We’ve had a rainy day, but the wet didn’t
roll into town until late morning and left by early evening, so other than
keeping us indoors at lunch and after school; it didn’t really affect much of
that action or fun today.
It was certainly nice enough out for Tai
Chi by the river this morning – and good morning hugs and kisses too! The rest of my pre-school routine was fairly
normal and uneventful, but then we had a fairly busy day at school. That included a couple of quizzes and an
assignment that needed to be handed in.
There was more preparation for our trip next week too; and some lessons
meant to help us with some of the activities we’ll be doing there and sites we’ll
visit. The teen drama I mentioned last
week continues too; and at least one of those couples is now in imminent danger
of breaking up. I’ll put the chances of
their working things out at zero; so it’s really just a matter of which day
they pick to call it quits.
While the rain kept us indoors at
lunchtime, we kept ourselves entertained with some play time in the gym after
eating in the cafeteria. There wasn’t
any outdoor fun after school either, but that was more than offset by doing our
homework at Michael’s house; having Miranda and Jacob invite all four of us for
dinner; and adding in some video gaming and music time before and after
dinner. That kept me busy and
entertained through until I needed to get home for our family business and
future plans meeting.
Before I get started on that, Uncle Adam
advised us that Heather and Julian Green went home late this afternoon; and
both mother and son are doing just fine.
Uncle Adam got a bit of sleep while Uncle Mark took a turn at the
clinic, but he’s still really tired; and when Aunt Leanne took him home to put
him to bed tonight; I’ll take a wild guess that sleep was going to be their
favorite bedroom activity that starts with the letter ‘S’ – at least for
tonight.
Okay, too much information there… let’s
move along.
The big news around town today was also one
of the first things we discussed at our meeting – the remodel and expansion of
the church that began today. It’s going
to take about two years to complete the entire project because of the need to
work around the regular activities at the church as well as seasonal issues,
but when they’ve finished everything, the sanctuary will be more than half
again bigger than it is now; and the rest of the church will be bigger and
modernized – everything from the offices and kitchen to the reception hall and
Sunday school rooms. As I’ve mentioned
before, we’re not really directly involved in that – other than with the
contributions of money; and the volunteer time that nearly everyone in the
congregation will put in here and there for jobs the professionals aren’t
needed for.
While I’m on the non-family business action
around here, we also talked about the new Witch Falls Museum. It’ll be opening for the Memorial Day
weekend; and is in the building closest to the falls and the statue of the
Witch. Aunt Leanne told us that the
building remodel is pretty much done now; so they have lots of time to get the
Museum and gift shop set up; and there are tentative plans for a wine and
cheese open house for the Monday before the grand opening on the Friday of the
long weekend. There are going to be new
play options out at Quarry Lake in time for the holiday too, and the word on
the street is that there is a new, huge playground being installed and some new
water slides have been added for the lake.
I think the museum is a great idea for tourism; and I can hardly wait
until we get to go out to Quarry Lake for our first play day of the year!
Moving on to the actual family business and
future plans news; the top story for actual work today was Mom’s. She and Owen started receiving their first
deliveries for the computer systems they’ll be installing at the lab. The real work for that will start after
Memorial Day, but there’s still a lot of prep work to do between now and then;
so Mom and Owen – and sometimes Ethan and Ehlana – will be at the lab getting
the equipment ready for eventual installation.
Mom’s working on the software she’s writing for the lab too; so she is
going to be a very busy woman for the next five or six months.
The medical center building is running a
bit behind schedule because of the rain days slowing the work down; but it isn’t
a big problem yet; and some overtime when we hit some stretches of nicer
weather can get it back on track. From
the pictures I saw tonight, it doesn’t look like much work has been done at the
solar-wind farm; but it’ll be heading toward fall before we start seeing the
big wind turbine towers and solar arrays filling up the old quarry site. That project actually is still on-time; and
we’re especially happy to see it on-budget too.
Coming back into town again, Aunt Leanne
and Claire are going to have the new apartment building nearly fully rented by
the end of the month at the rate they’re going; and then they’ll have a lot
more work to do with rentals and house sales in the rest of town. The initial sales are easy, since we’re going
to buy a lot of them up as investments to either fix up and turn around or use
as new rentals. There’ll be a lag with
filling all of the older rentals, but we’ve planned for that; and it gives Aunt
Leanne time to arrange for some remodels.
Most of the new housing being built this
year will be a bit more affordable than some of the first houses were; though
they’ll still be geared toward business owners and professionals – like the
people who will be working at the lab and medical center-professional office
building. The new townhomes as they get
built will be an option for lower income families; though we’re working on some
plans for that too. Some of those
programs will come online over the next few years; but we’ll also deal with
some families on a case-by-case basis to make sure that none of our neighbors
are left behind as we make changes around here.
We had some longer-term plans to talk about
too, but I won’t go into all of that tonight.
That discussion ranged from projects at the lab during the first couple
of years after it opens to teen development for future careers and things like
re-purposing the old clinic once we move the doctors and dentists over to the
new medical center. By the time we
wrapped up the meeting and I took Ethan and Ehlana upstairs to get them ready
for bed we were pretty much set up for the rest of the summer; Ethan, Ehlana,
and I had prepared everyone else for a few things they needed to know about
some upcoming events; and our mid-term plans were looking pretty good too.
I was on my own for getting the twins
changed, ready for bed, and tucked in for the night. We skipped the bedtime story, and I came up
to my room for the night right after that while Mom and Dad both needed to do
some work in the office before calling it a night too. The meeting didn’t end until nearly
ten-thirty, so it was after eleven by the time I got started on my nightly
studies and work. Taking it easy wasn’t
an option because I have no idea how much I’ll be able to do next week while I’m
away. That’s why it’s now heading toward
three o’clock, and while it feels good to get a lot of studying and family
business work done; I’m also seriously ready to crash and nap for a few hours.
We’re supposed to have a beautiful, sunny
day tomorrow, so skipping after-school studying may be an option. That could make for another late night for me
when adding in studying catch-up to the evening schedule, but I’m okay with
that, and if some Michael and me alone time is involved too; I’m good with that
too! I really am beat, though, and don’t
have anything else to report tonight; so let’s just call it a night. Until next time…
…Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the
Light!
