Violet may or may not make it home tonight, but either way,
I’m sticking with my earlier-than-usual bedtime plans; and won’t be awake if
she does end up here instead of at Dillon’s house. Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I got to spend some
time with them earlier, though, so I’m really glad that we at least got to have
that bit of time together.
It’s been a busy day; though I didn’t feel that until now
while organizing my thoughts for this update.
Tai Chi this morning was about the only quiet time I had through until
Violet and Dillon headed out earlier tonight to hang out with a group of
friends that are home this week too; didn’t go to college after graduating; or
are seniors this year.
I’m sure that you can guess that football was the top story
at school today; and will be tomorrow and Wednesday too – even over any
Thanksgiving news. Tim, Michael, and the
other teens in our class that are going to the game on Friday are getting lots
of attention, and though Rowen wasn’t happy about that; we managed to get
through this first day without any part of her birthday surprise getting out by
accident. Other than occasionally
assuring her that I’ll make sure that she has a happy birthday regardless of
what the boys are doing, and being there when she needs to do some minor
venting; I’m not having as much trouble with this as I expected – and my
co-conspirators and I are having quite a bit of fun too. Tim is actually hamming it up a bit, but then
Rowen’s used to him being totally dense when it comes to her; so he’s not being
any different than normal from her perspective.
She definitely was a bit quieter than normal while we did
the bit of studying we needed to get done after school, and no more interested
in watching the boys play football at the park after that than I was. We went along anyway so that we could also
take Ethan and Ehlana out to play for a while and give Mom a break, but we only
stayed to watch the football while Ethan had his game time with Michael; and
then we were at the playground until the twins were cold and ready to go home
for some hot chocolate. We didn’t wait
for the boys, but they didn’t end up staying much longer before meeting up with
us again – conveniently in time to help out with the hot drinks and mini-snack.
The four of us split up for dinner, but we were all going to
an open house after that; and then Michael, Tim, and Rowen came back here with
me to hang out while Mom and Dad were having a family business and future plans
meeting in the office. Violet and Dillon
were at his house for dinner, but they were at the open house too.
Witch
Falls Electric and
Lighting are officially opening their new store on Wednesday in time for the
big holiday weekend, but they were hosting a wine and cheese open house tonight. I can’t say that I really spent any time
shopping in their old store, but I had wandered through a couple of times; and
their new showroom is much larger and more like a boutique while the other
place had more in common with the hardware store than anything else. As usual, our family, neighbors, and friends
were out in force to support one of our local businesses; and Mom, Dad, and I
did our part by placing an order for several new lamps – including one that I
thought would look nice in the lounge.
Rowen’s parents won’t be taking over the old electric and
light store until the New Year, but I was thinking about their plans for it
while at the open house tonight; and I saw that it came up in the meeting in
the office tonight when I read the notes from it while doing my computer checks
tonight. The only involvement with have
with that is through the data storage services that some of our family business
companies will be purchasing from Emerson Computers’ new data center once it
opens next March. That’s not such a
little thing, since those contracts will make sure that Rowen’s parents will
have a successful start to the new addition to their business; but then it
helps us out too – both from a business point of view and because we can
consolidate our corporate data in one, local place without that being
transparent to the individual companies we own.
I’m sure that Owen will have a blast building the toys he’ll need for
the data center; and that’ll keep him busy between Christmas and tax time next
spring.
Getting back to the update, Violet and Dillon decided to
hang out with Michael, Tim, Rowen, and me in the lounge when we came home from
the open house, and we kept Ethan and Ehlana with us too until Violet and
Dillon left to meet up with their friends.
The boys mostly played video games, so it was girl chat time for the
rest of us while we mostly watched them play.
Violet mostly entertained us with more college stories, but we talked a
bit about Christmas too. She and Dillon
are going to split those weeks off between here and Woodvale too; but they’ll
be here more than there – mostly because Uncle Rick and Aunt Melissa won’t have
much time off over the holidays; and they’ll be here for the family Christmas
on the weekend between Christmas and New Year’s Day. Maybe I’ll see about inviting Dawn to come
here for an extra few days before or after that weekend so she can spend extra
time with Violet while her parents are busy.
We didn’t have enough time to watch a movie after Violet and
Dillon left; so we ended up watching music videos while having a chat and
winding down until Michael, Tim, and Rowen needed to head home. Violet and Dillon had dropped Ethan and
Ehlana off with Mom and Dad on their way out; so it was safe for Rowen and Tim
to do a little cuddling too – though Rowen wasn’t quite as happy about that as
she usually was while trying not to show it.
She didn’t have the usual big smile after Michael and I left our friends
with the usual alone time opportunity when we went downstairs first and left
them in the lounge; but they also didn’t cut that time short either; so they
must have had at least a little fun.
I hope they did, because Michael and I didn’t get a chance
for any make-out time. Our snack
clean-up happened at the same time Mom and Dad were ready to clean up from
their meeting, so we had company with us the entire time; and then had extra
people to say goodnight to – all of them leaving at the same time as Michael,
Tim, and Rowen. That certainly threw a
kink into my goodnight kiss with Michael; but I’ll try to make that up to him
next time – or before Tai Chi in the morning.
That’s pretty much the end of my regular daily news. Mom did a Magi lesson with me after we had
Ethan and Ehlana tucked in for the night, and I came up to bed after that; so
the only other information I want to add is from the meeting I’d missed while
hanging out with my friends.
The top news from that is the completion of the lab building
– or at least that it’s completely closed in now and heated so the construction
crews will be able to work in relative comfort all winter. The exterior facade and landscaping will
start next spring; and the project is still ahead of schedule enough that there
will be some bonus, paid time off for the crews over the holidays. The first apartment building is already
almost to that stage too, so the indoor work will start by sometime next week;
and that’ll pretty much be the end of the visible construction around here
until next March.
Other plans have been moving along too. The wind and solar energy farm project is
moving along, and we’ll be ready to hire a manager by February; and start work
on the site by the end of March. If all
goes well, Witch Falls should be self-sufficient for
electricity by the summer after next; and the plant should make a profit
selling excess power to the grid. Having
Violet and Dillon home may have been why teen school and job plans were a
bigger than usual part of this meeting, but I’m just glad that we’re way ahead
of the game there; and some of my favorite teens will have summer jobs that
will make them happy; put some decent money in their college funds; and keep
them here at home.
We’re already planning ahead for new construction next
spring, and that includes getting ready for the next big build in town – the
new medical center and professional offices building that will be right next
door to the lab. While having a new,
state-of-the-art medical center is the biggest part of that; we’ll also have
other professional businesses there too.
I’ll hold off on the details for that even though by the time anyone
reads this; it won’t matter or be a big secret anymore. There were other, medium-term future plans
that were talked about too, but I’ll leave those for another time too – closer
to when they’ll actually be happening.
So I guess that’s it for now, and I’m going to be sleeping
before midnight again tonight. Another
night or two like this, and I’ll definitely be fully-charged and ready for
Thanksgiving and Rowen’s birthday! I’m
getting fired up just thinking about that, but it’s time wrap this up; put my
computer away; and get started on another long winter’s nap.
Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!
