We’ve had another fast week speed past us since we last touched base. The crazy Indiana weather was at it again. Honestly, we should have predicted it would be cold as winter again this week. Mom always said that March would come in like a lion and go out like a lamb…or vice versa. It had definitely been vice versa for us this year. We’ve had severe weather warnings, temps below freezing and it even snowed this weekend! It was a week for travelling – that’s for sure. Matt took a short flight out west, to see Joel in Arizona for a few days. It was great to see him for a little while this weekend. Abby had a long week of big tests then drove down to Florida with her friends this weekend. We missed seeing her this week. Luke had a full week of school, track practices and workouts at the YMCA. The big news of the week was that he qualified for the indoor track State Finals! We enjoyed watching him compete…but how well would he do? Ann had a busy week at work again and got to spend a little time with her friends. My week was similar to hers, with work being crazy but enjoying a little time with my buddies. I only managed to log about nine miles and unfortunately only got to play two rounds of frisbee golf due to the weather. Purdue completed their epic collapse this year by losing in the Sweet Sixteen round to a #15 seed. After that loss, I didn’t watch another basketball game. I don’t even care anymore…my bracket is busted, I’m out the money I had in the pot, we’re losing our best player and we’re just left to wonder what might’ve been… I’m ready for football season to start! Hello again and welcome to the latest installment of the Scheu Family Blog.
It was back to work and school for the kids and us on Monday morning. It was Matt’s 26th birthday that day. Although I didn’t talk with him, we did text a little. Luke struggled that morning, but he made it to school on time somehow. I was tired all day, yawning most of it myself. I was still walking on sunshine after the big Purdue victory the night before. It was a very fast day, filled with paperwork and meetings in the morning and IT stuff all afternoon. The boys and I were able to get away for a nice lunch at Riviera Maya. Mine was (mostly) free, as I had filled my loyalty card and reaped the rewards with some street tacos. Ann had to work up front all day – in fact, she didn’t even plug her computer in because she never made it into her office. That meant her day was equally busy. I got out a little late and only logged two and a half miles of walking. But man was it nice outside that afternoon! It was in the 70s with a slight breeze. I went over to get Ann, but she was even later than I was. I talked with Andy, who was waiting on Judy. We talked for about a half hour before the girls finally emerged. He works on the side as a referee / umpire for football, basketball and softball – something Matt talked about doing to make a little extra dough on the side. I went out to the park that evening and got in a round of frisbee golf. I shot a 3-under-par 24. Luke had a long day of school then went to track practice and then on to the Y to workout. He talked with us for a few minutes when he got home before making himself dinner, grabbing a shower and calling it a night. Ann watched a few episodes of Chicago Fire before she made us grilled cheese for dinner while we watched American Idol. We had some leftover cake & ice cream while watching the newest episode of Outlander. She fell asleep during the Equalizer and when she went to bed, I finished watching the NASCAR cup race from Atlanta before heading on to bed… Here are pictures from Matt’s birthday party last weekend.
We woke up to a rainy Tuesday morning. In fact, it was still sprinkling when I pulled in at home that evening. We had some low-level flooding around the area from all the precip. Justin & I had a new-hire orientation class, first thing that morning. Kudos to him for helping finish the class when Xerox showed up to start moving the old copiers out of the way before the new ones arrived. We unloaded the freight in the rain…and it didn’t even matter. We’ve been waiting six years for those puppies, so a little moisture wasn’t gonna keep us from enjoying that day. It’s been a lot of hard work and a long time coming. Today was a good day. It was hectic and it was busy, but it was soooo worth it! Even as I write this now, I’m still a little in disbelief that we actually pulled it off… As with anything, there’s always something that goes wrong. The installation of our new copier fleet was no different. I spent the last couple hours of my day troubleshooting issues and finding solutions. I didn’t get to everyone, but we were in pretty good shape when I got done…but, I had missed my window of opportunity to go walking as well. I picked up Ann and headed back to town. I dropped her off in Burney so she could do some stuff with her friends and they brought her home later. Meanwhile, Luke went to school and track practice. He worked out at the Y and then picked up dinner for us at Subway that night. It was too wet to throw frisbee golf at the park, so I hung out with the dogs and watched the last couple episodes of The Walking Dead. Matt received a wonderful gift from Taylor – a plane ticket to Arizona to spend the week with Joel! When Annie got home, she grabbed something to eat and then we watched the final round of auditions on American Idol. Abby said she and Will aced the big Finance exam they were so worried about over the weekend. It was the reason they didn’t come down the night before (so they could study) – looks like it paid off in spades!! And then there was the icing on the cake – she was asked to join Delta Mu Delta – a business Honor Society! Wow!! Way to go, Bu! She took her Senior Comps that night. It took her a couple hours that evening… Here are pictures of Luke’s track meet at UIndy last week.
It was still raining when we got up on Wednesday morning. We had a busy day at work again. It was a fast morning and then we turned around and went to see Jami for our monthly haircuts. I picked up the guys and we went out for lunch at Steak ‘n Shake, which had recently re-opened their dining room finally. It’s been a drive-thru only since Covid hit in 2020. What they had to do was open without servers. So, you go in and order your food and pay from a kiosk and then wait for your number to be called. There’s a self-serve drink station as well, so it’s no longer a restaurant…it’s a workaurant (that was their old ad, pre-Covid) now – LOL! That afternoon, Justin & I worked on our 2022 EOP (emergency operations plan) and got it completed just before it was time to leave. It rained on and off all day and was still coming down as I got out of work, but I could see blue skies behind the dark clouds and decided to wait it out a few minutes. Sure enough; it blew over and the sun popped out! It was really breezy but it was perfect for a fat, hairy guy to go walking. ???? Ann & I spent the ride home catching up on each other’s day. I dropped her off at home and went out to play a round of frisbee golf at the park. It was windy as hell. I really shouldn’t have kept score. It was like 30, I think – easily my worst score of the year. Luke was still home when I got there. He had just gotten home from school and track practice. He grabbed something to eat and went out to the Y to lift again. Abs texted us and said that she had passed her Senior Comps!! Yay Bu!! Bryan texted me, inviting me out to band practice to have a cocktail and celebrate his birthday a day early. I stopped by the liquor store and picked up a bottle of bourbon for his gift on my way out to the Sunken Boat Bar. We stayed in the studio room the whole night – out in their fancy garage (“the building??? – as he calls it). Konk & I enjoyed watching Bryan and Rob practice for several hours. Of course, they played a couple of our favorites but also had several new songs, including a demo that Rob did about a veteran coming home from war. It was really cool. We enjoyed a few Jerry Loves Ginger cocktails and had fun talking music and catching up a little while celebrating Bryan’s 51st birthday. Here are random pictures from our recent adventures.
I struggled to get out of bed on Thursday. In fact, I accidentally turned off my alarm and got up late. We somehow made it to work on time that morning, but it was a little rough at first. It turned out to be a good day, but it was another busy one. We still had printing issues with our new copiers, so our Xerox tech stopped by again to help us find solutions. By the time we finished, I had missed lunch. Thankfully, Justin brought back some house special fried rice from Yee Kee and I ate it while we started our monthly marathon meeting day that afternoon. I continued working on IT issues (we have had a rash of them lately) and got out late that afternoon. I did manage to walk a mile real quick, out in the cold. It had finally stopped raining, but it left us about twenty degrees cooler than when the week started. It was not only colder but even windier than yesterday. As much as I wanted to, there was no way I could play a round of frisbee golf that night. Instead, we came on home and got warm with the dogs and blankets. I was hoping to knock out some photo editing that night, but I fell asleep shortly after dark. I was already asleep by the time Luke got home from the YMCA, after his workout. We did get in a couple of DVR’d shows, but I never made it through the third – LOL. I went on to bed and Ann enjoyed binge-watching more Chicago Fire. Meanwhile, Matt returned from Arizona that evening. I’m sure he had a great time with Joel and we’re looking forward to seeing him this weekend in Bloomington.
It was still cold as hell on Friday morning. I slept like a baby overnight and felt refreshed for the first time all week. It has been a tough adjustment for my old body during this time change when we “sprang ahead??? for DST. I hear the government is considering doing away with DST and just keeping us on this time that we’re on now. I was surprised when Luke came walking through the door. Apparently, he spent the night out with Oak to do have a guy talk. I dropped Ann off at her downtown office after getting Dunkin then ran a couple errands before heading back to work from home that morning. I got everything done that I brought home then picked up Ann and came home. I enjoyed listening to a few new records I’ve picked up over the last couple months on the new turntable Ann got me last year as I finished up work. I forgot how much I enjoyed playing vinyl…but the used records I picked up left a little to be desired. They sounded like my old records – staticky and scratched – LOL! That afternoon, Ann napped as she read and watched Chicago Fire while I edited pictures. Ann facilitated an After-Prom meeting at the high school while I napped and caught up on some DVR’d shows that she doesn’t like (i.e., South Park, Family Guy & Robot Chicken). When she got home, we watched a couple shows then turned on the Purdue game. They were facing a team out of New Jersey that I’ve never heard of called St. Peter’s. The Peacocks are the Cinderella team this year and came to play. They had a good game plan against Purdue. I was really impressed with the intensity of their defense. It was close the entire game with no team having any more than a five- or six-point lead at any given time. Ivey made a big bucket towards the end of the game (otherwise had a subpar game) and then had a good look at a long three-pointer at the end of the game that would’ve sent it to OT, but it bounced on the rim twice and then fell off…ending the Boiler’s season and their best shot at making the Final Four since Painter was a player. Their triple failure is now complete as they blew the Big Ten league championship, the Bit Ten tourney championship and now they’ve fallen short of the Final Four. I feel bad for the seniors. They should’ve won the trifecta. Ivey really hasn’t played up to his potential for the last month or so… I wrote out this week’s html code as we relaxed and watched a few DVR’d shows. Luke came home and was a little nervous about tomorrow – I would’ve been even worse than him. He announced that he had a date for prom. It is his friend Sophie Nobbe. He was about as romantic about it as I am. He just said to her, “So we doing this prom thing or what???? ???? LOL…and she said yes! Ha! He wound up turning in early since he has to be up before the dawn in the morning. It rained on and off that evening and we even had a severe thunderstorm warning late that evening. It remained cold – in the 40s – all day and eventually got down below freezing after the storm passed through town. We have lots of social media pictures to share this week.
We were up early on Saturday morning. Luke was the first one out the door so he could catch the bus to Bloomington. Ann & I were about an hour behind him. We went out to the movie theater to meet up with Gigi and swap vehicles. It was very kind of her to offer the use of the Escape. We went to the wrong building originally, but quickly figured it out…that’s why we leave a little early so that we can easily recover and still have plenty of time to figure out where we needed to be. It was a very busy place! It was a little too small for the event as we were pretty cramped and it was very difficult to navigate through the hordes of people. Matt & Taylor joined us shortly afterward. The girls sat on the bleachers, which was good for their legs and back. However, once the event started, dozens of big guys stood right in front of them. Matt and I walked around to the other side and were able to have a clear view of Luke and the other kids. We had to go stand over there while the girls were throwing (they went first and then the boys followed), just so we would have that position when the boys had their turn. It went relatively fast – aided in part by the cool electronic tape measure that used a laser instead of a physical tape – very cool! Luke threw in the first flight and held his own. He came in ranked 21st in the state. He thew PRs (personal records) on each of his three throws – including one that wound up being a scratch. His best throw was 45’ 7 ¼???. It was good enough for 15th in the state. He just barely missed the top ten, as there were several kids separated by mere inches. One kid set a new record that day! We were so proud of Lucas. Having only been doing this for a couple weeks now, it’s fun to see him set new PRs at each event. We can’t wait to see what the outdoor track season brings! C’mon fifty feet!! We thanked Coach Jackson and went out for lunch. We wound up downtown at Bub’s Burgers. Luke & I did the burger challenge called The Big Ugly. I had done this challenge a few years ago with Justin and got our picture up on the wall. Ann’s burger was really good, too – the Creole burger. Matt backed-out of the challenge because he had plans to go with Taylor to have dinner with her folks that night. That was a good call because Luke & I not only beat the challenge and got our picture on the wall, but neither of us ate the rest of the night because we were so full! We found Justin & I’s picture on the wall before we left then said out goodbyes and took Luke with us while Matt & Tay went on home. We headed back and wound up stopping a few places in Brown County. The first stop was one that Ann & I talked about earlier – stopping at the Chocolate Moose for ice cream. Luke had the soft serve while Ann & I got waffle cones – she stuck with the house special, the Moose Dream, while went with one scoop of that but also a scoop of the Frosted Animal Cracker. It was amazing… We stopped again in Gnaw Bone at an antiques mall (where I found a couple Hot Wheels and a few 45 records. Next, we stopped at Ann’s friend’s shop, just a few hundred feet down the road called Marie’s Home Décor & Country Store. She picked up a few items. Luke was a good sport about it and didn’t complain too much. We dropped Luke off at the school and then we filled up the Escape and I dropped Ann off at home. I went over to Mom & Sandy’s house to swap cars and hook the Crossfire to the battery charger and played on the floor with Olive for a while. Luke went to work out at the YMCA then spent the night out at Drew’s house. Ann & I watched a couple DVR’d shows and fell asleep fairly early. We heard from Abby throughout the night, as she and her friends made their way down to Florida for Spring Break. Here are pictures of recent additions to my Hot Wheels collection.
I was hoping to sleep in on Sunday morning, but Lola decided that she wanted to go outside, so I got up with the dogs and did a couple things around the house. I watched the races I taped yesterday and worked on the blog. I picked up some new music on Bandcamp and finally renewed my subscription to Ripple Music – my new favorite label. When Ann got up, she made some muffins and I did our weekly household chores. Luke came home to change then went immediately back out to go detail a car with his buddy Blake. Abby made it safely to Florida. She is staying near Ft. Lauderdale, by Pompano Beach. I can’t wait to see all the pictures of the beach and boats! We watched a couple DVR’d shows then when Ann took a long nap, I began binge-watching a show on Disney + called Parallels. I almost turned it off during the first episode, but it got better with each one and before I knew it, I had watched the entire season! Afterward, I turned on the NASCAR races from COTA – I love road courses…and this one had a great ending as three cards wrecked into each other to determine the winner. That night, Ann made cheesy Fireworks popcorn and we watched the next episode of Outlander while Luke went to the Y to lift. It was a relaxing way to wind down the weekend and a great way to put the kibosh on another week.
Next up is our Waybac segment which continues to feature that big set of pix from Aunt Sue. Speaking of which, thanks to Aunt Sue for helping me out with a date for a few pictures this week! We lead off going way, way back to the late 1910s for a picture of Granny Scheu when she was a little girl, circa 1918 or so as well as a another oldie – I’m unsure of what we’re seeing here, but if I had to guess, it’s Granny as a little girl again…this time with her family after picking apples, circa early 1920s; then we fast-forward to dates we’re a little clearer on: 1944-ish we see Aunt Sue outside, running around at the 9th St. home; in Feb. 1952 we see Uncle Chuck with his teammates Kenny Seeger, Jack Lowery, Jack Tilton & Jim Schmidt when they were on the Tecumseh champs; next we have another unknown picture…I’m guessing from the 1960s, but I’m not sure I recognize anyone – maybe Aunt Mary in the front row? Staying in the 60s, we have a pair of good ones with the Funkhouser kids in Nov 1964 and Aug 1965; then Mary’s Confirmation Day with some pix at the Highland home – first with Mary, Dad & I and then Mary with Vicki, Billy & Jackie. Next we move on to the 70s: Vicki & Grann7 at McCormick’s Creek State Park in June 1970; Christmas at Granny’s house on Highland: Cathy & Chris and then Cathy, David, Mary & Barney – classic pictures that I don’t have many of from this time period… then we have a pair of school pictures from Vicki in the mid-seventies and then a pair of Kimmy and her puppy when they first moved back to Lafayette and lived just a couple blocks away from Mom & I in 1977; and then a school picture of me from out in California in 1979 when I was 10 at James Madison Elementary in Temple City. And then we move on to the 80s where we see a young Lindsay with Barney, out at Dad & Barb’s house on Christmas in Dec 1989, along with a great trio of pix from Vick’s wedding in 1989 and then we wrap up with a pic of baby Zak at six months old in April 1995. What a fun batch of pictures this week!
We actually had an entry this week for the Shit that Luke says segment…but as always, I forgot to write it down again! ?
And finally, we have our video section where we have 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 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