Winter has stopped in to Witch Falls
for a visit, but won’t be staying long – this time.
The cold was attention-grabbing this morning; and we barely
crawled up above freezing before it got colder again after dark. Getting this little reminder that the cold
and snow isn’t far away is probably good for us; but it was a pain doing the
extra running around the house this morning to get winter coats and gear out of
the storage room. I’m going to need to
get a new one again this year too, but only because the sleeves on the coat we
bought last year are too short on me now.
More shopping is always a good thing, but I’ll be glad when those trips
don’t have to be because I’ve outgrown my old clothes – especially since I
really don’t like having to stop wearing clothes that I really love.
Moving along, my first blast of cold came while welcoming
Michael when he came over for Tai Chi; but then we had fun for a minute while I
helped him to warm up again before we went upstairs to the exercise room. Other than the winter gear hunt, the rest of
the morning was fairly uneventful; and there wasn’t much going on at school
worth reporting either. The guys were
talking football as usual, and worrying about whether the cold would affect the
game on Friday or not. It’s going to be
warmer again by then, but I honestly have no idea why anyone would be worried
about the weather with our team this year.
Rain, snow, or cold would just help Kyle force the opposing offense into
making even more mistakes than usual.
Sure, our offense would be affected too, but even though that’s the
weaker half of our team; they also rarely make huge mistakes. The bottom line is that the other team ought
to be hoping for great weather to have any shot against us at all.
That’s enough football talk.
Though there wasn’t much going on at school today, we had fun; and band
practice was especially entertaining for Michael and me because we had some
missing saxophone players, so we got to play the first and second parts instead
of our usual music. I’m not going to
comment on how we did compared to our older, more experienced band mates; other
than to say that Mrs. Robinson seemed to be very happy about the potential for
her saxophone section in the future.
The Christmas music combined with the cold weather led to a
side-trip chat during band practice about playing outdoors in cold
weather. I hadn’t really thought about
that before now, but Michael, Rowen, and I did do some internet window shopping
while doing our homework at the computer store; and we’re going to order pairs
of the gloves and other gear that Mrs. Robinson and some of the senior students
suggested to everyone. There were some
special, cold-weather instrument care tips too; but we don’t need to order in
anything special for that.
Tim was glad that he didn’t have to worry about any of that,
but he was off his game today – to the point where he didn’t even have a full
football practice report for us like he normally did on band practice
afternoons. I wonder why he might have
been distracted today? Not! ;^)
I’m really glad that he so obviously has something important
on his mind, but he hasn’t talked about it with Michael yet; so I have no idea
where his thoughts about what we talked about – and Rowen – are going. Hopefully he’s coming around now, but if I
don’t hear anything positive before Rowen’s birthday, I may have to seriously
think about sticking Tim into a very slow time-phase and leaving him there
until he comes to his senses.
He isn’t the only guy in town with issues, and while I get
it that experimental gourmet meals aren’t for everyone; Jason isn’t just
missing out on Jacob’s amazing dinners. When
we got to his house, Michael and I found out that we were having dinner for
four with his parents while Rebecca was out for the evening with Jason, Jenny,
and Garth. Jason might think that
hanging out with Rebecca’s younger brother and me is boring too, and he
certainly isn’t the only teen in town trying to spend minimal time with
parental units, but that just seems strange to me; because I wish that I had
more free hours in the week to spend with my family – and Michael’s. I really wouldn’t want to miss out on the few
times we can spend a few hours together – especially when Jacob and Miranda
work such long days at the Inn; and don’t have very much free time.
It was really great to have that time with them tonight, and
the food was as amazing as always; but I still missed spending some of that
time with Rebecca. That wasn’t only
because Michael and I were a clean-up crew of two tonight, though Rebecca was
missed there too. There is never enough
alone time with Michael either, but we managed a few entertaining moments
between my guitar lesson and the cuddle, chat, and television time with Miranda
and Jacob in the living room.
We had a fun evening together, but I was home in time for
the bedtime story and snack with Ethan and Ehlana; followed that up with my
Magi lesson with Mom; and a little visit with her and Dad in the office before
coming up to my room for the night. I’m
doing a stay-at-home night tomorrow, and plan on doing extra family business
work; so I stuck to the language and archive studies after climbing into bed
with Mandy and put a one-thirty time limit on that before moving on to the rest
of my usual nightly computing. My
language studies are now getting easier, and ahead of schedule; so I’ll be able
to wrap up this batch of dialects well-ahead of the Christmas break and move on
to the next language in January. My
archives assignment tonight was on the dry and dusty side of boring, but I
managed to stay awake through fourteen hundred pages or so of rambling theory.
While I’m thinking about that, let’s take a minute to
discuss some of the odder things about Magi training. Yes, we really need to learn all about our
gifts and abilities, but sometimes, as with my archive studies tonight, the
practical application of those abilities is really useless. As a simple example, a Magi could use many
methods to heat water, but most of those techniques are inconvenient and
useless in real life. There are
nearly-endless examples in the archives of admittedly brilliant research that
still falls into the category of ‘interesting but useless’. I’m all for the Magi here in Witch Falls
getting into doing research into what they can do with their abilities, but if
that does start happening in a big way; I also hope that the pursuit of
practical goals is a priority for that research too – like what Mom’s learned
to do with computers.
That thought just led to a mental picture of a Magi-powered
internet – kind of like telepathy for data; but then I seriously doubt that any
Magi would want the job of being the ‘server’ for that kind of network. Since even Dad and Aunt Leanne haven’t really
caught on to Magi computing at the levels Mom, Ethan, and Ehlana, and I can
work; it might not even be possible – and the four of us can already do
full-sensory telepathy anyway.
The idea of a built-in, mental world wide web is still cool,
though! Think Google Glass to the nth
degree – without the need for the glasses, WiFi hotspots, or some cellular link
to the internet; and you’re getting close to what I’m imagining.
I wandered a bit off-topic there, but you get the idea of
what I mean; and it’s time to wrap this up so I can put my computer away and
get some sleep. There wasn’t anything
newsworthy in my email tonight; and I won’t bore you with the daily news,
entertainment, or sports events. There
may not be a Magi-powered internet in whenever your ‘now’ is; but I am sure
that you’ll have some way to look up that kind of historical information
without reading about it in my journals.
Then again, if you’re reading this and thinking that my
journals are boring and pointless; take a research side-trip and look up this
classic internet expression. :^P
Yeah, I know; but try to remember that I’m twelve in my
current now. Then again, Aunt Leanne has
been known to stick out her tongue at people now and then too; so that’s not
just a kid thing.
Anyway, I really am ready for some down time, so that’s it,
that’s all, and I’m out of here.
Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!
