We’ve endured a tough week since we last touched base. Work has been very busy lately – especially for me and my folks. We had another shakeup in our leadership this week and we had some kids get sick as well, causing us to institute protocols again that we hadn’t used since last year. Matt worked all week. It was the first week in a while where we didn’t see him at all. Abby had a busy week of classes and work – doing both every day this week. She got her new computer all set up and ready to go. I will assume since I didn’t hear from her, it must be working OK. She celebrated surviving another trip around the sun this week – the twenty-second time for our little Bu. We didn’t have a chance to see her this week either. Luke returned to school and football practices finally. Unfortunately, he had to stand on the sidelines again and watch his team play without him. That is a total of four games he’s missed after COVID cancelled two games. To say he is hungry to hit again is an understatement. He worked at his two jobs, lifted weights at the Y and spent time with his buddies. Ann enjoyed spending some time with her friends this week and still hasn’t found her keys! I logged just under nineteen yards of exercise this week, exceeding my walking goal. I also managed to lose the two pounds I gained last week. My BG levels continued to trend downward as well. All in all, it was a good week for my health. This week was the dog days of summer as temps rose higher and higher each day as the week progressed. I can only hope it will feel more seasonal next week. Still, I enjoyed playing four more rounds of frisbee golf this week. I am hopeful I can up that to five or six this coming week, as I enjoyed a great round one night, tying my best score on that field. It was so hard to watch Luke on the sidelines this week, but at least we got to see some football. Is this what it will be like next year? I don’t like it already…maybe we’ll get lucky and he’ll play on Saturdays… Hello again, and welcome back to the Scheu Family Blog.
It was back to work and school for everyone on Monday morning. We were a little concerned that Luke might go back to sleep but were relieved when we received the notification from Life 360 that he had indeed left the house! Luke returned to in-person learning after two weeks of e-learning but the bigger story was the return of football. Granted, we still don’t think Luke can play this week; but it was good for him to get back out on the field finally. They had a late practice then he went out to Oak’s house and helped his family bale hay. He was pretty worn-out that night, but still had enough energy to rub in his fantasy football win a little – LOL. I had a fast day, filled with stuff all day long. We had a couple COVID scares, having a few folks with “symptoms.??? As my friend Justin says – it’s ok for folks to still be sick from time to time…but now everyone is so freaked-out that it’s assumed to be Coronavirus. Thankfully, none of it was true…but then Justin had to leave because his kid got contact traced – it’s never ending! After an afternoon that was even faster than my morning, I went out and walked nearly three and a half miles in the heat. It wasn’t too bad at first, but that last mile was grueling. Is it possible that it got hotter as the afternoon waned? We enjoyed the A/C in Black Betty on the way home, for sure. I dropped off Ann at home, where she started looking for her keys. She lost them at some point between Thursday and this morning…and she has no idea where they are… We looked in all the vehicles, went up to her office, here in town and of course turned the house upside down. She even called Walmart and tried to call the Mexican restaurant in Shelbyville, but they never would pick up the damn phone. Luke brought home a bunch of the senior banners for Ann to get hung up at the football field. I played a quick round of frisbee golf out at the park and had an excellent outing, tying my personal best by throwing a 3-under-par, 24! You know I had to brag to Abby about it! LOL. We had a leftover night for dinner then watched a few shows up on the big screen – Last Week with John Oliver (he’s definitely funnier with a live studio audience!), The Walking Dead and then flipped over to watch MNF with Peyton & Eli – it was quite entertaining. Ann was intrigued as well as Luke crept closer and closer to Ann before overtaking and defeating her in fantasy football. Here are pictures from Abby’s birthday party from last weekend.
Tuesday was another fast day as we endured another hot and humid day. Ann still couldn’t find her keys…but she still can’t get Cholula to answer their damn phone. I had an orientation class in the morning but missed Justin, who should’ve joined me that day. Instead, he was home with Gabe. I had a contractor in-house to do a tour for a LAN remediation project before we can get a new camera system. By the time I got my paperwork done, I only had about a half hour to work on my EOC report before it was time to leave. In fact, I got out a little late to go walking and didn’t quite reach three miles. It was super humid but there was a great breeze, I have to admit. When we got back to town, I dropped off Ann and went to the park for another game of disc golf in the heat. I was so sweaty and there was a stiff breeze that was tough. Between those two things and the fact that I just didn’t have it that night, I went from a really good game to a really stinky game. My score was 5 point higher that last night as I threw a 29 – ugh. ? When I got home, Ann had dinner ready. She made tuna salad and pasta salad – yum! I added a Carolina Reaper pepper that Michelle and Vic game me from their garden…and oh boy! It made me sweat profusely and my mouth was numb for hours – awesome! Meanwhile, Luke had very long day – it was another “boring??? day at school with the “same old shit.??? He then went to a three-hour football practice. And when that was over, he grabbed the truck, mower and yard tools to go mow a couple hours before it got too dark. That night, he was pretty exhausted, as you might imagine, so instead of lifting he just went to hang out with his buddies for a while. It was the 9th anniversary of Mom’s funeral. I still can’t believe that next year will be a decade – where has the time gone? Abby came to town today for a dentist appointment and stopped in to see Mom & Sandy for a while. Unfortunately, she had already headed back to campus by the time we got back. She had to study that night for a big test in Business Law the next day. We took it easy that evening, watching the new season of American Horror Story called Double Feature. We binge-watched the first several episodes to get caught up. It was a little slow at first, but then things started to pick up and now can’t wait for the next one to come out! And finally, I was saddened to hear that comedian Norm MacDonald passed away earlier that day. It was raining pretty good when we went to bed that evening. Here are random pictures from our recent adventures.
With the storms that blew through overnight, I slept like a baby. It was noticeably cooler that morning, but the humidity was stuck around that day. It was a crazy fast day that was broken up in the middle with a trip to see Jami for our monthly haircuts. I missed going out with the guys, which was especially bad because we learned that day that Justin did not get the CEO job. In fact, we were told that our regional guy from corporate was coming the next day with a potential permanent replacement. Who knows what this guy will be like…maybe it’ll be a good change or maybe we’ll have to start from scratch yet one more time? In my nearly three decades out there, I’ve seen a lot of change. I don’t like change but I do recognize that it can be good for survival…so I guess we’ll see what the future holds… I got out of work a little late that afternoon and didn’t quite get in my three miles of exercise. We left a bit early so Annie could go out with the girls that evening. They had dinner in Batesville at LaRosa’s. I went to the park for another round of frisbee golf. It was definitely better than yesterday, as I threw a one-under-par 26 for the round. I grabbed leftovers from last night and binge-watched all the new Robot Chicken episodes we had saved, along with several other shows that had been accumulating on the DVR. Luke had another fast day at school then went to football practice. He went out with his buddies to ElRep for dinner. Coach told me that evening there was no chance of Luke playing this week, despite my logical reasoning – which really sucks. Abby had a long day of school in Franklin and work in Greenwood – which is pretty much her life every day now. She called me in a panic that evening, saying her vents stopped blowing air, but that the defrost and floor were fine. I told her it can be fixed but that she had to save her money and call Jerry! I touched base with Matt briefly. He asked about Luke’s status – so, with Luke being out this week I doubt he will come home for the game which is a bummer. I edited pictures that evening and wound up falling asleep on the couch.
Thursday was another fast day. It started off cool – I even ran the heat in the defroster to clear the windshield as we left the neighborhood that morning. It still warmed up into the 80s. It was Abby’s 22nd birthday. Unfortunately, she didn’t have time for us to get together (which is why we did what we did last week) because she was so busy. At my work, the senior management team met with our regional director and a candidate for the vacant CEO position. Turns out, Ann knows the guy and he’s the father of one of Abby’s friends! There are actually a few different points of intersection between this guy and our family. It went really well and he could be a good fit for our facility. I guess we’ll see if it all works out or not. Justin, Vic & I went out for lunch after our meeting and wound up at Snappy Tomato. The afternoon flew by even faster than the morning. I went out walking after work but had to cut it late when…uh…nature called. I only got in two miles before heading home. We stopped at Needlers to pickup stuff for that night. Annie made sausage dip for me to take with me to Poker Night. I got in a quick game of frisbee golf, throwing another 26. My tee shots were REALLY good but my approach shots / long putts were just slightly off. It could’ve been a whole lot better. I got back and finished editing pictures just as the sausage dip finished cooking. I met up with my friends at the Sunken Boat Bar for a night of food, booze, cards and football. A few of us didn’t make it, but Bryan, Rick, Bob, Mark and myself had a good time. I actually added a couple bills to my “stripper money??? roll – LOL. ???? Luke had a “boring??? day at school and a rough practice, out in the heat. He was pretty tired but went back out to lift at the Y that night. That left Ann a nice, quiet evening with the dogs. We have lots of social media pictures to share this week.
We enjoyed sleeping in a little on Friday morning. We ran through the Dunkin drive thru on our way to dropping Ann off at her downtown office. The city was alive with people everywhere downtown as it was prepped for the annual Tree City Fall Festival. People were stupid. I even saw an accident when a lady backed into a parked car. I will do my best to stay clear of the downtown area this weekend, if I can. I worked from home that day, pausing only to go pickup Annie when she finished that afternoon. After work, I paid the bills and filed all our paperwork that had accumulated on my desk. I started to work on Bryan’s iPad, which needs to be rest to factory setting and then updated to current standards. Luke came home briefly after school at the same time that Brogan stopped by to drop off Luke’s book. We talked with him for a bit and then Luke went to Jimmy Johns and I dug out a couple of mitts for Jamie & Grace to take to the Reds game tomorrow. Later, Ann & I went out to Shriver Field early to hang up the dozen senior banners along the fence like they do every year. Unlike years past, we plan to leave these up through the end of the season. That night, with Luke watching from the sidelines, the Pirates took on South Dearborn. It’s too bad he didn’t get to face them one more time. Jamie joined us as we sat with Koors and Wests and saw a close game. It was back and forth right until the end. The Pirates had their chances but were missing one key element – Luke. With him not in there for short yardage runs or short yardage stops, we were really missing a key element of our strength. We had our chances but, in the end, a missed extra point (not Grayson’s fault as the snap was bad) was the difference in the game, as it turned out. One of the key plays of the game was a non-call on the Knights when their defense brought down Sam (our QB) inside the one-yard line by the helmet and ripped it off his head. Initially, a flag came out, but then they picked it up after some discussion. Sam had to come out for one play. And on the ensuing play on the goal line, the backup QB (Corbin) fumbled the ball. Instead of going up two TDs, they Knights drove down the field and scored the go-ahead score. We made a last-gasp effort to come down the field and at least try for a field goal and the win…but an errant pass fell into a defender’s hands and SD were able to kneel on the ball three times to kill the clock. Greensburg is now 1-2 (1-0 with Luke – 0-2 without him). After talking with him after the game, it was clear that he is hungrier than ever to play next week in Brookville. We went out to Wings & Rings afterward with our parent friends – the Wests (sans Aaron who was at a college volleyball game), the Koors, the Bests and then Luke and his buddies had a table adjacent to us. They were really busy and we didn’t get out of there until about midnight. We came home and I put on the new Ancient Aliens that had taped earlier in the evening but fell asleep by the first commercial so I rewound it and went on to bed…
I didn’t sleep particularly well. I was stuffed up and need a new mask on my c-pap which meant I didn’t breathe real well. I was awakened by the combination of Delilah barking and my phone ringing (vibrating). I got up and let the dog out and called work. Turns out we needed to turn on the negative pressure room due to a sick kid. So, we got that taken care of and I decided to just stay up. I blew my nose like two dozen times (no, for real – like a quarter of a box) and finally got all the goop out of my sinuses. I did a few things around the house then got an early start to my weekly yardwork. I went out with the intention to get my stuff loaded in the truck and start at Mom & Sandy’s house. However, as I was gassing everything up, I looked at the yard and realized that the yard was 90% shaded…so I took advantage of that and started right there. It was too wet to really mulch, so I had to run the Husqy with the side discharge chute open. I then loaded up Betty White and headed across town. Meanwhile, Amy came over and picked up Ann so they could go shopping that day. They wound up staying in town and then ate at the Carriage on the Square smokehouse. I was surprised since the Tree City Fall Festival was in full swing and pretty busy. I went out of my way to avoid the entire downtown area during my travels that day. I mowed and trimmed Maryann & Sandy’s yard but only partially got the walks blown off before people started gathering on their front lawn and sidewalk in preparation of the annual Fall Festival parade. So, I paused, grabbed a water from her garage fridge and sat on the front steps and enjoyed the parade. They had some military folks, Mr. and Ms. Tree City winners as well as the littles, the Greensburg and South cheerleaders as well as the Batesville band and bunch of really cool cars – including two different ’64 Galaxie 500s! That is the same car I drove in high school after Dad B towed it back from Cali in 1980. It didn’t even have a heater in it…so guess what special option was installed that first winter in LaPorte? ???? One of the Fords was an old squad car (looked straight out of Mayberry) and the other was a gorgeous show car (I didn’t see, but I assume it was an XL) …it was painted in a custom metallic light blue color…the only thing it didn’t have was that hard top convertible. After the parade moved on, I finished there, got a few things cleaned up and then Mom O & I took Betty White down to Ann’s Uncle Dave’s house where he was having a big yard sale. They had sold a ton of stuff already. I picked up a small cooler for a buck and moved a neat old picture of a lion and a sewing table back for Gma. I put them in storage in her garage and said goodbye. I ran to CVS and Walmart before heading home. I grabbed a burger from BK and came home to eat it, cool down and let my phone charge. I talked to Luke, who was in pretty good spirits but is starting to realize, he just lost a month of football and now only has 4 more short weeks. I encouraged him to remember to take nothing for granted and to play every play like it might be his last one. I think he understood after going through this ordeal. I watched the end of an episode of SVU and then returned to the yard. I mowed the front and then trimmed – including the other side of the fence, in the old Dodds’ house – which has sat empty for several weeks now. The kid that is mowing it has never trimmed so it was really overgrown and into our lawn. It looks much nicer now. I came in and took a long, cool shower – aahhh… Ann was home when I came in and wasn’t feeling very well. Apparently, Carriage didn’t set very well with her tummy as she made frequent runs to the restroom in a trot! We were supposed to go out to the fairgrounds that evening for Judy’s (from Ann’s work) daughter’s wedding reception. However, with her bowels performing gymnastics, she was unable to attend. Instead, we stayed in the A/C and watched the Purdue / Notre Dame game. Well, she napped while I wrote out all the html code for this week’s blog entry and watched the game. It was close until about 6 minutes left in the game when their (arguably) best player (Bell) was knocked out of the game when his head bounced off the turf and left him likely concussed. They wound up carting him off the field and they replaced Plummer at QB as well with O’Connell (a 5th year senior) to try and create a spark. Just when it looked like the Boilers might have a comeback, the ball went off Durham’s hands and was intercepted in the endzone to seal the game. We grabbed some leftovers that evening and while Ann read, I watched some boob tube – Ancient Aliens, Nine Complete Strangers, American Horror Story and The Proof is Out There. After work at Hibbett’s, Luke worked out at the YMCA with a buddy then went through the Taco Bell drive through for a 4th Meal. He was sad when, after waiting for nearly a half hour, he learned they were sold out of many of their popular items. They said they normally do about 50 orders after 5 pm and they’d had over 300! He still picked me up a couple tacos (he’s a good boy) but missed his curfew by quite a bit. He called when he was stuck in the drive through line and couldn’t get out. An hour later, he finally got home… I farted around with Bryan’s iPad for several hours that night. I know so little about Mac products so first I had to learn about it and then I needed some help from his IT guy (Rick) but got stuck there and had to call it a night. Annie seemed to be feeling a little bit better that night but still went to bed a few hours before me. Here are pictures of recent additions to my Hot Wheels collection.
Lola slept most of the evening last night so I wasn’t surprised when she was up barking at the sunrise on Sunday morning. Ann got up with her but I couldn’t fall back to sleep. When I looked at my phone, I saw I had some texts and emails about a purchase at 4 am at Walmart. Thankfully, Walmart flagged it as fraud and they cancelled the order. So, then I had to figure out if my card or my account had been hacked. I did some research and saw where the order was in my purchase history on the Walmart website, which pointed me in the direction of the website account being hacked, so I reset my password and will continue to monitor our bank account closely. I hesitate to change my card right now because I just got done paying an entire round of bills with it and that will negate all that work and likely made some payments late. Damn hackers! Work called again that morning while I was making breakfast. They were scrambling to find supplies to sanitize the facility after a couple more kids got sick yesterday, bringing our total to four. So, I called Justin and Lenny and discussed a few things to make sure we were all on the same page and prepared for when we return to work tomorrow. I turned on the NASCAR shows on the DVR and watched all 3 of the Bristol races while doing my weekly household chores. Luke got up and took the yard tools in Betty White to go mow a couple lawns early that morning. That was a smart move since it was forecast to get up into the 90s again that day. It was so friggin’ hot yesterday…I’m ready for fall – which starts next week, I think. Judging from this weekend, you’d never know it… I guess I missed a couple good bands last night with an Eagles cover band called Desperado followed by a Skynyrd cover band called Brickyard Road playing uptown on the square to wrap up this year’s Fall Festival. I wish Ann had felt better so we could’ve got up there to enjoy some live music. That afternoon, I flipped between the Colts game (lost a heartbreaker) and RedZone during the early games and then the Cowboys game (an exciting win with a walk-off FG!) and RedZone during the late games. While I watched football, Ann & Luke went out to the football field for photos a couple times. In the early afternoon, the seniors and senior moms for a photo session with a photographer that is actually one of the moms. Then, late in the day, they returned to Shriver Field to meet up with Farren where she took pix of Luke and his friends / teammates Oakley and Payton to complete their senior picture sessions. They were out there for a few hours, getting home after dark. I worked on Bryan’s iPad all day and finally got it reset and ready for him. Now I know why I don’t own an Apple product – wow… what a pain! Luke dropped off Ann at home and went with Oak to get dinner in Columbus. We watched the game of the week that night with the Ravens hosting the Chiefs while enjoying cheesy Fireworks for dinner – yum! It was a relaxing way to wind down the weekend and bring to an end to yet another fast week…
Next up is our Waybac section which includes the final group of Dee’s digital camera pictures. It’s been a good run of them that’s lasted us about a year. I’ll have to dig out some other pictures from the same era (early to mid-00s) unless Ann or Mom O come up with an old box of family pix. I know that Maryann was hoping to get a box or two from Dave (Linda’s old pix), but instead she only got 3 individual photos. We lead off this week in March for pix of Gma with Grace on Easter Day; in June, we see Luke at his big brother’s birthday party; in May we see Minnie Mabel enjoying the outdoors; Luke & Gma enjoying cake at Luke’s birthday party in June; then in July we see Gigi drying off Grace after getting out of the pool on the 3rd of July along with the girls enjoying lunch inside afterward; then the next morning on the 4th we see the girls getting ready for the parade; then Grace and Bu at Gracie’s bday party; and Sandy in a lovely muumuu on her birthday; next we move on to Thanxmas at our house in November; and finally we end in December for Dee’s birthday (you think Gigi farted??) and then Memaw and 2/3 of her granddaughters on Christmas Eve. What a fun bunch of pictures those were…
And as always, we wrap up today’s episode with our video segment 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 entry 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 one and stay safe out there. We miss ya, Mom.
Later, Scheu