Baseball has officially arrived in Witch Falls
for another season, and the weather cooperated – at least for the first
practices of the year today.
Some sunshine helped to make everyone happier after starting
May with five straight days of rain. It
was a bit chilly this morning, but we dressed warm enough and went outside for
Tai Chi by the river. Ethan and Ehlana
ran around and played while Mom, Dad, and I were doing that; and then we were
all busy getting ready for work, school, or other plans.
I met up with Rowen at her house, and since she led me down Maple Street; it
was obvious that we wouldn’t be ‘coincidentally’ meeting up with Michael. Maybe they couldn’t work that out now that
Rebecca was home again and back to school.
I didn’t ask, and Rowen didn’t bring it up either. We had fun at school. Phys-Ed class was outdoors; we ate lunch out
on the football field bleachers; played soccer for a while; and started
learning some new songs in music class.
Rowen might not have been able to arrange a morning walk to
school, but she made up for that by setting up another Monday afternoon
homework and bike ride time for us with Michael and Tim. They had their first team baseball practice
tonight too, so we didn’t actually have a lot of time to spend together before
they needed to be at Michael’s house for an early dinner. We didn’t really have all that much homework
to do, and to save a little time; we took our snacks and drinks with us when we
went up to the lounge to get that done. The half hour of biking wasn’t long enough to
get through very many of the trails at the park, but some of them were still
muddy from all of the rain anyway. Rowen
and I could have stayed and biked until we needed to be home too, but we decided
to head back with Michael and Tim; and help Mom instead.
We ended up keeping Rowen for dinner, and then we were set
free to take Ethan and Ehlana to the park while Mom and Dad cleaned up and got
the office ready for the little business meeting we were going to have with
Uncle Adam, Aunt Leanne, Grandma, and Grandpa.
I’m sure that we’ll be talked about at school tomorrow, but the only
reason we watched the last ten minutes or so of Michael’s baseball practice was
because Ethan wanted to do that first before going on to the playground. What will be funny is finding out whether our
friends and classmates will think that we were there for Rowen or me – or both;
since Michael does seem to be getting quite a reputation.
He didn’t have to wait until tomorrow to get razzed by some
of his buddies when Ethan, in public toddler mode, took his hand; said “come
play”; and tugged him toward the playground.
Michael just laughed at the jibes that were fired at him; picked Ethan
up; and spent about fifteen minutes playing with us before he needed to head
home. Tim razzed him the most, but he
came along too; and had just as much fun playing with Ethan and Ehlana as the
rest of us did.
I had Ethan and Ehlana back at the house by eight, and Rowen
only stopped in long enough to grab her school gear and bike before going home
too. Our grandparents, aunt, and uncle
were already there and in the office, so once I got drinks ready for the three
of us; we joined them and sat at the conference table with Grandma and Grandpa.
The first order of business was the construction update for
the lab and new section of town. The lab
construction has been slowed by the rain, but the lowest basement level is
finished, and they’ve started the second level.
Current projections are for that level to be done by late June, and the
top basement level should be completed by the time Aunt Grace is ready to start
her new job in August. With a little
help from Mother Nature, we should have a few steel beams above ground to show
off by the Labor Day weekend!
All of the new houses are either on or ahead of
schedule. They’re closed in, and the
interior work is at various stages. The
three houses that are to be ready first will be completed in time for the
Everetts, Seagers, and Drapers to move in during the last week of July. New houses are being started as the different
crews become available; though most of that work for right now is for showcase
houses and townhomes. Aunt Leanne has a
lot of interested people looking into buying something in the new section of
town, but most are waiting to see what the new houses are going to look like
before making any big decisions.
We also talked about the temporary surplus of houses in the
rest of Witch Falls that Aunt Leanne expects to have
over the next ten years or so as some families opt to move into the new homes
and apartment buildings. The short
answer, for now, is that we’ll buy any of them that don’t sell on the open
market; and Aunt Leanne and Claire will turn them into rentals for as long as
needed. She thinks that might eve work
out better for all of the extra construction workers that will be needed at
least until the big construction projects are finished.
Moving along, there was more discussion about helping both
existing and new businesses to grow and be ready for the extra needs of a
bigger population, and Aunt Leanne and Claire will again have a big part to
play with that; since they manage nearly every retail building in town. I could get excited about new shopping
options, but we are also thinking about more than new clothing stores. Ideas included a little museum; an arts and
crafts gallery; interior decorating to help with all of those new homes; antiques;
and other wish list suggestions like fast food and recreation-related
businesses.
There isn’t much to report for the current group of high
school grads that will be starting college educations related to our future
plans, but we did discuss working with Principal Jacobs to start working with
other high school students to meet other needs we’ll have for the lab and other
businesses – including our charities and family businesses. For instance, Ethan, Ehlana, and I won’t be
following our father into the law profession, so we’ll need to recruit future
lawyers to help him out and eventually take over. The big trick there is going to be juggling
those kinds of career opportunities with all of the ‘normal’ jobs that still
need to be covered in a small town and on the surrounding farms. What we’re hoping is that the new jobs will
keep more teens from leaving home to move elsewhere, and encourage other
members of our extended Witch Falls family to move home – like Aunt Grace and
Violet will be doing.
There were some technical things to deal with that was
mostly for the lab construction project, but that was about it for the local
future plans tonight. We followed that
up with a shorter review of projects that will be happening farther from home,
but still part of our future plans next.
Some of that can be interesting for Ethan, Ehlana, and me because we
need things to happen without being able to tell our parents why. It’s a good thing that they’re usually
willing, if not happy, to trust us when we run into those situations. I’m sure that as we go along, they’ll start
putting the various jigsaw puzzle pieces together and figure out at least some
of those plans; but that won’t be a problem by then.
Our meeting wrapped up with some charity and family business
news and discussions, and then I did a round of goodnight hugs and kisses
before coming up to my room to get started on my bedtime studies and computing
while Ethan and Ehlana had lots of help with getting ready for bed and story
time. That was three hours ago, and I
covered more work than I expected to get done, but that’s mostly because I lost
track of time while working in the archives.
We’re going to be busy tomorrow night with Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne’s
second anniversary party, so I really should have been sleeping by now. Then again, I doubt that they’re sleeping
either; but we really don’t want to take our train of thought down that track
when I’m about to go to sleep! At least
I won’t be the only tired person at the party.
That’s all for today.
I’m going to tuck my computer into its case for the night; cuddle with
Mandy; and have a little nap.
Until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor; logging
out!
