With all the precipitation we’ve had lately and a good dose of sunshine the last couple weeks, our grass is starting to turn green, flowers are popping up and trees are beginning to bud. It won’t be long until I’ll be out working in the yard again. I’ve got my hands full with that backyard, to say the least. The dogs have completely destroyed it over the last couple years. Matt had a busy week of work. His duties are beginning to ramp-up as Cathy and has started to give him more responsibilities. He enjoyed spending time with friends this weekend. But his big news was that he had a couple job offers from the Zionsville school system…interesting… Abby spent her week, enjoying Spring Break near Ft. Lauderdale. She enjoyed spending time with her girlfriends and even made time to go see Will a time or two, as it turned out, the Sig boys were staying only 15 minutes away! I can’t wait to see all her pictures… She made it back safely this weekend and is already gearing up for classes to resume tomorrow – that darn reality…sometimes it just smacks you in the face, doesn’t it? Luke had a full week of classes – including a special construction project at the Bread of Life, which is really cool. He had track practice, Advanced PE and lifted all week at the YMCA. He got his birthday present early this week, due to an accident at the gym and enjoyed spending time with his buddies, running around in and out of town. Ann had another busy week at work and enjoyed spending a little time with her friends this week, doing what she loves – scrapbooking! I had a fast week again, as work continues to be busy as we continue to slowly return to normal operations. We’re not quite there, but we’re in a lot better position than we were last year at this time – that’s for sure. Due to the freezing temperatures and precipitation, I only managed to log about nine miles and only one round of frisbee golf this week – mainly due to the heavy winds. It was much nicer this weekend, so I sure hope that the weather has finally turned and I can get back out and meet my exercise goal this coming week. Hello again, and welcome back to the Scheu Family Blog.
It was a cold start to the week on Monday morning as the temps dipped all the way down into the teens. We had to let the cars warm up a little longer with all the frost and ice on the windows. I had another long day, working on IT stuff in the morning and touring the local Fire Marshal in the afternoon. I had never experienced such a detailed inspection before…we spent over two and a half hours looking at the building and paperwork. By the time we got done, it was too late to do much with walking, so I debriefed Jim and did some purchasing stuff before calling it a day. Ann was amenable to leaving a little early, so we I picked her up, dropped a package off at the UPS store for Abby and drove on home. It was cool but warm enough for me to get a round of frisbee golf in at the park. The wind was calm, so I tried out one of my golf discs on a few holes with mixed results. I wound up playing a “best ball??? with 3 different discs and threw a 25. I managed to throw it out of bounds once on the island and climbed down in the thicket to retrieve my disc instead of getting the grabber-nabber. I regretted that decision when I came back up full of scratches. I made up for that bogie with a nearly perfect shot on 7, bouncing my tee shot off the front of the basket, missing a hole-in-one by about three inches! When I got home, Luke was hanging out, waiting to meet up with his guys at the Y to work out. I had a package waiting for me there – the latest shipment from the Metallica vinyl club! This one is Blackened 2020 – something the guys did while we were all in lockdown during the spring of 2020. I can’t wait to hear it… I thought it was cool that it was a 12??? single instead of the 7??? ones like last year. It also came with a cool cloth turntable slipmat that is now resting comfortably (and looking cool, I might add…) on my player! Ann threw together a pasta dish for dinner and we watched several shows on the DVR that night. Afterward, Molly came by to do some formal dress “shopping??? in Abby’s closet. That is a favorite pastime for her friends and has been since they were in junior high – LOL. Ann got the nicest email from the ladies in the office. Luke is an office runner in the afternoons and one of the gals said that we should be very proud of how sweet and polite of a young man we’ve raised. We think so too… Ann & I both fell asleep in the living room that evening. Ann was smart – she went to bed when she woke up. Me; I started working on my music collection and wound up getting wired and stayed up until about 2 in the morning before forcing myself to at least go lay down… Here are pictures from Luke’s state track meet at Indiana University last weekend.
Tuesday was a little warmer than yesterday but it was overcast the entire day and super windy. It was another busy day for Ann & I. I found out my main housekeeper had another setback and may be contemplating retirement. She’s been out since Thanksgiving with some health issues and has been in and out of the hospital. Thankfully, our housekeeping service is able to pickup as much as we need. I did our weekly overnight video surveillance rounds and some IT work, including trying to reimage a computer. We have a new process that worked great the last time I used it, but I tried a handful of times and couldn’t get it to go. I started the monthly EOC rounds that afternoon and got a lot further than I thought I would. Ann needed to leave early that afternoon, so I cut my rounds short and walked outside for an hour, logging three miles. I stayed warm for the most part – except my cheeks where my beard should be… I dropped her off at the high school where she and her team facilitated the next After-Prom meeting for a couple hours. I came home in between to do a few things around the house. Luke came home from school/track and grabbed a quick bite to eat. By the time I got back home with Ann, later, he had fallen asleep and I don’t think he got up the rest of the night. Ann made spicy Fireworks popcorn for dinner that night while we watched American Idol and the FBI shows. I turned in early when I started to nod off and Annie wasn’t far behind me that night. We heard from Abby, who may have a touch of sun poisoning after spending a little too much time being kissed by that lovely sunlight on the beach. She and the girls spent the day with Will and the Sig boys (who were only a few minutes up the road this week!). It was Will’s birthday and so they went out to the clubs that night to celebrate…
Wednesday was noticeably warmer as we headed back to Columbus for another wonderful day of work. I have been tired all stinking week again this week. I just can’t seem to shake the haze for whatever reason this year, following the time change. I must be getting old… It was another hectic day. I was hoping to do more EOC rounds but life had other plans for me. I had another computer go down (that’s four in a month now) that morning and had our construction vendor come in to quote a new job – building Justin’s new office. I am in no hurry to complete that project. ? Vic, Justin & I went to lunch at Great Wall then I got to attend a webinar on EQ. About halfway through it, we had a nasty windstorm hit us and tear down part of the siding on the west side of the second floor. Vic & I were able to go up and re-secure it for the night, but I’ll have to call our vendor to come repair it once we can assess the facility tomorrow and determine if there’s any other damage. We received our plan of corrections from the Fire Marshal and I think we got everything done or planned-out and I when I sent it in to their office, they were good with it, so that’s cool. I finally took some time to make a list of the different projects I have going right now. I knew it was a lot, which was stressing me out a bit…thus the need to write them all out and make sure nothing was getting too far away from me. I was surprised to find that on top of my normal work schedule, I had sixteen other special projects out there to do… It was lovely when I went outside to walk after work. It was in the high seventies – but there was that little thing…the wind! Oh man; it was REALLY strong. I actually had windburn on my face when I finished walking that evening. Even when I went to bed that night, my face was still really warm. I logged a 5K before picking up Annie and heading on home. Ann said she spent about 2/3 of her day in meetings – fun! During the commute home, the wind blew our little minivan around quite a bit but we made it home safely. I was hoping to go play a quick round of frisbee golf, but it was just too damn windy. ? Instead, I edited all the pictures and videos for this week’s blog. Ann & I (and Luke when he got home) put up Luke’s senior pictures on the big screen and nailed down our favorites so that she could finally place her order with Farren and get his pix all printed before graduation! Luke said he had a good day at school/practice. He said they took senior banner pictures. Apparently, there was a parent’s meeting after practice that night, but we didn’t make it. Luke said they only discussed needing volunteers for events and concessions. Ann and I agreed that the underclassmen’s parents can handle that detail – we had put in our time and this was our victory lap! ???? Julie had cleaned the house that day and it looked great when we got home! I worked on changing my Fed Ex order to be delivered to Walgreens tomorrow so we can just pick it up on our way home after work. It’s the Cocalero I had ordered. They had an online special for 3 bottles (just so happens they have three different versions) and 3 Cocalero Bomb glasses with free shipping…how could I refuse?! We ordered Pizza Hut for dinner and got caught up on our DVR’d shows. We had avoided severe weather during the day, but as we were heading to bed that night, the wind was picking back up and they were calling storms to hit us overnight. Here are random pictures from our recent adventures.
It was still really windy when we left home on Thursday. We saw a downed power line outside Columbus and Ann said that Sandy was having power issues at the radio station. Thankfully, the intervention that Vic did to the siding last night held and there was no further damage to the building. The wind gusts continued all day and into the night. It was another busy day at work for Ann & I. She had got some good news that day – she’s getting a good raise – yay! My boss informed us that he is looking to grow the business and open another office, just off-campus from us…so that’s exciting. We haven’t had anything off-grounds in about 20 years or so… Justin & I went out for lunch at Culvers, where I enjoyed their walleye and cheese curds! ???? I finished my monthly EOC rounds that afternoon and wrote out work orders for my folks. I was able to do it quickly because I had just done the same rounds with the Fire Marshal earlier this week, so I already had an idea of what condition the old girl was in. I got out a little late that afternoon and found that it was even colder and starting to rain/snow. I considered not walking but then I remembered I also had a Concrete Mixer (with Butterfingers and Heath bars!) so I decided I should go to the mall and at least walk for half an hour, which I did and managed to log a mile and a half. I saw that the Fair Oaks Mall had officially been renamed to Nexus Park. There were only seven stores open (six if you count the two Nirvana stores as the same store). When we got back to town, we picked up a Fed Ex package that we had re-routed to Walgreens. When we got home, I couldn’t wait to open it…it was my shipment of Cocalero. ???? I got three total, including one each of their Classico, Negro and Resident Evil brands – along with 3 shot glasses / Coca-Bomb glasses. It was sent in a carbon-neutral box: the packing peanuts were water-soluble (I simply put them in the sink and ran water over them!) and the plastic and cardboard was all recyclable – cool! I can’t wait to break them open this weekend! Luke was already home when we got there. He went on to the Y and lifted. When he got home, he was pretty frustrated as he had destroyed his phone by dropping a weight on it. We spent a couple hours discussing our plan for his phone while he worked on trying to move to one of our backup phones. In the end, he was able to get partial use of his phone from a couple years ago. It’s not perfect, but it’ll work for tonight and should get him through tomorrow, when we will figure out a more permanent plan for him… We have lots of social media pictures to share this week.
Not only had it rained and sleeted overnight but snowed as well! It was really cold that morning when we fired up old Barney to defrost the windows. As has become the norm, we ran through Dunkin on the way to drop Annie off at her office uptown before I ran a couple errands. I returned to the house to work from home with the dogs. I listed to LPs again as I worked on some finance stuff as well as coordinated repairs to our poor old building’s siding mess. Luke came home from school a little early and we picked up Ann that afternoon and headed over to Columbus. After Luke’s appointment, we stopped by the Verizon store so that Ann could upgrade her phone. The plan was to pass her phone down to Luke until his birthday and get him a new phone. Instead, we wound up getting his birthday present a couple months early…smh… Afterward, we stopped by a store called iMechanic – where Luke was able to repair his old phone. So, now he is selling his old iPhone 11 – in case you know someone who’s looking for a nice used one. ???? We went to Chipotle for lunch then came home. While I went back to work, Ann finished binge-watching Chicago Fire and Luke cleaned-out his car and showered – in preparation of going out that night. He and his buddies met up with some girls from Rushville and went up to Indy to have a fun night at Sky Zone. Ann and hung out at home that night, watching DVR’d shows and trying to stay warm with the dogs and blankets. Luke came home late and then went out to stay the night at Oakley’s house.
We were up before the dawn on Saturday morning. Ann went scrapbooking with Shawna and Rhonda. We loaded up Rhonda’s truck and then I napped on the couch while the girls headed down to Lawrenceburg on their annual trek. I spent the day updating my music collection and then transferring a new batch and my existing library onto a new 512GB card. It took a lot longer than I thought – about six hours! So, to kill the time, I binge-watched most of the current season (# 33!) of The Simpsons on our DVR. Luke went out to the YMCA for his daily workout. Abby began the long trip home from Florida that morning, driving all day long and getting back to campus in the middle of the night. Luke and his buddies went back to Columbus to eat at Chipotle again. I swear he’s gonna turn into a damn burrito! It was a nice day to just do nothin’ all day. I haven’t had one of these in a long time. I did go outside at one point and thought about either playing some frisbee golf, going for a walk in the neighborhood or even mowing the lawn…instead I went back inside and checked in my newest Hot Wheels and watched a few episodes of Rick & Morty – deciding to be lazy all day. I’m sure I won’t get many Saturdays like this the rest of the month because the grass was growing today and by sunset, it looked like it needed mowing already. In fact, our neighbor Jim was the first one out in his lawn this year mowing his grass. We had the lady in the neighborhood behind us mow yesterday as well. I guess it’s about that time, isn’t it? As the evening crept up, dark clouds moved in and it began raining again. Matt went to his buddy’s (Patrick) wedding that day. I am not ready for all of that yet! Ann got home a little sooner than expected and Luke helped me carry in her stuff. We were saddened to hear that Phyllis & Dick’s son had passed away, earlier that day. ? And as one life ended, another began as I had earlier heard the news that Rob & Sharon’s granddaughter had given birth and now Robby is a great-grandfather! Wow!! Luke got home late with some friends and then went to workout at the YMCA before heading out to Oakley’s house, where they spent the night. Ann & I enjoyed catching up for a bit then fell asleep watching TV. Here are pictures of recent additions to my Hot Wheels collection.
Ann got up with the dogs, allowing me to sleep in on Sunday morning. I slowly got around to doing our weekly household chores and watched a few shows, including a great SNL that tapes last night. The 1997 episode was hosted by Pamela Anderson with Rollins Band performing. I had forgotten how talented that cast was! Ann made us lunch and we watched a couple DVR’d shows until she fell asleep and napped all afternoon. After Luke & I watched The Dirt (the Motley Crue story) last night, it was only fitting that I wrapped up watching the rest of the Pam & Tommy show on Hulu. I binge-watched the rest of Star Trek Discovery season 4 on Paramount +. Luke came home for a little while then grabbed the shop vac and went out to detail another vehicle with his buddy Blake. He came back several hours later, exhausted. He ate, showered and went to his room to put away his clothes and wound up playing on his new phone for hours – LOL. I napped on and off as I put the finishing touches on my phone’s music collection and worked on the blog, writing out this week’s html code and finishing up today’s entry. Ann made us cheesy Fireworks popcorn for dinner and we watched the new episode of Outlander on Starz. Afterward, we watched Blue Bloods and American Idol. It was a great way to wind down the weekend and a relaxing way to wrap up another fast week before we turn around and do it all again in the morning…
Next up is our Waybac section, which continues to include the batch of pictures from Aunt Sue. We lead off this time in what I assume is the mid-1940s where we see what I think is Granny with Sue & Chuck; then we fast-forward all the way into the 1970s: Jan ’70 we see Granny opening birthday presents, April ’70 we have a series of pictures of Billy’s First Communion Day (age 7) with Granny, Dad and me with Bill; June ’70 we have another picture of Dad, Mom, me, Mary, Sally & Granny at McCormick’s Creek State Park Hotel on June 21st; Jan ’75 we are at the 9th St house where I think Sally was staying at the time – I See Chris & I as well as a couple kids I don’t recognize (maybe one is Kimmy?); Mar ’77 we have more pictures of Kimmy’s 4th birthday at Granny’s home on 9th St with Granny, Kimmy, Jackie, Charlie Giese as well as Jason upstairs in bed; in the 1980s we see a school pic of me in 6th grade in LaPorte at age 12 in Sep ’80 and Jason’s 9th grade school pic in Sep ’87; and then in 1990s: Jason & Erica’s Senior Prom night at Jeff on May 17 of ’91, Thanksgiving Day at Sally’s in ’92 with a good chuck of the fam, including little Haley & Ryan with Grandma; Haley at Christmas in Dec ’92 and then a sweet picture of Haley & Ryan in ’92.
Next up is our video segment which includes 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 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