We’re starting the second half of the
month; and that began early for everyone in our house as we all got up to visit
with Dad and see him off to the city.
That was easier for me to do after going to
bed so much earlier than I normally do on Sunday nights; and we had fun with
that little blast of early-morning action before Dad hit the road and Mom,
Ethan, Ehlana, and I moved on to our usual group cuddle and nap. Tai Chi by the river without Dad wasn’t quite
as much fun as usual, but we had a break in the rain that started overnight and
continued off and on all day; so we were glad to be able to exercise
outdoors. Breakfast in the sunroom
included a few Olde Bakery leftovers from Sunday; and enjoying that meal in the
sunroom is still a new favorite part of my day when we can do that. Michael didn’t stay for breakfast with us,
but he also didn’t need to rush off to morning weight training either. Tim may still have some morning workouts
between now and the New Year; but they might also end up taking a break and
starting up again sometime after we go back to school in January.
Before I continue on with the rest of the
news from home; I have one family event to add – though we didn’t have much
involvement in the celebration.
Happy 8th Birthday, Kaitlyn!
We’d sent gifts, and had a very short phone
call with Kaitlyn, her parents, sister, and brother; but that was barely enough
time to wish her the best and hear nothing about her birthday plans because she
had no idea what they were at the time.
Her surprises were more along the lines of what she was doing and where
than a surprise party; and I now know that her after-school and evening
entertainment included dinner out at her favorite restaurant; and a play night
at an indoor sports center that isn’t quite the same as SportsFusion in Crystal
Springs; but similar. A sleepover for a
couple of her friends is likely in sleep mode by now; and I’m sure that all of
that was more fun than my evening has been – even though getting to spend my
time with Michael has been pretty good.
He was ready for a break from school and
the rest of our friends by then – and from some of the guys on the football
team. That was entirely because there
was too much time spent hearing condolences that were often more appropriate
for something serious instead of a football game loss; and the rest was because
he didn’t like the excuses that Jason and some of the other senior players were
telling anyone that would listen. Sure,
our team made mistakes, but we didn’t embarrass ourselves; and simply got beat
by a better team. Michael, Tim, and
Lucas didn’t want anything to do with making excuses – and they had a real
problem with some comments that were too personal toward a few of the younger
guys; as well as being wrong. I’m not
going to go there with any details, since that’ll just get me annoyed too; so
let’s just move along and just add that even here in our nice little town there
are some guys that can act like total jerks.
The football game should be old news by
tomorrow, and the rest of our school day was actually pretty good. Having the bonus of getting done for the
school day early now that we don’t have football and cheerleading practices was
one of the top reasons for that; though we had fun in all of our classes
too. We briefly debated doing our
homework with Rowen and Tim; but we decided to split up for the rest of the day
and have some couples and family time instead.
Michael came home with me; we did our
homework; helped out with making dinner; and then we took care of the clean-up
before meeting up with Mom, Ethan, and Ehlana in the office. Mom took a break from her work to do a Magi
lesson with Michael and me; and then she got back to work while the rest of us
came up to the lounge to have some music play time and watch a show together
until it was time to put Ethan and Ehlana to bed. Michael and I had some alone time after that,
and while we didn’t watch a movie, play video games, or even talk very much; we
did have a fair bit of non-verbal fun until he needed to head home for the
night.
That play time meant a late start to my
bedtime studies and family business work; and Mom and I had a bit of girl chat
time after Michael left too; so it was nearly eleven-thirty by the time she
went to her room for a soak in the Jacuzzi and I came up to my room and
snuggled in bed with Mandy and my computer.
The work and studying kept be busy for more than three hours, and I did
a bit of surfing on the web after that; so it’s getting fairly late – and I’m seriously
worn out now. Before wrapping this up,
though, I’m going to need to add a comment or three about the news surrounding
the terrorist attacks in Paris last Friday.
I don’t normally write very much about the
news around the world because there is just so much of it; and there are better
sources than my journal for getting the current events news for my time in your
‘now’. It’s time for an exception to
that general rule not because of the attacks themselves; but because of the
reactions of people – whether they’re close to the action in France or half-way
around the world from it. Yes, the
attacks were awful, and we have a real mess in the world hanks to everything
that’s going on in the Middle East and other countries. There are a lot of reasons for those issues
that I won’t get into either; since this is about the fear and emotional
responses to the attacks, deaths, and injuries in Paris.
In a nutshell, I’d like to suggest that
people in general need to get a grip and deal with reality instead of being
afraid and striking out in search of revenge. Some perspective would be good too, and while
I wouldn’t dream of minimizing the seriousness of the situation in Paris; there
was nowhere near this much outrage over the Russians killed in the plane crash
in Egypt that may very well have been a terrorist bombing; and barely a whisper
by comparison for the wedding attacks in Yemen and elsewhere that have killed
hundreds if not thousands. Those are
just recent examples, and there are far worse ones in history that didn’t get
as much attention as this attack.
We’ve collectively seemed to have lost the
ability to apply perspective to situations; and that’s creating a lot of stress
between people, different groups, and nations.
I’m not offering answers here; though sometimes I’d really like to offer
a Magi intervention to help fix as many of these problems as I could. That isn’t going to happen; so let’s hope
that cooler heads prevail and this doesn’t spiral into an even broader
conflict. The last thing we need on this
little planet of ours is more war and hatred.
Unfortunately, we’re not hearing much love being spread around right now
– especially by our leaders or the media that seems more interested in
spreading fear and inciting hatred than in helping to defuse the situation.
Okay, let’s move on and wrap this up. I really am tired; so ranting about things
that I have no control over anyway is just a waste of time. Since you’re reading this in the future, you’ll
likely know more about how all of these conflicts work out anyway; or you can just
look it up in the archives somewhere if you don’t. I’ll have to wait for my near future to
unfold, though, and the only thing I can tell you for sure is that sleeping is
in my immediate future. I’m going to get
started on that right now; so, until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
