Christmas suprise

Christmas Eve began for Lori and me at Marion County Criminal Court 3.  We got there about 9am and waited for the hearing to begin at 10am.  We came to see the three accused of blowing up our neighborhood and represent the neighborhood. The hearings were formalities, but being able to see those three and have them see us was what drew us there.  The best part for me was that I was able to leave afterward. The three accused had to go back to jail.  They will be there until their trial which may not be for a year. Good.

Dion and Jen Longworth's families were there too.  After the hearings the media was outside the courtroom and descended upon us as we left. I saw Derrik Thomas from Channel 6 and he asked me a question. He has been at Channel 6 forever and I remember seeing him report on everything important that happened in Indianapolis and was a little starstruck. I answered his question and looked up to see about 4 cameras and microphones in my face. I was asked why I was there, what I hoped to see, my thoughts on a possible death penalty, if I was representing the Longworths, if my house was destroyed, and my thoughts on all the charges, to name a few. I wasn't looking to be on TV, I was caught up in talking to Derrik Thomas.

I was also glad to see the Deputy Prosecutor, Denise Robinson. Her demeanor and seriousness is very comforting. I know she will work as hard as necessary to get the convictions. I heard her interview and was able to chat briefly with her afterward. She told us that her office will be in touch soon to be sure they had all of our contact information correct. Lori introduced us as "Count 18" and she thought that was funny.

Christmas Eve is always fun for us.  My parents and Grandma have an open house that evening. There is always tons of great food and lots of fun people. I really look forward to it. This year it is one thing that has not changed after the explosion. The open house was great as expected.  We came back to the house and went to bed after getting ready for Christmas morning.

On Christmas morning everyone comes to our house.  This Christmas morning had different surroundings. New house, unfamiliar kitchen to cook breakfast, and  barely enough chairs to hold everyone made the morning different.  We ate and then the girls opened their presents.  The highlight came when they found out that we are going on a cruise next week. We are taking a cruise to the western Caribbean and leave on Saturday.  The girls had no idea - Lori and I were so excited to tell them and their reaction was awesome.  I told Lori that we were going on a cruise over break and she was a bit hesitant to agree. I said she should quit thinking of why we can't go and we can figure out how we are going to make it happen. Lori went to Knightstown to get our documents and as many summer clothes as she could get.  Last night we shopped online to get the clothes we could not find in Knightstown.  Overnight delivery is a good thing.  That is until I looked outside this morning and saw about 6" or more of snow.  Can the Fed Ex or UPS guy get through the snow to get our stuff here in time? Let's hope so.  To say we are excited to go on the cruise is a complete understatement.

We are snowed in today. The girls got some movies for Christmas and I think they will be watching them. I think I will shovel the driveway. Lori thought to buy me a shovel last week.  Thanks a lot, Lori. She should have brought my snowblower from Knightstown... 

Count #18

I got a text from Lori about 10:30 am Friday while my Government students were taking their final exam.  It said that the Prosecutor was going to announce arrests and charges against the people accused of creating the explosion.  I was not expecting to hear that news. I was not able to watch the press conference, but read about it online and could not believe what I was reading. I was honestly unable to comprehend what those people are accused of having done to collect $300,000 and change. What was most difficult to believe is that they actually thought they'd get away with it. Idiots. I won't go into detail describing their "plan", the news media has done a great job of dissecting it, but I will link to probable cause affidavit and list of charges.  Here is the link to the charges and the affidavit. The police seem to have the goods on the people they are charging. The affidavit is good reading, almost like a real-life TV show. You will laugh at the bumbling conduct of the Leonard boys and get angry at their hubris. The thing that makes it real is Count XVIII:

Hell no I did not give my consent to those knuckleheads! The fact that Lori and I are named as State's Witnesses comes later in the document.  Wow. Will we have to testify? I don't know and I doubt it.

The initial hearing is Monday morning.  I think I might go.  I want to see them before a judge and hear the charges read to them. I want to sit there and hopefully see me and my neighbors and know that what they are accused of doing affected others. (the evidence against them seems complete but we Americans do believe in innocence until proven guilty, darn it)

I have already been asked many times by friends and acquaintances what I am feeling about the charges.  I am angry, frustrated, incredulous, confused, and every other emotion you got. Providing all accusations are true, I am angry that greed caused two deaths and countless suffering for so many. I am frustrated that their stupidity and arrogance caused this to happen. I am incredulous that they actually thought it would work and bragged to others about the money they will be getting. A Ferrari on Craigslist? Hahahaha!! I am confused as to what will happen to Moncy's daughter. She is 13 and innocent of all things connected to this. My heart is breaking for her. It has been ever since the first time we were able to visit our house and I saw some singed school papers and achievement certificates with her name on them laying in our back yard. I saw half burned clothes in our front yard that had to be hers. She is another victim in this mess.

This is becoming like a wound that is trying to heal and then the scab gets torn off.  I was getting used to the explosion being in the background and moving toward the next step. After the charges are now filed and arrests made it is in the front again.  I have had calls from the media looking for a comment. We had a meeting for the neighborhood and had to leave a different way to avoid TV cameras. I know people care and want to know what is happening, but enough is enough. I can't speak for all the people in the neighborhood, but I think we are ready for normalcy and the chance to figure out what the heck we are doing next. I am elated the police and the prosecutor are getting to the bottom of this and will continue to work incredibly hard to get a conviction, but I am also ready for this to be over. It could be up to a year before the trial even starts.

The Star's website posted some more pictures of the neighborhood. Here are some of them. Here are the 49 felony counts described in the court document:

All of this to get a Ferrari from Craigslist. All of this to pay off some gambling debt. All of this for selfishness. No thought of anybody else or what could happen as a result of their stupid plan. I would love to talk to them and ask them just what the Hell they were thinking. All of those felony charges add up over a hundred years in prison if convicted. That would be a good start. Lots of time to think about the consequences of their actions.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Christmas Break has started and it will be the best break ever for the Crosley family.  God Bless.

Christmas Break, please hurry!

It's finals week at Roncalli and the stress is in the air. No stress for me anymore; my stress was getting them ready. Molly is experiencing the joys of the week and has worked pretty hard to get good scores. I know she is looking forward to Christmas Break and the laziness that goes along with that.  I would be dishonest if I said I was not looking forward to some laziness too.

Our claim adjustor told Lori today that he will not be meeting with his superiors tomorrow to review our claim as scheduled.  Turns out his boss' boss (?) will not be available tomorrow and they can't function without that exalted personage present. He says they will meet on the 26th to review the claim.  Hey, that's the day after Christmas. I bet they all show up to work that day.  Or not.

That is incredibly frustrating because we already have made one mortgage payment on a house that is in a landfill and might have to look at paying January too.  We requested the payoff amount from the mortgage company to give the insurance company to see what we need to settle the mortgage and it is only good for December.  If this drags on then we have to get another amount and send that in.  It would be nice to get some closure on the house claim to know where we stand in terms of paying off the mortgage.  Not to mention start looking for a new house.

New house. We are slowly getting acquainted to this house. I say acquainted because I don't think I will ever feel like this is "home". It's a place we live until we move. There are many positive aspects to this place and that is what I have been saying when people ask "How's the rental house?"  Some of the negative parts are the horrible garage door opener and the things we are still missing. Here are a few in no real order: the down comforter from our bed, Lori's Ugg boots, Betsy's blanket she has had since birth (which we have not seen at all since the explosion), the extra fridge in the garage, our kitchen appliances and tools, the pictures we had on the wall and on shelves, my books, Molly's books, our neighbors in Richmond Hill, my Steelers gear (sorry Steeler Nation, that loss Sunday to the stinkin' Cowboys might be my fault), our clothes in general and many others.

Our restoration man (who has not received payment from the insurance company yet) says he can get us our clothes this week. We don't have room for them all. Lori is going to Knightstown this Thursday to get them if her schedule works out. He wants to deliver them to us, but we can't tell him what we want. We also may get some other things. Hard to tell what is ready for us to pick out and bring back.

In summary, we are still waiting on something. Christmas Break. The house claim. Getting some of our stuff.

So we wait.  What else can we do?

Holding steady

We heard from the insurance company and now know that he will be meeting with the major claim manager on Wednesday to get our settlement approved.  We are looking forward to seeing that step completed so we can look to finding a permanent place to live and begin to replace what was lost. 

Knowing what needs to be replaced will be the next step. The restoration company and the inventory service will compile a report and let us know what is deemed lost. We will at some later date be able to go through the things considered 'lost' and determine what we want to keep and try to repair.  That will be a big task. After seeing it all in the storage classroom we realized we have a LOT of junk.  There may be a garage sale and large donation pile sometime in 2013.

On Wednesday, Southport Presbyterian Church hosted a cookie making party for my neighborhood. (Even though I don't live there anymore I still call it my neighborhood because we did not choose to leave. Someone else made that decision for us.) Lori and the girls went.

Molly and Lori mixing it up

Serious cooking

They brought back lots of cookies - they are really tasty.  The girls (all three of 'em) had a great time and had fun seeing the neighbors again.

I was told that all of the extra cookies were taken to the firehouse near our neighborhood that first responded to the explosion and did so much great work to control the chaos.  They were happy to have them and I know we are happy to give them a small token of our thanks.

Now begins the picture dump.

This is what our lot looks like now.

Here is a collage of the pictures of the house being built. Yes, those small girls are Molly and Betsy.  The pictures on the top left are the girls standing in the unfinished shower pretending to wash up.  The picture next to it is them looking out the window in the master bedroom.  The picture in the middle is the view from that window showing no houses south of us.  Soon enough, those lots will be empty again.

Betsy invited two of her friends to spend the night last weekend.  Usually they would all sprawl out on the couches and floor downstairs of the old house. In the new house they had to make do in Betsy's room.  Lori snuck in and took this while they were all asleep. I don't think Betsy knows this picture exists and I can predict her reaction when she sees it.

Have a great weekend!

Visiting our things, and continuing to wait...

Today we got to see our stuff.  Our contractor is based in Knightstown.  It is about a 45 minute drive from our place.  He has bought an old elementary school to use as storage and a place to train others to restore fire and flood damaged goods.  Our things fill two classrooms.  Room one was full of things that have been determined to be damaged and not able to be salvaged.  Here is a panorama view picture of that room:

It was a little dark in the room but the amount of things that were damaged was overwhelming.  Wow.  Every piece of furniture you see here is either broken, cracked, water damaged (either from the basement flood or the fire hoses or weather or the two toilets that leaked all night), or deeply scratched.  All of the 'soft' furniture (beds, couches, etc.) was either covered in insulation or glass and therefore ruined.  Some of it we could try to fix up, maybe.  Most of it was trashed.  I did not take a picture of the room that had the wet books and pictures from the basement.  That was tough to see.  Lori and I were able to go through the Christmas decorations and happily, many were just wet and not ruined. 

The next room was things that had not been cataloged or had been cataloged and not moved to another room yet.  This room was big and FULL of things.  Here is another panorama:

The boxes in the back were full of things not yet opened and cataloged.  There were about 30-40 of them.  All of the junk in the garage was in here, some furniture, shelving from the basement, the ironing board and the beer fridge from the garage.  The beer had been removed and the men who were with us said they had no clue where it could have gone.  They seemed to be serious about not knowing, but I hope they have it in their beer fridge.  They have earned it with the careful and respectful way they have treated us and all of our junk.  I could not be happier with the way these men and the whole restoration company has worked with and for us.  If you look carefully, you can see Kevin and Kenny in the picture above.

What about the clothes?  About three-fourths has been laundered and is in the main shop.  The rest remains in bags laying in the second room:

 

We had hoped to get some clothes to take home, but it was really not convenient to go through the clean pile.  We were looking to get some coats and other shoes at least.  Since this was not possible as of yet, the claims adjuster told us to go buy new coats and shoes and keep the receipts.  So we did just that tonight. Since I have been wearing the same two pairs of shoes for about a month, I was glad to get a new pair.  About two weeks ago, I bought some black pants for school.  I forgot that the only pair of shoes I had were brown. I am certainly no fashion expert, but I don't think my brown shoes would look very good with black pants.  I can now wear the black pants and give the khaki ones a rest for a while. As I type this, I thought that I need to iron those pants.  Do we have an iron in the rental package?  I think I saw one.

One thing we did bring back to Indy:

 

The giant TV we bought about ten months ago.  The room it's in is so small it looks like the Patriots played the Texans in our living room tonight!

We should meet with the claims adjustor this week about the settlement for the house and the things we lost.  We have a mortgage payment due soon on a house that no longer exists. Hopefully we can get this claim settled soon.  That's one more thing we are waiting on...

Thank you WZPL and the Kennedy family!

Last week my family received a Christmas tree, decorations and a gift card to Walmart.  We were nominated by the family of former students who live near to where we used to and WZPL (a local radio station that I, honestly, haven't listened to regularly since at least the '80s) chose us to receive the gifts.  Dave Smiley and his crew came to Roncalli and presented it to us. I did not expect to see him in a Santa suit nor did I expect to see a woman with a camera attached to her chest and the producer with a camera attached to his head filming the encounter.  It could be described as the ultimate 'awkward moment'.  He and the rest of the morning team were very nice, respectful, and genuine toward Lori and I along with Mrs. Kennedy.  He did say that Lori smelled good.  That was just weird, but expected from the Morning Guy.

This blog was linked by the show and many people have begun to read it.  They have emailed and left comments that are very kind.  Hoosiers are great people, but we already knew that.  I don't have a lot to update since the last post other than as predicted, we went to Lafayette and met three officials that seemed to not like the way we play basketball in Indianapolis.  It was a hard fought game that we came up just short.  The refs did not make us miss free throws or some layups, so we can't blame them for the loss.  We get Brebeuf on Friday and we will take out our frustration on them.

Today I used some of the money from WZPL to buy an Xbox 360 with Kinect for the girls.  We lost our Wii and I wanted to replace it with something new.  I consulted the experts (my Senior classes) as to what the best gaming system was today and it was decided the Crosleys need Xbox.  The girls and I spent today making our avatars and setting the games up.  They played the Sports game and had a great time with the Kinect feature.  I couldn't wait for them to go to bed so I could play and not be embarassed.  Full disclosure: I wanted the Xbox at least as much as the girls.  Now my students want to play me in random games online and whip my backside.  I may or may not play them.  I may suprise them as I do have gamer skills.  I dominate the Atari 2600.  How much different could this Xbox thing be?

Tomorrow morning (Monday) Lori and I go to Knightstown, Indiana to look at what made it out of the house and perhaps take some back here.  We have not seen most of it since the explosion.  I have no real idea what to expect.  I know the restoration company has cleaned the clothes and tried to repair furniture that could be repaired, but I can't imagine what it will be like to see it all laid out for us.  I will explain what we see sometime this week.  The Steelers need me to get the Joe Greene jersey back.  Bad loss today.

I want to post some pictures soon.  There are a lot that I want to post and some more that Lori wants to see online.  Some are: the house 2002, the new Christmas tree,  random pictures of life here in the "big hotel", and other suprises.  Thanks for reading and continue to keep my neighbors in your thoughts.  #RichmondHillStrong

Searching for normalcy

Night three in the rental house brought us our first 'home cooked' meal - frozen pizza and salad.  We introduced Seinfeld to the girls as we ate and had a great time.  A classic two-part episode when Jerry's parents stayed with him on their way to Paris. Those who don't like or remember Seinfeld will not understand but it hit all the classic memories of that show: the close talker, making out during Schindler's list and Newman's revenge, the Executive raincoat, the moth filled cabana wear George sold, the refused invitation for paella, and many more.  Lori and I got a good laugh, we hadn't seen that episode for a long time.  It brought back memories of watching Seinfeld in the 90s.

Speaking of memories - Lori went to her office today for the first time in a while.  She had been working remotely and needed to go in to get some technology updates and repairs.  While she was at her desk she found some pictures in a paperclip from 2002.  They were pictures we took when we went to see our house being built during that summer.  The girls were four and two and looked pretty cute.  I did not remember taking those pictures and it was really neat to see the house as it was being built.  It was a bit sad, too.  When I get to a scanner, I will post some of those pictures. 

Monday we will be able to go to see our belongings and begin to sort through them.  The restoration company has cleaned all of our clothes and made repairs to all the things they could.  We are to go through and separate what we want from what we want to donate.  I am having a hard time imagining what it will look like to see all of our things laid out in front of us.  What made it? What can we keep? What do we have to throw away? What did we lose that we really didn't want to lose?  That last question is the one I am trying not to think about.

This weekend should be a busy one. The basketball team has two games, one at Roncalli and the other is in Lafayette.  That game is the one I am responsible for preparing our team to play.  I have watched that team play live and have two games on DVD to watch.  I have watched one recorded game and have one to go.  Playing in Lafayette is always interesting - it seems the school there often appears to hire officials that are a bit partial to Tippecanoe County players.  I also may be biased and partial to teams from Marion County, but it often seems a little skewed.  Either way, this weekend will be busy.  Lori and the girls are happy, they get to go to their favorite pizza restaurant in Lafayette.

Learned today was trash day when I saw neighbors putting out trash cans.  Haven't met them yet, I'm sure they are curious who has moved in the empty house.  We got garage door openers today! These facts may seem mundane, but trash was piling up and I was getting tired of stopping the car to get out and close the garage door when I leave and honking for someone to open the door. 

Parents of two of my former students live very close to my old neighborhood.  They heard and felt the explosion and knew we lived nearby.  They sent Lori and I a really nice letter and something to help us purchase necessities.  A great family and I really enjoyed teaching their son and daughter.  They nominated our family to receive a Christmas tree that a local radio station was giving away as a promotion for deserving families.  I am humbled to say that the radio station chose us to get the tree and ornaments to decorate it.  We had no tree and it was a wonderful gesture for the family to nominate us and the station to choose us.  It looks great in our front window.  All we need now is a leg shaped lamp to complete the look.

As we get used to this new place, we are trying to be as normal as possible.  It is hard now - we have all different things.  After Monday we should have more of 'our stuff' with us and maybe this place will look more familiar.  As Mary Kate Danaher said in The Quiet Man, "I want to have my own things about me".  It will be good for all of us and help us move toward getting used to living here.

Chapter 2 - the rental house.

Today we moved into our new rental house.  It is nice - it has new paint, appliances, carpet, and people living in it.  Elvis approves.

He has not gone too far away from us and has explored every inch of this place.  His nose is working overtime sniffing everywhere.  I think he is happy.

It is our first night in the new rental house.  The furniture rental company brought the furniture today.  This house is furnished in "Hotel Contemporary".  Lori and I both said it is like living in a oversized hotel room.  The couches are new, as is all of the other furniture and kitchen utensils.  The pillows, sheets, comforters, towels and dishrags are new too. I made a microwave dinner tonight after basketball practice and used a new plate.  I don't really like it because it seems thin and not what I am used to.

We got both cars in the garage.  I am used to a three-car garage and the extra room it affords me to park Brown Thunder.  A two car garage is a bit tighter and a new challenge to get Lori's minivan in there too.  Our cars are parked on different sides!  Since we have been married and had a garage my car has gone on the left.  The van won't fit on the right side.  It's funny what you get used to:  I could park my car in the garage without thinking about how close I was to hitting the junk I had piled up in the garage.  It was a habit.  Now I have to stop and get out to be sure I am not hitting the workbench the people who lived here before had installed.  Interesting.

The girls are wasting no time making their rooms their own.  Posters, blankets and clothes on the floor make their room cozy.  I am waiting to hear the report on how the beds sleep and the strange noises affect them.  We can hear I-65 clearly here in the bedrooms.  If I can get used to the Greenwood Airport sending planes over my house at all hours, I can get used to traffic noise and engine braking. It truly sounds like a hotel on the side of the interstate.

I can't believe we are living in this "oversized hotel".  I still think I live on Fieldfare and made two references to the house in class today.  I am not trying to joke about not living there but it seems that my mind has not adjusted as of yet.  We'll see.

I notice when I look at the stats for this blog that there are hits coming from countries outside the States.  If you are reading this and you are not from around here, please contact me and tell me how you found this and who you are. I am fascinated that this silly blog thing is being read at all much less in other countries.

Not to get all preachy, but I wish all reading this a great Advent.  Look around and count your blessings.  They are there if we look for them in common places.  Take a minute and look for the blessings you have and give thanks this Advent.  After that, try to be a blessing to someone else.

8337 Fieldfare Way (2002-2012)

We got to the house about 7:50 on Friday and the demo guys were there preparing to demolish our house.

 

They were very nice to us - the men came and made small talk before, during, and after the demolition.  They were professional and efficient.  The whole thing was down in about one hour. Here are a few more pictures:

Look closely and see Molly's multicolored wall. That was a bear to paint!

 There's really not a lot to say about watching your house be eaten and smashed by a large machine.  Each second I stood there and watched the house disappear was more weird than the one before.  I just could not get my mind around the fact that it was my house being systematically demolished before my eyes.  I still can't believe it.  The machine tore walls and floors apart and then smashed them down into the basement.  After the whole house was smashed, the dumpsters arrived.  

FUBAR.

That was a BIG dumpster.

The dumpsters were filled, all eight of them (at least), and our house was hauled away. It now is in a landfill somewhere near Danville.  We came by later in the day and the house was gone and most of the basement itself was gone.  We returned today and saw that everything was gone, including the driveway.  All that is left is a hole and parts of the paving bricks Dad and I laid out and one or two landscaping bricks.  The bushes and plants we planted are nowhere to be seen.  The peonies that are about 75+ years old and the coral bells Mom gave me are in the landfill.  Nothing at all is left but broken rocks.  Nothing.

The girls had their picture taken on the machine that was still there.

 

Lori and the girls then went to our friend's house to see how they are doing.  There are many houses that are to be demolished in the neighborhood but the vast majority are not scheduled for demolition.  Many still have broken windows and garage doors.  Our friends had their windows blown out and their front door blown open.  The windows are boarded up for now and that makes the house dark inside and the 'curb appeal' is lessened a little.  They had a great idea to paint pictures on the boards to add some color and life to the drab boards.  They went to Porter Paints and told them of their plan and the good people there gave them the paint so the pictures could be done.  There are at least two houses who painted their boarded up windows or garage door.

 

That's Grace cheesing with my girls. I think her sister Meghan painted most of it, though...

Tonight we went to Mass then to dinner with my parents.  It was a great dinner and lots of fun.  We then went to Target to buy some needed supplies for the UnChristmas party Sunday with my cousins.  We also had to buy some supplies to stock up the rental house we have chosen.  We are scheduled to move in on Monday or Tuesday, depending on how fast we can get our things in.  Since we have very little furniture, the insurance company is renting us all the furniture needed to stock a three bedroom house.  That includes the kitchen down to plates, silverware and even a sponge for the sink.  The house is near Roncalli and Saint Jude which is nice.  While in Target it occurred to me that we are starting a kitchen from scratch.  We have no food of any kind to stock it.  I never realized the small things in a kitchen that are necessary but not what one thinks about having.  Imagine if every cabinet and drawer of your kitchen was emptied and you had to restock every little thing.  Vinegar. Can of corn.  The seasoning you like to put on meat before you grill it. All of the spices and things used maybe once a year to make that one dish requiring cumin or allspice.  I realized this as we walked down the spice aisle.  "Hey, Lori. We need cinnamon and sugar to put on my toast.  Do we have a toaster?"

As we move into the rental house a new chapter will begin.  8337 Fieldfare Way is gone and we are movin' on to the next step - rental house.  Now we can get settled in this new place and think about the next step.  I understand that after the insurance settlement the lot will be ours.  We can rebuild on it, sell it, or hold on to it.  We found out yesterday that the 4 lots to the south of us are still a crime scene and the Prosecutor may want to bring the jury down to see the site if there is a trial.  As a result, the half burned houses and blast site will not be touched until the Prosecutor gives the ok.  That may not be until after the trial and possible appeal.  It could be a year or more. That means the half burned house and pile of rubble next door will be there for the unknown future.  Needless to say, that makes the property value pretty low and the desire to build a brand new squeaky clean house next to a crime scene pretty low as well.

Molly said today as we were walking around the rental house, "Dad, this is going to be kind of an adventure!".  Truer words are rarely spoken.