That darn Coronavirus just won’t go away and the vaccine can’t seem to come soon enough. We’ve seen a huge resurgence with the virus in our area, as it comes back for more. It is already impacting school as Luke continued to do e-learning from home this week. He did attend wrestling practice, but we are unsure if we will be allowed to attend his first competition, which occurs the weekend after Thanksgiving. His school will remain closed until at least the end of the month. He only had the opportunity to work one day, as folks just aren’t going out much with the spike of the COVID. Abby had a full week of classes at FC. She had a big practice interview and we enjoyed spending a little time with her one night this week, as we prepared to have things start shutting down because of the virus. We knew that the county would be moved from an orange status to red in the middle of the week, but we weren’t sure what it would mean for us…and frankly we still aren’t sure what’s different as I write this on Sunday night. We look forward to Bu coming home for the holidays soon. Matt had another busy week. He taught and coached at the middle school in Zionsville and worked at the restaurant in Carmel. Ann and I had good weeks at work. As part of a discount for our auto insurance, we have a tracker in our vehicles but you have to actually drive the vehicles to get the discounts. So, this week we decided to drive old Barney to get our mileage in for the month. We’ll switch back to Black Betty next week. I enjoyed seeing a few of my friends this week and did a little better with my diet and exercise. I finished just an eyelash under my goal of 15 walking miles. I managed to get in four rounds of frisbee golf as well; both numbers are the best I’ve had for weeks now. We talked with Dad Bryan, who is doing well with the recovery from back surgery. He goes in for a procedure tomorrow, so we wished him well and look forward to talking with Ms. Lynn soon. Mom & Sandy aren’t exactly quarantining but they are pretty much keeping their distance from everyone and made some tough decisions about our upcoming family time…which we fully support – safety first! The weather was all over the place this week, but there was a definite trend downward. We started off the week with the end of an Indian Summer in the 80s but ended the week with an overnight frost in the 20s. You know what they say…if you don’t like the Indiana weather, just wait a day or two! Between the ‘Rona and the presidential election stuff, it has been another one of those weeks where you don’t even want to watch the news… Hello again and welcome to the latest edition of the Scheu Family Blog.
We enjoyed a warm start to the week on Monday. We didn’t even take sweatshirts with us to work. It was a really long day for me. Ann’s was a typical Monday that couldn’t end soon enough. I was pretty good with my diet at work, but not perfect. I was able to get out and exercise for about three miles on a sweaty, 80-degree day. We went to the store afterward and got supplies for Ann to make her wonderful chicken enchiladas. She made a big batch for a pitch-in at work tomorrow as well as a batch for us to eat as well. Granted, we didn’t get to eat until late…but it was totally worth the wait! Hell, even Luke joined us at the dinner table for that spread. We watched the first two episodes of the new season of The Mandalorian. We received a phone call from the superintendent that day, saying that school would remain in a virtual state (“e-learning???) until at least November 30. Luke was OK with it and is enjoying working from home and still going to wrestling practice. He is already closer to the 195 cut-off than he was at this time last year. Here are a few photos that Ann snapped off last weekend when she and Amy enjoyed a day out.
Tuesday started off warm again. It wasn’t sunny like yesterday. In fact, it was pretty much overcast most of the day. It was another busy day at work as we try to navigate the COVID waters to make our business relative. We have a plan to get us back in the saddle as we’ve had to adjust things to keep afloat. You could see the storm clouds rolling in all day and by the time I got out of work a little late, I only managed to walk about a mile and a half before it was time to pick up Ann. It was nearly dark by the time I left work. We were excited when Rosie sent us a text about Megan’s new Etsy shop, where she shows off her artistic skills by creating stickers and buttons – how cool!? We drove up to Franklin to see Abby. She wanted to see us for dinner and groceries. We picked up Gail & Gary and went downtown to the Willard for a couple brews and comfort food. I had a couple Six-Foot Strawberry Blondes and a personal ranch pizza. We laughed and enjoyed catching with those two. We ran them out to Kroger’s for food and supplies then had to drop them off at campus and head back home without coming is, as the campus is closed to visitors. Luke went driving with Brayden after wrestling practice that night, winding up in Rushville and Brookville. It rained hard at times that day. While Luke got caught in it a couple times, Ann & I seemed to just miss it when we were out driving. It was so warm in the house when we got home, that I actually considered turning on the air conditioning as we watched the next episode of HBO’s The Undoing, Fox’s NEXT and the season premiere of NCIS: New Orleans. It continued raining overnight and finally cleared up sometime before daybreak.
It was much cooler as we headed out for work on Wednesday morning. We actually had to grab jackets as it was about 30 degrees cooler that day. It was yet another long day at work for Annie and I. But it was so busy that before I knew it, it was time to go exercise. After another good day of eating, I was able to finally get in a 5K walk before we left town. It was dark by the time we got home and when I took the dogs out back, I could barely see Delilah as she ran around the yard. Luke said he had a good day of e-learning at home and that he’s already made weight at wrestling practice. He is a solid 195. Last year, he regularly gave up about 10 pounds to his opponents. This year, he hopes to maintain right where he’s at now. That night, we ate leftovers and watched some DVR’d shows, including the season premiere of The Curse of Oak Island, the next episode of Jessica Alba’s LA’s Finest and the season finale of Sammy Hagar’s Rock & Roll Road Trip (bummer). ? Here are random photos from our recent adventures.
We had warm up the vehicle before work for the first time on Thursday morning, in order to defrost the windows. It was pretty chilly. Delilah was up and barking around 5 am. I let her outside and she went straight to the fence and began barking…not sure what she heard or what she thought was going on, but she finally calmed down, did her business and came back inside. The ground had a hard frost, so the girls weren’t super excited to be outside long…and frankly, neither was I! I was wide awake and so I took advantage of the extra time by going ahead and paying our bills. I had another very busy day as we prepare for annual inventory (on top of all the other stuff going on). Victor & I went to Five Guys for a greasy burger for lunch. It helped break up the day and force me to slow down for a minute. It was another beautiful, sunny afternoon. When I went out to exercise, I noticed right away that it wasn’t nearly as chilly as yesterday. The biggest difference was the lack of that cold, northern breeze that permeated my walk yesterday. I got in another 5K on a perfect evening. I bumped into Drew, out by the airport. He was going flying and wound up going over to Greensburg and buzzing the house and Mesco. He will eventually be flying a 250-mile solo flight in the near future! Luke enjoyed another slow day of e-learning from the house with the dogs. He went to wresting practice and is now at weight already. He informed us that the Thanksgiving tourney is back on. He isn’t sure where it is or if they allow fans or even parents. We ran a few errands once we got to town. When we came home, Ann and I made another dish of her jalapeno popper dip for me to take to card night that evening. We met up at the Sunken Boat Bar to watch the Colts game on Bryan’s big screen. Rick was out due to quarantining, Bob was still prepping for knee surgery, Pat was still studying for his college courses, Alan was busy processing all the grain brought in this week by the farmers who continue to harvest their fields and Mark was still out working in the fields himself. That left Shawn, Bryan & I. We made the most of it with good food, plenty of spirits, a great football game and even found a way to play some poker. It was a good time, for sure, but we missed having all the comradery of our big bunch of friends all together…
Ms. Lola had us upper before the alarm clock on the morning of Friday the 13th. We had to warm up the van before we left that morning again. We ran through Dunkin for morning goodies before I dropped Ann off at work and made my weekly jaunt to the Wal of Mart. I came home and woke up Luke for school and sat down to watch a few episodes of the new Dale Earnhardt Jr. series on the Peacock network called Lost Speedways. I love history anyway, so when you partner it with something that interests me (racing), it is a natural fit. I especially enjoy hearing the old racers tell their stories. ???? It was about noon when I got the call from Annie to pick her up from work. It was another gorgeous, sunny day with blue skies – but the temps never got out of the 50s. I went to the park in the early afternoon to play a couple rounds of frisbee golf. The wind was fierce, which was very challenging for me. The first round, I threw a 3-over par as I eventually figured out how to play the wind. My second round was much better as I thew 1-under, 26. It could’ve been much better, but my putting accuracy was crappy in that strong wind. I had a couple of epic throws with the wind that I’ve never been able to pull off before, so I had a lot of fun with it. When I came home, we watched the season 4 premiere (and 2nd as well) episode of S.W.A.T. and the season 21 premiere of SVU. Luke went to the school and was finally able to clean out his football locker before heading on to wrestling practice. That evening, we ordered takeout from Koch’s. Luke picked it up for us after he finished practice. We sat down for a quick bite and then Luke showered and headed out to run around with his buddies. Meanwhile, Ann and I took it easy that night, enjoying a quiet night on the couch and recliner with the dogs while watching a movie from 2004 on the big screen called Secret Window. We tried to watch some other stuff, but I kept falling asleep so I went on to bed… Here are some pictures from recent additions to my Hot Wheels collection.
After going to bed early last night, I was up way too early for a Saturday morning. I even got the chance to wake the dogs up! It was another cold start to the day with frost on the ground again. I started in on a small scanning project. Maryann gave Ann a bunch of old family pictures for me to scan for posterity. When Annie got up, we drove out to St. Paul for another batch of goodies from Wildflour Bakery. It was our first time back in several weeks and it did not disappoint. ???? We stopped by Mom & Sandy’s house on the way back into town to drop off their pastries as well as some other stuff Ann had for them. We handed the stuff off outside and did not go in to visit, as the COVID has us worried about them. We don’t want to put them at risk in any way, so we chatted for a few minutes, keeping about 10’ away from one another before heading on our way. We ran a couple errands before returning to the house. I spent the rest of my morning and a couple hours into the afternoon completing my scanning project. I did a good job of documenting what all was written on the back of the pictures (which was a lot!). I grabbed some leftovers for lunch and then checked fluids in the vehicles. I was headed out to the park for some frisbee golf, but it started raining, so I came in and looked up Luke’s wrestling schedule and put it on Ann & I’s calendars. I sure hope we get to see him wrestle this year. He made so many improvements as the season progressed last year. When Luke headed out for work at Hibbett’s, he said it stopped raining so I quickly got dressed and went out to play a couple rounds. It was very windy, which was…challenging. I did enjoy the challenge, but it was also frustrating. I would make a good throw then the wind would change or pickup and alter the next throw. My scores reflected the frustration with a 32 on the 1st 9 and a 2-over 29 on my final round. I particularly struggled on hole 6 with a triple-bogie on my first round and then a double-bogie the 2nd time I visited the hole. I came home and wound up heading right back out with Ms. Ann as we ran to the supermarket for supplies to make Gma’s birthday meal tomorrow as well as Thanksgiving stuff. Sadly, we have already made the decision to make Mom O’s bday party a “virtual??? gathering and Turkey Day get-together is also cancelled. We will still exchange food, but that is the extent of it…unfortunately. This darn Coronavirus is spiking so highly in our area right now that we really need to keep our distance to make sure we don’t inadvertently give them something without even knowing it. When we got back home, we saw the IU remained undefeated then watched the end of the Notre Dame game to also remain undefeated. We then flipped over to see the undefeated Purdue team face off with the undefeated Wildcats. Northwestern is quite the stout team this year (not at all like they’ve historically been). It was a close game in the first half in the rain. At halftime, we turned on the DVR to watch the season 8 premiere of the Blacklist. In the second half, the Boilers kept it close, but ran outta steam and lost to the #23 team in the nation by a TD. I spoke to Dad B that afternoon. He said his back was doing good but that when he was headed into the Cath Lab on Monday to see what the abnormality is and if there is an issue, they’ll fix it then. Luke went out to Oakley’s house after work while Ann made Fireworks popcorn for dinner and we chilled with the dogs, watching the weekly SVU marathon on Ion TV. It continued raining on and off that evening and the weather actually got warmer as the night progressed. By the time we went to bed, it was almost 10 degrees warmer than when I played disc golf earlier. We have lots of social media pictures to share this week.
Lola had me up early on Sunday morning with her loud, incessant barking. I guess she didn’t get the memo that Sunday mornings are for sleeping in! It was still pretty warm outside when the dogs and I went out that morning. We were planning on putting a doggy diaper on Molly last night and forgot. She had a few accidents overnight, even though I was only in bed for five hours. Oakley spent the night with Luke last night and he wound up sleeping on the couch, which displaced the pooches, which is why I think we had those behavioral issues. There was a wind advisory that day with sustained winds of about 20 mph and gusts of up to 40 mph. It knocked out the power for about a thousand folks in town and over 40K around the state. Luckily, we weren’t in those numbers but did see that all the lights on Main St were out when we went over to Mom & Sandy’s house. Ann cooked all morning, making Gma’s favorite meal – spaghetti, meatballs, garlic toast and 7-layer salad. We had plans to get the fam together over there celebrate her 82nd bday a day early, but with all the COVID around, the decision was made to cancel the celebration. Instead, we drove over, dropped off food, sang to her, chatted briefly and left. Once Annie got up that morning, I got to the weekly household chores and cleaned-up the new additions to my music collection on my phone a little. Oakley left fairly early that morning, allowing Luke to go back to sleep for a few hours. He pretty much hung-out in his room the rest of the day, napping and playing on his PS4. Ann napped while I watched RedZone on the big screen that afternoon. There were some great games that day! That night, we watched the debut of a new show called Histories Greatest Mysteries. Afterward, I watched the 2nd half of the SNF game from the bedroom, as I was worn-out from the long day. It was a relaxing way to wind down the long weekend and put the kibosh on another week before we start it all over again tomorrow.
Next up is our Waybac section which continues to feature Dee’s camera in 2004. We lead off in April- Easter Day at Mom & Sandy’s house; May- Dixon Dance Revue at the high school; June- Luke’s 1st birthday; July- 4th of July holiday fun, Fair Parade activities, Grace’s birthday, Indy Blues Fest (with Joe Bonamassa) and Sandy’s birthday; August- Minnie & Charlie are the new pups on the block; September- Abby’s birthday party; October- Trick-or-Treating in Ryle; November- Maryann’s birthday party and Thanksgiving Day; and December- Christmas Eve.
Next up is our video segment witch features one new home movie this week as well as several from around the internet.
And that does it for this week’s entry of the Scheu Family Blog. Thanks for keeping up with this time out and we’ll catch up with you again next time. Until then, have a good one and stay safe from the ‘Rona out there. We miss ya, Mom.
Later, Scheu