There are not any Magi currently serving in
any of the armed forces, or living Magi veterans either, but since it is
possible that future Magi reading this might also be vets or members of the
military; I’ll begin this Memorial Day report with a big “Thank-you!” for your
sacrifices – and those of all of our nation’s past, present, and future military
members.
Somehow, our weather here today seemed to
perfectly fit in with the solemnity of the day.
We had rain around breakfast time that fit the occasion; and then it
cleared up in time for the parade, ceremony at the cemetery, and most of the
picnic in the park.
That rain didn’t start until shortly after
we finished our Tai Chi workout by the river; and that was the last bit of calm
that I had through until the start of the parade. I helped out with breakfast; enjoyed the meal
with my family; and then had to rush around to get ready for the day and get
down to the falls where the parade was being staged – or at least the part of
it that the school band was in. They’re
using part of Ridge Road to stage the parade now too; since it’s grown a bit
since my first year here. Michael and
Rowen met up with me for that walk; and we were busy with that for nearly an
hour before parade time; since we needed to set up the trailer with the chairs,
music stands, and the rest of our gear before tuning up and doing a short
warm-up.
Everything about Memorial Day still amazes
me here in our little town. The
sentiment is real and personal when nearly everyone has a relative, friend, or
neighbor that was a vet or serves in the military. Mom and I are among the few exceptions to
that, but then we’ve been adopted; and the family histories are ours too
now. Being in the band feels special,
and while the music was obviously appropriate for Memorial Day; we played our
very best and did a great job. It’s
moving to go along the short parade route and see basically everyone in the
area out and supporting our military; and having all of the flags along the
main street at half-mast had my heart swelling with pride for our town.
I’ve mentioned it before, but we really do
commemorate Memorial Day the way it should be done.
The service at the cemetery was moving too,
and Pastor John led the service with help from his parents and a few dignitaries. While that ceremony means a lot to everyone,
I’ll be honest and admit that my favorite part of the morning is the family
walk and story-telling that follows the ceremony. This year, Michael and I went around with the
Bassett family. Their history is as deep
as it is for the Proctors and Johnsons; and I loved hearing all of the stories
from Michael’s Bassett grandparents, aunts, and uncles.
While we’d been busy, or at least immersed
in Memorial Day activities to that point; Michael and I were back to hyper-busy
for a while once we left the cemetery.
We helped out with packing up the gear from the band trailer; headed
home; and then helped out with getting our family contributions for the picnic
over to the park. I don’t know if the
new playground and paths had anything to do with it; but the park seemed even
more packed than ever before for a Memorial Day picnic. The grandparents even had a tough time
finding an area big enough for all of us to set up our day camp – and we didn’t
even have as big a group as we sometimes do for holiday weekends.
Once we had everything at the park, Michael
and I were assigned kid control duty along with Dawn, Violet, and Dillon. Chris, Martin, and Jonathan took off before
they could be drafted too; and went to hang out with some of their local
friends.
Speaking of local friends, I should have
mentioned it yesterday, but Jenny has hooked up with Joel Alden again this
weekend! He’s here for the weekend to
see his father; and they’ve apparently spent more time together than he’s spent
with his Dad. He’s also apparently
landed a job here for the summer on one of the construction crews; so I sense
that there is a strong possibility that Jenny’s already found her next summer
romance.
Okay, she also pretty much told Rebecca and
I that at the Inn yesterday too, but I could have guessed that since Joel’s got
an older teen version of the bad boy thing still going on; is really
good-looking; and now drives a Mustang.
Add in the fact that he’s an out-of-towner; and Jenny just can’t help
falling for him – again! ;^)
Getting back to the picnic, we played for
nearly an hour; enjoyed the picnic food way too much; and then Michael and I
were set free to go out and play with our friends and family. Dawn came with us; we met up with Rowen, Tim,
Rebecca, Lucas, Jenny, and Joel; and then we joined in to play some of the
games going on around the park. Michael and
I managed to fit in some cameo family time too – both with my family and his;
so we still managed to keep really busy even while we were just goofing off and
having fun too. There was a break in
that action for the National Moment of Silence, and then one more while most of
us took what cover we could find while we had our little afternoon rain shower;
but it was all fun and games for the rest of the afternoon right up until the
time we needed to get back to work and help out with getting our picnic and
empty food container gear back home again.
For the traveling members of our family,
the bad news about having so much fun was that we didn’t leave the park as
early as we should have; which meant that they all got a late start for their
respective trips home once everyone had packed and the vehicles were all loaded
up. Michael and I split our time while
doing that – and split up for a while too when Violet and I were busy with Dawn
as she packed and had to say goodbye to her very favorite big sister. I stopped in to do some goodbye hugs and
kisses at Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne’s house too; did the final goodbyes at my
house; and then Michael and I had some more free time after the Rice clan had
left until dinnertime.
Oh wait – I should say that we did our
weekend homework then and not mention that we cheated and I used a time-phase
to get that done in minutes of ‘real’ time so that we could enjoy a minor
make-out session in the lounge during the rest of that alone time. ;^)
Michael stayed for a snack dinner, and
since we had beautiful weather for the evening; we took Ethan and Ehlana for a
canoe ride upriver for an hour or so while Mom and Dad were busy in the office
and running some loads of laundry. Violet was at Dillon’s house for dinner and a
sleepover, so after getting back and dropping the twins off with Mom and Dad;
Michael and I went over to his house to visit with his parents, Jake,
Stephanie, and Rebecca. We did that
outside too; and enjoyed the quiet wind-down from our amazing weekend.
That wasn’t totally a wind down for me,
since I had to get home and started on my usual school night studies and work
after that; but I was relaxed when I joined my parents, brother, and sister in
the office at a bit before ten o’clock and got started on my Magi lesson with
Mom. Ethan and Ehlana had been working
on their college classes by then; and they kept doing that until Mom sent the
three of us up to bed at eleven o’clock.
I took care of getting them tucked in for the night; Ehlana and I had a
little sister-time chat; and then I opted for multi-tasking a Jacuzzi session
with my language studies. That started
more than three hours ago, and while I could do more work; I’ve had enough fun
for today and need to get some sleep.
It’s been a really great weekend even with
Sunday being a bit of a wash-out; but we’ll be back to life as usual starting
tomorrow – with the added workload of getting serious about our upcoming final
exams. There will be some fun along the
way to the end of the school year too, and it isn’t as though I have to worry
about doing well on my exams; but I expect to be even busier than we were for
mid-terms this year when it comes to tutoring my friends. I seriously doubt that any of my classmates
will opt-out of our group study sessions this time; and I’m going to try to
have as much fun with that as possible.
Anyway, that is it for now, and I’m
seriously ready for the nap time; so, until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
