It’s late, and I’m again running on empty,
but there’s a lot of news for today; so let’s get at it.
First and tops on the list is the Inn. While Michael and I were gone, the work on
the new section of the Inn was finished!
That’s the good news for all of us; but the bad is that Michael and I
helped out at the Inn pretty much from the time we finished school until we
were ordered home at midnight – except for eating and doing our homework. Miranda and Jacob decided to do the move this
week into the new kitchen and dining rooms, and while that was a tentative
option if everything was finished; the week after Easter was one of the options
too. Today, they ran the Inn as normal
while also moving everything they could over to the new section. While all of the big kitchen equipment is all
brand new; they did not replace all of the dishes, cutlery, cooking utensils,
and the rest. There is all-new tablecloths
and other things for the dining rooms; but then we needed to get all of that
set up tonight too because they’ll be serving their first meals out of the new
kitchen and into the two smaller dining rooms beginning with breakfast in the
morning.
Michael and I are going to be there for
that; but only to get to be part of it – not because we’re actually
needed. To do the work tonight, we had
to miss our marching band meting; but Michael’s parents needed us more; and Mom
went to the meeting so she’ll tell us what we need to help out with this week –
if anything.
Getting back to the Inn, it’s going to be a
very busy next few days there. Getting
settled into the new kitchen and used to working the two smaller dining rooms
will take time; but there’s still a lot of work that needs to get done too
because the old kitchen and entrance to the Inn is going to be closed off; and
the archway openings between the old and new sections are going to be completed
in time for Jacob and Miranda to be able to use the old dining room for the
breakfast, lunch, and dinners buffets they’re having on Saturday. Some of those archways between the second and
third floors are already done; but the archway between the old dining room and
the new entrance area will need to be completed after the Inn is closed over
the next few nights since the last section they need to finish will be noisy
and probably dirty too. There will be
seating for nearly three hundred and fifty by Saturday, though, so that’s going
to be amazing – and crazy-busy to keep up with if we fill the place for every
buffet!
While we missed out on all of that action
at the Inn and the church last week; a lot of people were involved both places –
including a lot of teens from around town and the country kids too. I’m not exactly worried about losing out on
the work, but I am glad that so many of our friends did actually enjoy making
some pretty decent money while on our break.
Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I had the best vacation stories thanks to our
trip to Colorado; but our friends did more good by a long shot – especially when
it came to helping to get the sanctuary and some other projects finished at the
church. I don’t want to spend much time
on that tonight, but I should mention that there is still a fair bit of work
left to do on the rest of the church expansion for the new kitchen, expanded
fellowship hall, and other new classrooms and offices; but most of that work
will be finished by the end of May or June – in time for a busy summer of
family and friends visits; and the camping season.
On the family front, I’ve been home for
more than two days now; and haven’t spent very much time with Mom, Dad, Ethan,
and Ehlana except in the mornings before church and school. They’re all busy too; but I don’t like that
trade-off – especially tonight when I only saw Ethan and Ehlana for a few
seconds each while they slept on my way up to my room. They haven’t even finished telling me all
about their adventures last week; and we might not get around to finishing that
before they’ll be telling me about the parts of their Easter weekend that I’ll
miss out on while helping out at the Inn on Thursday night and Saturday.
I’ve spent even less time with my aunts,
uncles, and cousins; and don’t expect that to change for the rest of the week
either. Maybe I’ll be able to make up
for that a bit on Friday and Sunday, but then Michael and I have to share
families and juggle time with everyone; so I have no idea if that’ll work out
anyway when I don’t even know what all of the plans are for those days. There won’t be time for me to worry about it
one way or the other anyway; so I’ll just go with whatever happens when we get
there.
That’s basically what I’ve done tonight
too, and not getting home until a bit after midnight really put me behind on my
‘real’ job and studies. I spent two
hours on the family business; an hour and a half on the language studies after
taking a week off; and wrapped up with my usual computer and email checks. All of that was fairly interesting; and I did
some good work with the family business to make up for the work I didn’t help
out with around here last week; but I’m also only going to have time for a nap
now; and it’s going to be tough keeping up with everything on a couple of hours
of sleep a day – even with some Magi-powered self-healing.
While crashing right now would be nice; I
did mention that there’s been a lot going on around here; and I need to catch
up on that in my journal – and stop leaving it until a later that won’t happen
if I get too far behind.
First up for that, let’s talk farming. The warm weather isn’t really all that good
for the farms around here while also being great for getting farm work done
early compared to normal springs. The problem
is that it’s too soon for crops to go in; and the short cold snaps are messing
with everything from the trees and flowers to seedlings that the Greens are
getting ready for the spring planting season with both farmers and all of the
amateur botanists around here – including most of my favorite adults. The one bright spot is the crops being grown
with help from Ehlana and the lab; but the quantities aren’t yet there to help
all of the farmers around here – and that doesn’t help with crops that they
haven’t worked with yet but are very sensitive to wild weather swings.
I hear more about that now because Rebecca
hears about it a lot from Lucas and his parents; but the weather has an impact
for a lot of other things around here.
On the good news side, the new bridge is ahead of schedule; and so is
the work on the park expansion and more new paths that will add some great
exercise and entertainment options for kids of all ages here. The second bridge is really going to be great
for better traffic control across the river – not to mention that it’ll save
everyone in the new section of town a fair bit of driving to get over to the
med center, lab, and park instead of needing to drive down to Witch Falls Road
and back up Quarry Road to get to anywhere across the river.
Outdoor construction in the new section of
town is starting early this year too; though I haven’t had time to go over
there and check that out. The building
is just going to be more houses and townhomes this year; but then we need a
year to grow into the housing that’s already available in town – whether that’s
new homes and apartments or the old ones that have come available because of
upgrades to new homes for others. There
is more going on around here to get ready for the coming summer tourist season,
but I think that’s enough for tonight; and most of those stories won’t be news
until shortly before the Memorial Day weekend.
While I’m thinking about that, and the
action at the Inn is still on my mind too; Jake and Stephanie are starting
their last big stretch of studying in Europe now; and they’ll be home in time
for the Memorial Day weekend too. They
still have a year of school to go after this, but the old Inn still needs to be
remodeled too; so we’re not ready for them to join the permanent full-time
owners yet anyway. It’ll still be fun
having them here this summer – and working with them in the shiny new kitchen –
at least for Michael and me. By next
summer; we’ll have two chefs in the house; and enough room to hold all the
customers that will want to come to the Inn and appreciate their efforts.
That’s definitely getting a bit too far
ahead of things on a night when I’m too tired to go there; but I can’t help
imagining how great it’s going to be at the Inn once all of the remodel work is
done!
I can also imagine falling asleep
mid-sentence, but while it might be funny; I won’t just leave you hanging like
that. It is time to wrap this up, though;
so that’ll have to be enough info for one night.
Until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
