Another week has sped past us already. Summer is full stride now – the temps and severe weather have made sure of that for us this week. It was even hotter this week than last. Matt continued to recover from his knee surgery and got things all set up for next week with his online class (for his new job) and his car. It was great to see him this weekend for a few hours. Abby continued to work at the radio station with Sandy. She spent some time with friends and family this week as well as hanging out with Ann & I. Luke had football practices, worked at two jobs and lifted at the YMCA. He also got his senior pictures taken this week. I’ll have a few of them on the blog next week. Ann & I had good weeks at work. I came up a couple miles short of my walking goal but did pretty good on my diet, losing another three pounds this week. It was Father’s Day weekend and Ann & the kids surprised me with a great day of food, frisbee and cards. It was good for me to talk with Dad & Lynn and Dad & Barb for a few minutes as well. I really need to call them more than I do… We had lots of rain and with it, lots of flooding. Thankfully, we missed the hail and tornados that were also in the areas. The worst we had was a few dead limbs in the yard and a small doggie pool in our backyard for a few hours – LOL. Abs and I played a couple rounds of frisbee golf this week and look forward to more this coming week so we can break in the new discs. It was really cool to spend time with Ann & the kids today for Father’s Day. I think it may have been the best one ever… Hello again and welcome to the newest installation of the Scheu Family Blog.
It was back to work for Ann & I while the children slept in on Monday morning. Ann and I enjoyed a cool commute over to Columbus with temps only in the low 60s on Flag Day. It warmed quickly that afternoon, rising all the way up to 90 degrees! But there was a really strong breeze that made it palpable. We both had fast days at work. I got caught up on all the paperwork from the weekend and got one of my monthly reports finished and the other one about halfway done. I got out of work on-time and managed to log a 5K of walking that evening. Meanwhile, Abby had a busy day. She did a few chores around the house, cleaning the bathroom and kitchen. Then, she helped Gma out by cleaning her house. Later, she went with Gigi to pickup the dogs from the groomer. Afterward, she went to the store for us and picked up supplies for dinner as well as other stuff for the week that we forgot to get this past Saturday. She came home and prepared chicken for a southwest chicken salad. Luke didn’t do a whole lot that day. He got the oil changed in the Hot Rod Lincoln, had a friend over for a while then went to football practice that evening. Abby made us a round of mojitos with Blue Chair Bay white rum to sip with dinner and we enjoyed sitting down at the kitchen table for a nice meal, just the three of us. Afterward, Abby went outside with Delilah and enjoyed a little porch time and played catch with her dog. Ann read while I watched John Oliver and the season finale of season 6 of Fear the Walking Dead. Later, Bu made us another round of cocktails. This time it was an Amaretto Sour with Disaronno. She played online games with Matthew while I worked on backing up pictures and videos and starting to edit them for this week’s blog entry. I was pretty tired from the day and staying up too late with Abs yesterday. Add to that a couple drinks and it equaled me snoring on the couch for an hour or so. Luke woke me up when he got home. He showered and went out to the Y to lift with Brayden while I got up and went on to bed and slept all night. Here are random pictures from our recent adventures.
We had a gorgeous start to our Tuesday with temps down in the fifties. It felt great. I figured out I had been putting in the wrong Lucas Oil additive. I figured that out when Abs and I were at the Wal of Mart over the weekend and saw the correct bottle. Needless to say, a day of driving Black Betty later and she is feeling MUCH better… Matt was supposed to get his car in the shop that day but slept through his appointment, so he had to re-schedule it. I tried to call that evening but couldn’t reach him. When he finally got ahold of Ann, he said he hardly has any pain and the knee is coming along nicely. He was hoping to start his certification class this week, but Ann said there was a snag he was trying to work out with the payment for the course that he was able to finally get resolved. I heard her say that Taylor had a big interview late last week, but that she’s not heard anything yet. Abby worked at WTRE that morning. Luke got up early and was actually the first out the door. He met up with Coach Harris and they went to Shelbyville to lay concrete. That evening, he went to football practice for about three hours or so. Ann & I had good days at work. The boys and I went to lunch at Snappy Tomato, which helped break up the day nicely. I got out of work a little late and only managed about two and a half miles of walking on a hot afternoon. The nice thing was that the humidity was starting to lessen its grip on us! To make up for my deficit, Abby & I went out to the park and played a round of frisbee golf. I just barely beat her by throwing a one-over-par 28 while Abs had a respectable 29. However, she threw her disc in the pond. For those of you keeping count at home, that’s number 5 for our Heavyweight discs and 6 overall. ? We came home and got cleaned-up. I had leftovers for dinner while the girls had Fireworks popcorn and Abs and I stayed up late watching the USA women’s soccer team win again and then watched a couple Rick & Morty episodes…
Ann and I went into work on a lovely morning in the upper 50s. It was a little foggy but really sunny and warmed up nicely to the mid-eighties that afternoon. It was a long Humpday for me. I dropped off Ann at work and didn’t see her again until late that night. I worked on my reports at work and then had a good, low-carb lunch from Fazoli’s that made me feel good about my choices (for once). That afternoon, we had a going away party for Kevin, where we gave him an award and cards and had cake and ice cream. The Board of Directors showed up, as well as the management team, a few other employees and a couple folks from Valle. It was nice to see how relaxed he was and how comfortable he is with his decision to move on to his next adventure. Afterward, Justin & I went to the floor and worked second shift on the DBT unit as MHTs again. We are finally starting to get some new hires in there at work but are still way behind and have lots of holes to fill. Unfortunately, they couldn’t fill those holes that night, so Justin & I volunteered to help out. The girls were awesome for us that evening and the night flew by without any major incidents, thankfully! I wasn’t nearly as nervous about getting back out there this time, compared to the last time we worked. Also, it didn’t take as much out of me as it did last time and in fact, I felt pretty good the rest of the week (which is not at all how it impacted me the last time I worked on the floor). Luke was up early and out the door again that morning, meeting up with Coach Harris and going to Shelbyville to work. He got home about the time Ann did that night and hung out here with Oakley until late. That night, the boys went to Ethan’s house and spent the night at his house. Abby worked at WTRE and then went with Dee to drop off Grace at the airport. She apparently went to Wisconsin to visit with someone. Ann wound up getting a ride home from Mom & Sandy but laughed that it took three times longer than usual because they kept having to stop and let Pixie try to poop! ???? I guess she was very gassy and were afraid she was going to crap in the car!! She said they laughed and laughed all the way home… I got home late that night and watched the end of a movie with Ann. She fell asleep first and then went on to bed and I followed suit with sleeping before the end of the show and wound up giving up and hitting the hay myself, wiped-out from my long day. We have lots of social media pictures to share this week.
Ann slept in on Thursday as she took the day off to be with Luke. They went to Columbus and did some shopping before meeting up with Farren to do senior pictures! They started at the courthouse and downtown in the alleys before they wound up at Anderson Falls. The few early pictures I’ve seen are really good! He went to football practice that evening and didn’t get home until almost sundown. Abby had a good day, working at WTRE. She had to dress nicely and went out downtown to sell advertising for Fair Week. She had pretty good success, selling a handful of ads. She went to Mom & Sandy’s house afterward, with our battery charger. She Facetimed me and we got it hooked-up and charged the Crossfire. The girls took it to an auto parts shop and got the battery replaced. I had another really fast day at work. The boys and I went out for lunch and couldn’t make a decision. We eventually ended up at Chicago’s pizza and then came back and had our marathon meeting afternoon for three hours. It was Kevin’s final one and Justin C’s first one, as Kevin stepped down the next day. Justin C will be our interim CEO for the next 90 days and hopefully things will work out so that he can take over the position permanently. I love that they are trying to promote from within… After work, I walked a little under three miles outside on a hot afternoon. When I got back to town, I picked up Abby and we played a quick round of frisbee golf at the park. I shot a par while Abs had a 2-over 29. When we got back, Ann had supper ready for us, as he prepared southwestern chicken, cheesy grits and cheesy broccoli. As always, it was really good. Afterward, Abby played online games with Matthew while Ann & I watched an older movie with John Travolta called Domestic Disturbance. It was pretty good. Luke came home briefly then went to the YMCA to lift. Ann & I were just heading to bed when he got home from working out. Seems these days we are on two different schedules, unfortunately. Ahh….I remember those days. I’d just be coming home from Stoewer’s house and Dad would be heading into work… ????
I pushed snooze a half dozen times on Friday morning before finally getting my butt outta bed. Ann & I went through Dunkin and got breakfast for everyone. I dropped her off at the downtown office and came home to deliver goodies, get the kids up and start working at my desk in the family room. It was a productive morning and i got all of the work finished that I had brought home to work on and was ready to pick up Annie around noon. But Abby was out doing advertising for Gigi with WTRE and stopped by there to see the girls and wound up bringing her home for me. Luke got up that morning and went to work as well (it was a work-type of day around here). He said he had a good day at Hibbett’s and got home about mid-afternoon. I loaded up Betty White and ran over to Mom & Sandy’s house to mow real quick before it got too hot…but that was a pipe dream. It was really hot and I quickly sweat through my clothes, even though I was only out in the yard for about 15 minutes. I stopped in to talk briefly with Maryann and Sandy and drank a bottle of water before coming home. I mowed the front yard and took another water break. Delilah joined me in the backyard to mow. She didn’t last but maybe 10 minutes and was ready to go inside. I took another water break at the halfway point in the back and let her inside. She went straight to the water bowl, LOL. I finished up and jumped in the shower. I think it was one of the best showers I’ve ever taken in my life! After a visit from Deanna and then Gigi, I grabbed a quick nap and then we got dressed and went out to Michelle & Vic’s house for our boss Kevin’s going-away party. Ann decided to stay back to nap and stay out of the heat and humidity. We had a good turnout of about twenty people: Chelle & Vic with Mason & Colton and Christie; Kevin; Justin & Amanda; Justin C; Stacey; Tena, Jana & Amy; Dennis & Lenny and Luke, Abby & I. Vic and Michelle had quite the spread: brisket tips, pulled pork, chicken wings, mac & cheese, slaw and tons of chips and cookies – yum! We stopped and picked up a bottle of Glenlivet for Kevin and a couple of small bottles of Absolut vodka (one lemon-infused and one lime-infused) and a couple 2-liters of 7-Up Zero (with a couple bottles of black cherry Ice for Abs and I. We even brought our own cups with lids to keep bugs out! ???? We laughed and talked with everyone, went on golf-cart rides around the property and even played some cornhole. Then the rains started… We initially stayed under the pop-up gazebo but eventually moved into the garage, where they have a table and a bar set up. The kids ran into town and picked up some fireworks, which they shot off during the rain. It came down hard for a couple minutes but otherwise just rained lightly. There was lots of lightning and eventually the power went out. Vic got his generator going, but we ended up shutting it off because we couldn’t hear the music! LOL! We did a big toast to Kevin and a few people said a few words, as did Kevin. Luke did a good job of being our designated driver there and back in the Hot Rod Lincoln. We had spotty network coverage out there in the boondocks, but Ann tried to keep us updated on severe weather. There were some nasty storms that rolled through the area. There was a tornado in New Point (where we had Matt’s grad party) and torrential downpours all around the part of the state. There was heavy flooding in town – particularly by the park, on Main St., at El Reparo and at the Lincoln & Main intersection. Luckily, the route Luke took kept us away from all of the hazards and we made it home safely. Luke showered and went to bed while Abby & I watched a couple episodes of Rick & Morty and fell asleep in the living room… Here are pictures of recent additions to my Hot Wheels collection.
We enjoyed sleeping in on Saturday. I was so happy that I had completed all of the mowing yesterday so I didn’t have to go out and work in the sun and humidity that day. Abs & I did take the old Chevy pickup to Walmart to get supplies for the weekend. The flash flood warnings were everywhere and pictures and videos of the damage was all the buzz on social media, which is how we spent the early parts of our mornings. The flooding was so bad that they issued a “yellow??? travel warning for our county. While we were leaving the store and loading our groceries into Betty White, we heard a car come to screeching halt in the parking lot near us and then a guy in a bright orange hoodie go running across the street, through traffic. At first, I thought maybe someone was hurt and he was rushing to go help. As it turned out, the guy was running from the officer. They ran past a woman on her porch, went through her yard and into the neighborhood the next street over. Of course, we saw lots of flooding around town, but most of it had already dissipated and the roads were easily passible. That afternoon, Abby took Tonya up to New Castle to see Gary and go swimming. She stayed the night with his family. Luke got off work and went to get his car washed then went to work out at the Y that evening. I napped for a couple hours, watching the NASCAR races from Tennessee on the big screen as well as getting caught up on a few older UFC events on the laptop. In honor of the Juneteenth holiday, we watched an interesting special on the History channel called Fight the Power, hosted by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Luke came home for a while then went out to raise hell with his buddies that evening. When he got home, we called it a night.
Lola had me up early on Father’s Day. I returned the favor that Ann gave me yesterday and got up with the little yipper. I watched the TSL “Super Bowl??? called the Mega Bowl. It was pretty good and went right down to the wire. Afterwards, we watched a couple DVR’d shows and then turned over to NBCSN, where it stayed most of the day as they had the Indy car race and then the NASCAR race from Nashville, TN. It’s the first time the cup race has been held there since the early 80s. I did my weekly household chores, doing a couple loads of laundry as well as a couple loads of dishes. Abigail returned from New Castle shortly before noon and Matt & Taylor drove down from Carmel a little while later. They surprised me with two big bags of food from Fogo de Chao! Ann had bought it online and they picked it up and brought it down for us to cook. So, we moved out to the back porch and loaded up the grill with chicken, lamb, sausage and two types of steak – yum! We also had mashed potatoes, cheese rolls, apple salad and chimichurri. On top of that, Ann made smashed potatoes, cheesy broccoli and asparagus. She also made a cake and chocolate brownies. It was amazing!! They also got me a real set of frisbee golf discs – a first for me. So now I’ll have to practice. I laughed that I would probably only use these on the Batesville course since the pond has a tendency to eat our discs – and I don’t wanna lose any of these! After dinner, we took a quick nap and then played some euchre. Abs made cocktails. I had a few Bloody Marys and then we had a really tasty drink with lemon-infused Grey Goose and Diet 7-Up (with a splash of black cherry Ice!). Ann & I won the first game 10-8, lost the second one 9-10 and then the snot noses won the rubber match, 8-10. It was a lot of fun but we had to say our good-byes. They went over to see Gma & Gigi for a while before heading back up north. Thankfully, they got home before some bad weather rolled through their area. Afterward, Abby and I watched the women’s US national soccer team play Nigeria (from a couple days ago). Abs would really love to go watch them play, but I’m not sure if they even play in our area. Ann made cheesy Fireworks popcorn for dinner that night while Luke went out to the YMCA to workout with Brayden. We then ended the evening by watching a few episodes of Rick & Morty – including the premiere episode of season five on Global Rick & Morty Day! It was a relaxing way to wind down yet another great week, here at the Scheu abode…
Next up is our Waybac section which continues to feature Dee’s digital camera photos from 2005. We lead off in March – Easter Day; then June – Luke’s birthday; July – Dee-Dee’s new house; 4th of July cookout, cornhole & fireworks as well as the parade the next day, followed by lunch at Gma & Gigi’s, Grace’s birthday and Sandy’s birthday; October – my birthday; November – Thanksgiving Day; December – Dee’s birthday and Christmas Eve.
Next up is our video section which features one new home movie from this week as well as several from around the internet.
And that does it for this week’s episode of the Scheu Family Blog. Thanks for keeping up with us this week and we’ll catch up with you again next time. Until then, have a good one and stay safe out there. We miss ya, Mom.
Later, Scheu