In true southcentral Indiana summer fashion, it has been hot and humid this week. The heat indexes were in the triple digits for much of the week, only cooling off after a storm front moved through at the end of the week, allowing it to be bearable for us to be outside for Luke’s football game and to work outside this weekend. Matt enjoyed the week with Ms. Taylor, south of the border! We’ve seen a few pictures, but I can’t wait to see even more when we see them the next time. Matt & Jamie set up a fantasy football league for the family and a few friends. I’ve always wanted to be in a league, but never had the chance…so this should be fun! Abby worked here in town with Sandy at the station and also in Greenwood at her accounting internship. She spent a lot of time with her friends this week and talked with Gpa Scheu about getting her laptop replaced, which is really cool. She’s hoping to get that done next week so we can get everything transferred off her old device and onto the new one. Luke had his first full week of school, went to football practices each day, lifted weights at the Y every day and worked both at Hibbett’s as well as his landscaping job. He also played in his final scrimmage of his high school football career this week. Ann and I had long work weeks but enjoyed spending time with family and seeing our football parent friends. I met my exercise goal again, logging twenty miles of walking, including 36 holes of frisbee golf on the Greensburg course. It was another busy week that flew past us. I’m excited that football season is back – it’s my favorite time of the year! Hello and welcome back to the Scheu Family Blog.
It was back to work and school for us on Monday morning. It was another day of the three H’s – hazy, hot & humid. It also rained for a few hours in the middle of the day. Ann & I both had fast days at work. I never did get to my reports, as I had hoped. The boys and I went to Five Guys while Ann and the girls went out to eat at Upland Brewing Company. I walked three miles after work. After picking up Ann, we went to Best Buy and picked up Abby’s laptop. It still works but she will have to hook up an external monitor, unfortunately. So, she is looking at new laptops and needs to make a decision quickly – before classes start at the end of the month. We got home and I dropped off Ann and picked up Abby. Jerry was able to track down a faulty relay in the electrical wiring of the fan in old Barney, so he got that replaced and we picked it up that evening. As Bu drove the van back home, I went on to the park and played a quick round of frisbee golf, throwing a par into a fairly steady wind. While on the course, I got an email about a threat of violence at the high school. Matt was up early and on a plane with Taylor and her family, headed down to Mexico for the week. Abby worked in Greenwood, as the temporary accountant internship. Luke had a good day at school – minus the guy that threatened to shoot up the place – then went on to football. He banged up his wrist pretty good and Oakley may be out with a concussion after hitting his head pretty good. He went to the Y afterward to workout for a couple hours. The girls and I grilled steak (fillets) on the patio and enjoyed a beer with our porch time. Annie made cheesy potatoes, cheesy broccoli and corn to go with our meat – yum. Abs had Molie over that evening. She joined us for dinner and then stayed to watch the US Women’s soccer team play in the bronze metal game. It was great to Rapinoe and Lloyd both score two goals apiece and bring home the third-place medal, bouncing back from a lackluster game vs. Canada. It may be the last game for both of them and likely their final Olympics game, sadly. The girls went back to Bu’s room afterward. Luke came home and ate his steak dinner before joining Ann & I in the living room to watch game film from Saturday on the big screen. Ted came over to pick up her Shawna’s dad’s laptop and dropped off a handle of Sailor Jerry that evening! ???? I backed up this week’s pictures and videos then edited this week’s videos while watching the men’s USA basketball team win in the gold medal game. I’ve still got a few other Olympics games to watch yet, but I made myself to on to bed around midnight… Here are pictures from Luke’s football game – the annual Blue / White scrimmage.
We had a rainy commute into work on Tuesday morning. In fact, it rained on and off for much of the day. Even when we got home that night, it looked and sounded like it would rain and storm at any time but I don’t know that it ever did that evening. Ann and I both had fast days at work. We had planned to go to Casey’s visitation / calling in North Vernon that evening, but because we both got out of work late, we missed it unfortunately. Mom & Sandy went, of course, and said it was nice but very sad. I only managed two miles of walking after work, due to getting out late. The boys and I did enjoy our weekly supply of Snappy Tomato, which helped break up the day and force us to slow down a bit. This time of year is always tough out at the behavioral center for myriad of reasons. First, several of our best residents left to start school at their respective homes. That means that we again had a flood of new residents that are in dire need of our help and their behaviors are quite challenging. When they come once a week, it’s not bad…but when you get a dozen in a little over two weeks, it takes a while for things two shake out. Add to that the fact that summer vacation is now over and everyone has to return to the rigidly structured confines of a classroom and you have a recipe for…not disaster…but chaos and a very needy milieu. When those needs can’t be met by the sheer volume, you get acting out…and we’ve had our share of that over the past several weeks. I know that things should work themselves out, here in a couple weeks; but it doesn’t make days like this go any better. I feel bad for the techs and nurses, as at least I get to leave the floor – I don’t miss days like that…it’s a young person’s game. Old folks like me are best left to supervision and not direct care. Occasional interactions are OK, but there’s no way I could do that job every day. There’s a reason I retired from that life… When I got home, I played a round of frisbee golf. There were storms in the area and I could her thunder. The breeze was gusty but overall, not bad and I managed a one-under, 26. I missed some putts again but overall my drives and second shots were pretty good. I was sweaty mess when I got back, thanks to the heat and humidity. Abby worked at WTRE and was at her friend’s house when we got home. She came home shortly after I got done with frisbee golf and we looked at Best Buy for a new laptop for her senior year of school and beyond. I think we found one she likes and so she’s hoping to purchase it next week. She wasn’t here too long afterward and headed back up to Franklin to stay with friends and have a shorter commute into her internship in the morning. Luke had a good day at school. No drama of violence was a good thing today, but I am a little worried about the whole resurgence of COVID. We again encouraged him to get vaccinated (even it makes no difference) so that he couldn’t be contact traced. He had a hot football practice but got some relief when the lightning alarm went off. He worked out at the YMCA that evening and then came home to eat and go on to bed. Ann read while I worked on editing pictures that night. I watched the Pro Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Peyton Manning had the best speech, but Drew Pearson was a close second. I hoped to see Cliff Harris and Edgerrin James, but they were cut out for whatever reason. I watched a few DVR’d shows before heading on to bed (after waking up on the couch, of course). …LOL…
The heat and humidity were abundantly clear as we walked outside to go to work on Wednesday morning. Ann and I again had super-fast days at work. Justin was late coming in that morning, as he took his first college final exam…and passed! Way to go, buddy! As a celebration, Vic & I took him out to lunch at Riviera Maya. I was able to knock out several of my monthly reports that afternoon but received a new project from the IT department which will keep me busy the rest of the week and into the next. Abby worked in Greenwood, at her internship and said things went really well. When she got back home that afternoon, she took a long nap, worn-out from her day. After work, I walked a 5K on a day with the heat index in the triple digits. It was a no-zone action day but there was a great breeze that made it tolerable. I was pretty sweaty when I picked up Annie from work. She & I went to CVS that evening to pickup meds and booze (or is that meds and more meds?). I dropped her off at home and went to the park to play a quick round of frisbee golf – but not before I stopped off at hole 2 and did some pruning of that damn tree that always gets in the way of my tee shots. Although it was sure hot and sticky and the breeze was strong, I still managed to throw a par 27. I had my first hole-in-one on #7…until it bounced out. Sure, I’ve had a few others where it doinked off the front or glanced off the chains, but this one was in the well and then literally spun out and rolled 10’! When I got home, Ann was making supper…and a great one it was – fish tacos and local corn-on-the-cob! It was amazing. Luke had school and football practice again. He looked pretty exhausted when he got home. He fell asleep after dinner but got up to go work out with Brayden. I watched the first episode of the HBO show Hard Knocks, which features the Cowboys this year. Abs went over to Molie’s house that evening. Ann & I began watching season 2 of Outer Banks until she fell asleep. I turned it off and watched a movie on HBO called Tenet. It was actually the second time to watch it. I understood it a lot better the second time around…but I stayed up way too late and didn’t get to bed until after 2 am…damn movie… Here are random pictures from our recent adventures.
Thursday was the hottest day of the week. The temps were already near 80 when we walked out the door that morning. It would eventually go all the way up to the high 80s with another afternoon of heat indexes (real feel) in the triple digits. I spent the day doing IT work, encrypting all of our computers. The guys and I went out to lunch at Mancino’s, which was the only break I took that day. My day absolutely flew. Ann had a busy day, but she had to deal with unruly patients. It was way too hot to walk outdoors, so I went to the mall and walked about 3 ½ miles before picking up Annie and coming home. Abs & I were going to have a twilight round of frisbee golf, but I decided to go ahead and throw since I was already hot and motivated. Abs had worked at the station earlier that day and then went with Mom & Sandy to our friend, Casey’s, funeral – out and her and Susan’s house in the country. Abs helped Sandy set up and tear down the sound system they used that evening. Luke had a good day at school then went to a really sweaty football practice. There was a strong wind out on the golf course, which was challenging. I managed to throw a 1-under, 26 – which I was OK with, given the conditions. On #7, I tried to replicate my throw from yesterday, but instead I nearly threw it in the pond. It wound up the deep rough – the 12’ weeds and sticker bushes at the edge of the water. It is so thick that it took me 5 or 10 minutes to find my disc, but I finally did…turns out, it was really only about 8’ from the hole! When I got home, it wasn’t even a half hour and a nasty round of storms began blowing through town. It rained really hard and there was lots of thunder and lightning. The kids both had to drive in it and came in the house soaking wet. Luke went to the YMCA to work out for a couple hours. Abby showered and had Molie over to look at clothes. Ann made Fireworks popcorn and cheese for dinner and while she read, I watched the Woodstock 99 documentary from HBO and edited pictures.
Everyone was up early and out the door to work and school on Friday. Abs went up to Greenwood for her internship. Luke went to a Christian youth group meeting where he prayed for good weather that night for the football game, because the forecast that morning was 60% chance of storms at gametime. He then went on to school and had a good day. It was the first time he wore his jersey to school. Back in the 80s, I used to love wearing my jersey to school on Fridays. ???? Ann & I went through Dunkin on our way to work that morning. I dropped her off at the downtown office and came back to the house to work from home in the family room. I got a lot done that morning before it was time to go pick Annie back up around noon. We came back and Ann made sauteed smoked sausage, onions & peppers. I had planned to work on my reports that afternoon but wound up falling asleep after lunch and only woke-up once Abby and then Luke came home. So, I emailed my boss and apologized that I had to take a half day of PTO! ???? We napped one more time before finally getting up and getting ready. That night, we went out to Shriver Field to watch Luke and the Pirates take on Indian Creek in our annual scrimmage with them. As usual, right off the bat things got chippy. Luke isn’t shy on the field and let a couple of their players know that he wasn’t going to put up with their crap. Luke played running back on the offense and middle linebacker on the defense. He was also one of the Pirate flag carriers as they came out on to the field, which was really cool as well! They chose not to do any special teams, including no kicking teams. It was hot but not as hot as it had been earlier this week. The sun was really bad – as it always is this time of year, out there on those bleachers. It’s so bright that it feels like you’re baking in an oven! Luke looked good on both sides of the ball and I think he’s ready for the season to start. As for the rest of the team…well, we’re pretty young. It will come down to our offensive and defensive lines, to be honest. We have a lot of first- year guys in many of those positions so it might be a little dicey the first three games or so until we finally see what we truly have this year. I was hoping that a couple other guys would be coming out for football this year, but they didn’t, which is too bad really. There’s a couple that are ineligible for sprots as well, which is really unfortunate. Luke’s stats; he had 4 tackles (2 solo, 2 assist) in limited time on defense. Not his best, but it’s still pre-season. Offensively, he carried the ball 6 times for 71 yards and 2 TDs! All in all, it was a good warm-up for Shelbyville next week. Afterward, we stuck around and talked with Luke and his teammates, down by the locker room. We got some pictures and said our good-byes to the kids, who were all going separate ways. Abby was going with Molie (who also came out to support Luke) while Luke was going out with his friends to Oakley’s house. With no kids, we decided to grab a quick bite to eat at Wings & Rings – somewhere we haven’t been in a couple months. Low and behold, guess who shows up out there as well? Not just Abby & Molie (who wound up sitting with us) but also Luke, eight of his teammates and three girls (including Laney), who came down from Shelbyville to see Luke. I was still in the mood for fish (I had leftover tilapia tacos earlier that day as well), so I opted for the fish and chips (their homemade Saratoga chips & their amazing bleu cheese – yum!). Abs & Molie came home with us while Luke and the boys went on out to spend the night at Oakley’s. I put on the Cowboy’s game but struggled to stay awake and wound up going to bed at halftime. We have lots of social media pictures to share this week.
I was up early and out the door on Saturday morning. Luke came home from Oak’s and went in to work at Hibbett’s. I’m guessing Lola must’ve yacked on Abby’s bed because when I got up, Lola was chilling outside, Delilah was in Bu’s room and Abby had different blankets in her room with the washer running. I loaded up Betty White with the yard tools, a ladder & bucket as well as my DeWalt drill and bits and headed over to Mom & Sandy’s house. I talked with the gals for a while then we installed a piece of Plexiglas on their kitchen door where Max has been scratching, ruining the paint job. They had the door re-painted and we installed the protective glass in no time. After mowing and trimming the yard, I cleaned out their gutter in the back, which was leaking. Come to find out, they had an old protective system installed in that pipe. At one time, the plastic and foam kept the leaves out while allowing water to pass through. Unfortunately, it had deteriorated to the point where it was all collapsed in the bottom of the gutter and in hundreds of pieces, blocking even the water from passing through to the downspout. We talked about it and I took some pictures for them to see what had happened. We decided to remove it and clean out all the detritus in the bottom of the gutter. It filled about a kitchen bag and a half of crap but should help with their issues. I’ll just have to remember to clean them out at the end of fall and again each spring. On my way home from their house, I stopped downtown at Coach Robbins’ second-hand store called, “A Little of This / A Little of That.??? He has a guy in there that has loose and carded Hot Wheels. I picked up a couple dozen loose cars a couple weeks ago when Bu was with me. This time, with no one pressuring me to leave, I was able to go through a whole tote (thousands of cars) and sift through ones that I thought I did not have. I wound up leaving with a box of over 100 Hot Wheels for under $.20 apiece. ???? While I was up on the ladder, my new Bose headphones stopped working. I thought they were just dead (though they should’ve lasted me all day). When I got home, I threw them on the charger and I’ll be damned if they wouldn’t freaking charge! That’s the same thing that happened with the previous four pairs that I’ve bought. The only difference is that they keep lasting shorter and shorter with each new pair! Although I have the Geek Squad protection on them, I may wind up going in a different direction. I’m just not sure what to do at this point because I love those damn things. I’m so frustrated with the whole situation! I mowed and trimmed, here at the house when I got back. Before I started, I came in to look for my backup headphones and found the girls were doing arts and crafts stuff here, working on redecorating the living room. Thankfully, I found my backups. They were dead, so I threw them on the charger for 10 minutes and got them about halfway charged! Sure, they’re cheap Sony ones but they came through in a pinch today. Delilah and Lola spent the afternoon chasing critters in the backyard. Between the mole in the front, another mole in the back and bunnies under the shed, the dogs ran, barked and dug all day. That evening, they were pooped! When I finished outside, I showered and Ann had made pizzas for linner (late lunch / early dinner). Luke got off work and came home to eat before loading up the old Chevy truck and mowing for Coach Harris at the two houses. Meanwhile, Abs & I went to Rural King to get bait worms for the mole in the front yard and then went on to Walmart to get paint and brushes so that Abby could re-do the football yard sign to update it with Luke’s new number – #43. ???? That evening, Bu took Tonya back up to Franklin to spend the night with her friends. I watched NFL preseason games all evening. Mom & Sandy wound up coming over to play some euchre with us for a couple hours. Ann & I smeared them, three games to nil and sent them home frustrated. ???? Sandy brought over Chili’s for us to munch on while playing cards. We enjoyed spending time together and telling stories. I wasn’t awake long afterward and wound up going to bed fairly early that evening. Luke went out with Brayden to spend some time with him after he and his family had to put their dog down earlier that day. Here are pictures of some recent additions to my Hot Wheels collection.
Ann and I didn’t sleep well and I ended up getting up early on Sunday morning. I wrote out the html code for the blog while watching the races at the Brickyard yesterday. There was some drama with the turn 5 / 6 and a couple different curbs that came in to play and really impacted the Busch race and would later have an even bigger impact on the Cup race when I watched it later that day. Unfortunately, I missed most of the cup race due to it not recording for whatever reason. I think I mistakenly turned off the recording like a dumbass. However, I was able to see the last four laps, which lasted about an hour. We watched the Colts first preseason game and unlike the Cowboys, they actually found a way to win a game. It was exciting to see fans not only at the speedway this weekend but also at the Colts stadium as well. I just wonder how long that will last… Ann and I did a few things around the house, including our weekly household chores. Luke went into work at Hibbett’s all day. We texted with Matt a few times that day as he and Taylor wrapped up their Mexico vacation and flew back home that afternoon. Abs decided to stay up in Franklin one more night and just head into work at her internship in Greenwood tomorrow morning. That allowed Ann & I to nap a little bit with the dogs and take it easy that afternoon. I baited the mole holes with some poison worms, which I understand is about the best option out there, besides using a trap…which I really don’t want to do in the front yard if I don’t have to…Work was off the chain this weekend and we had a few calls for maintenance support from damage inflicted by a couple residents. Later, Ann made cheesy Fireworks popcorn, we watched Ancient Aliens and the Fast & Furious 9 on the big screen. Luke lifted at the YMCA then came home and we watched game film and did stats. Afterward, I finished writing out the blog and then went on to bed. It was a relaxing way to wind down the weekend and put a cap on another fast week.
Next up is our Waybac section which continues to feature some great photos from Deanna’s original digital camera. We are currently in year 2005 and this week we lead off in January with Ann’s birthday party at the old Main St. home; then in March we see the kids on Easter Sunday at Mom & Sandy’s house; then in May we see Minnie Mabel Campsendelle; June sees Luke’s birthday party at the Main St home; July has Mom at Dee’s new house, swimming, grilling and fireworks on the 3rd, lunch at Gma & Gigi’s house on Main St after the 4th of July parade, Grace’s birthday, and Sandy’s birthday; and then in December we have the annual Christmas Eve with the Owens family at Gma & Gigi’s house on Main St…that sure was a popular place to be in 2005! ????
And we wrap up with our video segment. We have two home movies this week (Luke’s football scrimmage and a short clip video with assorted short vids) as well as a ton from around the internet (a bunch from the upcoming mega-release of the 30th anniversary Black Album by Metallica).
Well, that wraps things up for this edition of the Scheu Family Blog. Thanks for keeping up with us this time out and we’ll catch up with you again next time. Until then, have a good and stay safe out there. We miss ya, Mom.
Later, Scheu