I want to make it clear that I am not dating Michael because
his father is a chef – but that is a really great bonus; and we had two meals
at his house today.
Tai Chi by the river is still my favorite part of the
morning, but I could get used to trying out Jacob’s day-off breakfast
experiments very easily. It sure beats
standard work and school day morning food at my house – and probably nearly
every other house in town too. While
Jacob loves the cooking, there is an ulterior motive – having his kids ready
for a busy house and yard work morning.
I volunteered to be on that yard work crew again; mostly
because they were getting all of the work done ahead of the holiday weekend;
and so that Michael wouldn’t be stuck doing that all day when the only place he
really wanted to be was watching the first day of football training camp at the
school. Using our lawn tractor again
helped a lot; and this week I helped Rebecca with the gardening while Michael
helped his Dad with some other chores.
We worked straight through until one o’clock; and then Michael and I
split up for a while so that we could each get something to eat and take the
showers that we were both in need of by then.
He went on ahead to the school without me, and when I was
ready; I biked over to the computer store to collect Rowen on my way to the
school. We had drinks and a little visit
with Owen and Patricia; and then biked to the school. Michael was sitting with Tim and a bunch of
kids, tweens, and teens in the bleachers.
With all of the gear Tim had with him; we didn’t need to get
confirmation from him to know that he’d been there most of the day. Patrick and Scott were there too; and it was
nice to see Patrick talking animatedly with Michael for the first time all summer
– even if they were just talking football.
There was a reason why I had taken my time getting to the
school, and I wasn’t the only girl who was purposefully getting to the football
field near the end of the afternoon training session. Tim was happy to give us a detailed monologue
of the action we’d missed since early this morning, though, so we didn’t miss
anything important. While I hadn’t been
interested in spending the day watching guys play football there was a lot
going on around the school that being there did have me paying attention to.
While Mr. Robinson was there to coach the football team, all
of the other teachers were back to school today too – a fact that I knew but
didn’t think about at all before then. I
saw Uncle Nick once when he waved at us from his classroom window – and that
really started to make back-to-school feel real because that’s going to be our
home room too; and Uncle Nick is going to be our main teacher this year! That won’t quite be the same as it would have
been for Jenny if her Mom had taught her; but it will be both strange and
fun. I should probably practice calling
him Mr. Ayres instead of Uncle Nick a bit before next week so I don’t get into
trouble. I’m not giving up family hugs,
though, so my classmates can just get used to them.
Getting back to the football action, Coach Robinson had been
teaching his players some basic offensive and defensive formations and plays
when Rowen and I joined the spectators, but he’d almost been finished that; and
then had the guys move on to the conditioning drills that took exhaustion to a
whole new level for most of the guys.
Kyle was the one exception; but they’d likely need both of our town
doctors to come over if Coach Robinson tried to push everyone on the team as
hard as Kyle could work.
Maybe I should have brought Ethan and Ehlana along so Kyle
could use Ethan in the drills again.
The practice was wrapping up by the time Michael and Tim
needed to be thinking about food and their final baseball practice. Michael had invited us to his house for
dinner, so we rode around by Tim’s house to drop off the bag and cooler he’d
taken with him to the school; and then gone on to Michael’s house. We had time to go for a quick swim that
Rebecca joined us for; and then we had a really great little meal at the patio
table on the back porch. Dad’s pretty
good on a grill, but Jacob is a master; and even Tim notices the difference –
which is actually quite a compliment for Jacob.
The two boys were sent off to their practice after they’d
eaten, but Rowen and I stayed to help out with the clean-up before going to my
house and taking Ethan and Ehlana to the park with us for some playground time
while the Wranglers worked hard to get ready for their Championship game on
Saturday. Since I hadn’t spent much time
with Ethan and Ehlana today, that was a nice little blast of fun, and when
Michael and Tim were set free again; we all went swimming back at my house
before Mom and Dad took custody of Ethan and Ehlana again.
They had already started their family business meeting by
then, but I’ll get to that in a minute.
Tim, Rowen, and I went back to Michael’s house again with him after our
swim. Tim and Rowen played video games
while Michael did a guitar lesson with me.
I haven’t had much time for music lately, but now that we’re just a week
away from going back to school; I’d better at least dust off my saxophone and
practice a bit – especially since Michael, Rowen, and I did get those early
invitations to join the school band this year.
Anyway, the guitar lesson was fun, and then Michael and I
joined in on the video gaming action – though Rowen and I were happy to let the
boys take as many extra turns as we could get away with. It was time to tone it down when Jacob and
Miranda were ready to call it a night; so we went for another swim and then
decided to take a walk around the park.
It can get dark even on the main trail when you’re in the woods there;
and you can get lost on the biking trails at night – if you really want to do
that. Conveniently for us, though, we
only got lost in pairs tonight; and Rowen assured me later that Michael and I
weren’t the only couple playing hide and kiss while we were temporarily on our
own.
Michael and Tim both want to be at the school tomorrow for
the start of training camp day two, so we headed home by eleven o’clock. Rowen and I left them on Michael’s front
porch after she and Tim gave Michael and me a minute for our goodbye hug and
kiss; and then we had a little chat on my front porch so I could get those
pertinent park in the dark details before she continued on to her house and I
went inside.
Mom and Dad were working in the office while Dad caught up
on the work he didn’t get done while they’d been having their family business
and future plans meeting; so I grabbed a drink and joined them there. Mom decided to combine a short Magi lesson
with the meeting update that they took turns giving me; and we ended up talking
together until Dad was finished his work at a bit after midnight and we all
went up to bed.
There weren’t any surprises for me from the meeting. The lab is just slightly ahead of schedule
right now after having some extended good weather; and that’s going to work out
great for the construction start for the first of the three apartment buildings
that are planned for the new section of town.
The news for the college kids we’re keeping an eye on was reviewed;
though there isn’t much for us to do with that until next spring and summer. We will be offering some of those college
kids summer jobs at the lab, though, and that’s going to be very cool for those
lucky young men and women.
On the real estate front, Aunt Leanne and Claire are
actually going to do a Saturday morning open house for a couple of model homes
they’ll be using to sell new homes and townhomes; though there aren’t going to
be more than two houses that are the same – or even mirror images – in the
entire new section of town. Even the
townhomes will have significant differences between each unit and groups of
units. While Aunt Leanne is handling
most of that part of our future plans, she is getting ready for some time off
with the baby; and Mom and Dad will be keeping an eye on that part of the
business for her this fall and winter.
We have some financial involvement with the mortgages that
will be needed for those new homes; but that’s strictly through providing extra
capital for our community bank; since they don’t have the deposit base to
handle all of the new business that will be coming their way over the next ten
or fifteen years. Sharon Palmer is
taking care of all of that, and while I’m thinking about her; she’s doing a
really awesome job with all of her family business responsibilities. The financial and insurance business side of
our portfolio is really taking off since she joined the team.
Finally, the travel and charity work that is the reason for
everything else we do is continuing to grow both here at home and around the
world. While Grandma and Grandpa have
been staying close to home because of Aunt Leanne and her baby; there have been
other trips going on this summer; and more planned for the fall, winter, and
spring. Grandma Eleanor and Grandpa
Grant are happily continuing their globe-trotting archive visits; and have
switched their focus almost entirely from just checking out each location to
getting each archive ready to be moved here.
They’ll need help with that huge job; and will start taking assistants
along – and training them – during their trip this fall. Now that we have a new Pastor in town, Pastors
Lewis and Martha have signed up for a winter charity trip; and will be going on
it with some of their friends in January.
I should’ve gone to bed earlier and gotten started on the
work I wanted to do tonight, but I wasn’t all that tired when I started anyway
– though I’m getting there fast now. The
archive studying helped with that, but then I followed that up with an hour of
family business work before getting around to the rest of my usual nightly
computing. There isn’t anything to
report from the studying or work; but I did have a nice long email update from
Violet about how the first day of classes went for her and Dillon today.
They both have some advantages that their fellow freshmen
don’t, but Violet thinks that Dillon has a distinct advantage at college
because our school does a lot more than most to prepare our teens for
post-secondary education. She’s known
about those differences since getting close to Dillon, Jake, and Stephanie; but
seeing her friends doing so much self-learning and group studying is different
than needing to do that – while trying to work with new acquaintances who might
or might not be at the same academic level as she is; or wants to be.
That part of their college adventure will be as tough for
Dillon; but then he’s probably the smartest guy in the lecture hall for all of
his subjects; so he’ll probably get more study group invitations than he’ll
want or need. Mostly, I’m glad that
Violet and Dillon are having fun; enjoying their first academic challenges; and
getting off to a relatively problem-free start to their freshman year.
Hopefully I’ll be able to say that for my Grade Eight year!
That is all I have for tonight, though, so...
...until next time, this is Magi Master Cassie Proctor;
logging out!
