Sometimes it's a shit show; sometimes it's a bouquet

There are peaks and valleys in life, my friends, and these past weeks, TeamReed forged a path so jagged-y, it might be close to a record. Our longest summer ever finally came to a close as Ali went back to Purdue.

She'd mentioned recently that this summer seemed longer than others. "That's because it started in March," I reminded her. Purdue had gone online after Spring Break, giving us almost five months of free time with her. 

We tried to make the most of that bonus time, and last weekend, we jumped in the Subaru for an impromptu day trip where Ali was going to show us around Dunes State Park. Upon learning we were heading his direction, our good friend Clay Miller suggested that instead of exploring a public beach on the shores of Lake Michigan where crowds might be of concern, we could visit his strip of private beach instead. 

That's Baxter bottom right. He's a very good dog.

If you're on Facebook, you maybe know of the music lessons I received while Ali and Jeff were in charge of the radio for the road trip. Suffice it to say, it was a fun drive and a really special visit.

We got in a long family bike ride and agreed that the Fall Creek trail is now our favorite. 

We stopped in to what we'll always call the Indianapolis Museum of Art (rather than its new name, Newfields) to see the Edward Hopper exhibit. Ali made sure to have some alone time us both -- onion soup at Petite Chou with me and some couch reading and watching bad TV, and watching anime with Jeff downstairs.

Those are over-sized paint brush strokes in the background.
Ali thought they were bacon.

We also held our second annual Girls' Night featuring Ali and Jenna before they go back to college - Ali to Purdue and Jenna to USI. We were having a grand time until the Captain came outside to announce there was a toilet issue. Slightly annoyed that'd he'd interrupted us, I reminded him of our maintenance plan with Service Plus. 

I probably rolled my eyes in the semi-darkness and definitely said, "Call the plumber." To make a gross story short, I didn't understand the seriousness of the situation. Our basement shower had a sewage slick on its formerly white floor, and the two basement floor drains were also oozing with smelly slime.

Jeff had shop-vacuumed the biggest part of the water and had a momentary bought of insanity when he thought we could (together) get it up the stairs and dispose of it. I knew that both the stair carpeting and yours truly would be drenched in the water and its floaty bits. 

I opted for dipping out the water into a bucket and making 8,000 trips to the backyard while Jeff kept searching for a plumber. But no plumber in the city seemed eager to come out to our house as the dead of night approached. 

The sewer situation cleared out the party pretty fast. Despite the situation, Jenna ended up staying over, happy to pee in the yard while Jeff and I dealt with the basement. It's fixed now - at least temporarily. It's the price you pay for an old house surrounded with huge trees whose roots infiltrate the pipes. 

Later, I was talking with Ali about how it came to be that I cleaned up the floor and transported the water while the Captain handled more administrative details. Her response: "It’s like you use your country skills and go skin the moose or whatnot and he cooks it up."

Hmmm.

Back on a high note, note, the plumber who did agree to come help us - Scott Engle - grew up across the street from us. "Yeah, I know you guys. It was my dad who rescued your little girl when she got stuck in the tree in your front yard." 

Revisit that memory here. When I think of her stuck in that tree, I remember her about four-years-old wearing Dora the Explore panties and a sheer netting skirt, but according to the TeamReed blog, it was fall and she was seven. I must have been able to get her down on my own the other time.

Anyway, now we have two generations of Engles-to-the-rescue. Sorry there are no pictures of our 2020 disaster. Actually: you're welcome for that.

Two days later, the sewage situation was well in hand and we were en route to Lafayette with the Subaru loaded to the gills. We are, of course, still in the midst of a pandemic, and we are all a bit nervous about the level of exposure Ali will face. She could have continued to hole up here and done many classes online but she wanted to get back for more than a few reasons.

"It's a STEM school. People will be smart and safe," she said.

Not 30 minutes into the drive to Lafayette she got a text from a club she's in about 20+ Boilermakers who'd just been suspended for violating the Purdue pledge by partying, mask-less and in too large a group. 

We continued on, chatting about how you'd tell your parents that you've been kicked out of school before it even starts. We helped her unpack, but had to rush back without a planned shopping trip as Jeff had a commitment back home. 

It was back to work Friday, but I still found time to hack away at some overgrown bushes before spending some time in the hammock. It also became clear that I'm kind of overrun with Black-eyed Susans this year.  

My side of the fence is all sunny Susans; Lois' side has more variety

 Black-eyed Susans may be my spirit flower: They make the most of the situation they find themselves in and are wicked hard to kill; they tend to take over, given a bit of ground; they are long-lasting bursts of happy, with just a drop of darkness. 

Hit me up if  you want some of them. I'll happily make space for some additional variety out there. I'm sure my neighbors will enjoy a more greater array of backyard color.

Saturday brought my birthday, and the Tokashes were kind enough to throw me a socially distanced party in their back yard. More accurately, it was their annual Indy 500 race party.

For you non-Indy dwellers, the race is usually in May but was moved due to the pandemic. Hence, Amy's race party was moved and also trimmed down. I just double-dipped. 

This morning, I cashed in a massage that had been a Christmas gift but had been delayed - again by the pandemic. Later on, we'll go see Ali and have a birthday dinner and that shopping trip.

I mentioned it had been a peak-and-valley few weeks. In that time period, friends of ours suffered deaths in their families; one of my favorite co-workers resigned to start an exciting new venture; I ended a contract that went on longer than expected but was super fun; I am about to replace it with an even more fun project, and I heard from dozens of wonderful friends and family who made note of my birthday.  

And, the day after I was wiping up human waste from my basement floor, my team (and that teammate I mentioned above) and I won a PRSA award for work we'd done together. 

Life, right? Hope you have more peaks and less deep valleys as we muddle through the rest of this year.