I’m going to start this update with news
from the other side of the world where Grandma and Grandpa have moved on from
Japan to South Korea for the middle two weeks of their trip to East Asia.
You’re welcome to read their own travel
journal for the daily details, but I thought that this would be a good point to
leave a few of my own impressions of their adventure so far. The top story they have from Japan probably
doesn’t really surprise anyone – it’s the fallout, both real and rhetorically,
from the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster.
The things that Grandma and Grandpa found out through means mundane and
Magi are more than a little scary, and while we want to help those affected by
the disaster; doing that in an environment that is as politically and socially
constrained as Japan is makes doing any work there very difficult.
The problems in Japan are daunting and
deteriorating, and while the potential global impact of the ongoing crisis are
serious too; the immediate issues are all in-house. We have been offering support since the
tsunami and nuclear accident through our charities; but it’s more clear to us
now that much more needs to be done.
What we are going to have a lot of trouble with, though, is getting
anything done with all of the obstacles being thrown in the way with nearly
every foreign offer of Fukushima-related aid or expertise. This is not the first time that I wish I
could just go there and fix the problems, but I’m not sure that even the
combined power of every Magi in Witch Falls could deal with a problem that big –
even if we could do something that big without revealing ourselves to the
world.
Compared to those issues, the economic
problems in Japan seem less-critical; but in many ways, those issues are just
as important. The governments in Japan
can’t deal with the disaster expenses without money; and that’s a fairly big
problem in a deteriorating economic situation.
I’m definitely not going into all of those details, but if you are
trying to read yourself to sleep; there are other places in the archives where
you can find all of the snooze-inducing financial boredom you’d ever need for
that purpose. Let’s just say that we
have big challenges in Japan, and while we will keep trying to find new ways to
help out; we don’t and won’t force our aid on anyone if they don’t want it.
I’m tempted to go on a little rant here
about the idiocy of pride – both personal and national – but I won’t go there
either. We would have a much happier
planet to live on if there was a lot less of the bad kinds of pride, but that
isn’t likely going to change anytime soon.
Moving along, and as mentioned already;
Grandma and Grandpa are in South Korea, and they’ll be starting out their visit
there with a play and sightseeing day before getting back to work for a few
days. Our family business and charity
interests in South Korea are a bit different than is a lot of other places
because we use that country – and others – as a stepping stone into North Korea. We would like to do so much more to help the
people there; but that’s one of the tougher countries to work in and we have
very limited success there – and a few too many failures. I’ll do another update on that part of their
trip in a couple of weeks, but while we’d like to make some progress with our
operations there; it’s mostly about starting to build relationships right now
with a view for the long term.
I guess that’s it for the travel news for
now, so let’s talk bike trips next.
That needs to start with the football
report, since our ride started out with the hop over to the Norton’s farm for
Tim’s football workout with Michael and Lucas.
Rebecca biked out there with us; but she didn’t go on the ride to Maple
Valley with Michael, Tim, Rowen, and me.
Lucas had invited some of his ‘farm kid’ friends and football players or
hopefuls; and had four guys answer the call – and get out of their chores for a
couple of hours to do that with him.
Garth Green, Luke Taylor, and the Johnson brothers – Jason and Marc –
all know Lucas pretty well; and Garth and Luke were particularly interested in
finding out what Lucas had been doing hanging out with Michael and Tim – as if
getting to spend extra time with Rebecca wasn’t enough of a reason.
While I’m thinking along those lines, it
was a bit weird for Rebecca to be there with Lucas while Jason was there too;
but he honestly didn’t seem to have a problem with the situation at all. I’d actually suggest that Garth was the one
feeling a bit jealous of Lucas today – and possibly wishing that he’d tried
dating Rebecca instead of Jenny. He’s
mellowing a bit this summer from what I saw today, but I still can’t see him as
Rebecca’s type at all; and he definitely wasn’t a year ago when making the
football team had his ego flying high.
He’s a big, strong guy, and I’m sure that he’ll make the team again this
year; but he also needs to do some work considering how he stacked up against
most of the other guys this morning. In
his case, being big did not help him with the drills Tim is running, though to
be fair to him; he shouldn’t be able to keep up with guys who are hoping to be
receivers or running backs – at least not for more than the first ten or
fifteen yards.
Rowen and I ran most of the usual drills
with the boys, and I quarterbacked again too; but the fun level for us is going
down a bit the more guys Tim has working out with him. We get razzed no matter how well we do; and
that gets old fast. I resisted the urge
to toss a couple of really hard throws at a couple of the guys who were the
worst offenders for that, but I’ll also leave them nameless here and not embarrass
them over that kind of teen nuttiness.
Let’s not add to the already bloated list of stories that come back to
haunt us time and again; and this just isn’t that big of a deal.
The time is coming when Rowen and I will
start sitting out the football training, though; so don’t be surprised if that
happens well-ahead of the actual opening of the football training camp. I’ll guess that will happen for me just as
soon as Tim gets someone working with them who can throw the ball with some
minimal amount of accuracy for their route-running drills – something he doesn’t
have now if it wasn’t for me helping out.
I’ve had enough of the football reporting,
so let’s move on to the bike ride to Maple Valley adventure part of our day.
We had another awesome day for biking – not
too hot; but warm enough to be comfortable in tees and shorts. Before I get to that, I’ll mention that we
did not leave Rebecca to ride back to town by herself. She stayed at the farm with Lucas and Emma;
and got a ride back with Claire after having lunch with them. Claire is also thrilled with her oldest son’s
choice of girlfriend; and has apparently warned him not to mess it up because
she’s decided to keep Rebecca and disown him if he does.
I don’t actually know for sure whether she’s
joking about that or not. ;^)
Our ride to Maple Valley was faster than
the one to Brookbridge because we could kick up the pace quite a bit compared
to biking with Dawn, Jillian, and the others.
I should have visited Maple Valley in the summer before now. It’s a lot more fun to wander around when it’s
hot out – even without the festival activities.
There isn’t anything bigger than a creek in town, but there is a small
lake or big pond at the park; and cooling off with a swim was an option. We had our picnic lunch there too, and spent
nearly two hours there before needing to hit the road again and head home.
We’re not going to get that many more
chances to do these all-day rides this summer, but I have to say that we really
had a lot of fun with just the four of us, and it didn’t feel nearly as tough
of a workout with the faster speed and shorter time each way. The Tour de France winner doesn’t have
anything to worry about from us anytime soon; but I think we did pretty well
for our age covering about seventy miles in total in one day.
After getting home, we went for a swim with
Ethan and Ehlana, and then Rowen and Tim left while Michael stayed for dinner
before we needed to get to the church for our teen praise team practice. We spent more than an hour doing that to get
ready for the service on Sunday; and then we went back to my house for another
swim with the twins. Mom did a Magi
lesson with us after that; we spent a little time playing with Ethan and Ehlana
before putting them to bed; and then Michael had I had a second night in a row
with a bit of play time for two in the lounge.
We also didn’t really watch a movie; and wrapped up our night with a
bedtime swim before he went home and I came back up to my room and got ready
for bed.
I needed to get some work done tonight; so
I’ve been working on my computer for an hour and a half and change. That’s mostly been family business-related;
though there were a few emails to read and answer too. We’re mostly doing a work day tomorrow, so the
fun level will be dropping for a day or two – at least until our Thursday night
camping adventure. We’re definitely not
going to do any more major biking trips, and while we’ve talked about another
canoe trip; that won’t likely happen this week either.
There isn’t anything else to cover tonight,
and I’m starting to get tired out; so let’s just wrap this up and call it a
night.
Until next time...
...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of
the Light!
