s a picture of Ann at Franklin College, circa ’88. Here’s Dad B at home in LP, circa ’89 – sporting his Franklin College Grizzlies football sweatshirt. Here’s one of my good friend Mark Luther at Mike’s house in the winter of ’89.
…And a few of the nineties… Here is my fraternity picture in ’90. We all wore the same tie (literally the same tie!) for our pictures. We follow that one up with a trio from ’91. The first is in the spring at Brown County state park with one of my best friends, Paul Drake. The second is with mom right after college graduation, back at the Phi Delt house. The last one is of the Smith clan at my graduation party, back up home in LP. This is out in our front yard on Rockwood.
And closing out this week’s post is Grandma Owens and Annie at her good friend Stacy’s wedding in Nov. ’93. This was one of the first times I met her mom.
Thanks as always for reading today’s entry and keeping up with the Scheu’s…see you next time…