This update could be a bit ragged, since it’s
been a very long day; and feeling that way could very well show up in my
writing tonight.
We had rain and thunderstorms in the
forecast for most of the day, so it was nice to dodge pretty much all of that
during football camp; cheerleader tryouts; and our marching band and teen praise
team practices today. The weather was
really nice for Tai Chi too, but I won’t say that was the case for the rest of
the day. Sure, we avoided the rain, but
the downside of that was a higher temperature than forecast – higher to the
tune of over one hundred on that ‘feels like’ scale. That made our afternoon workouts and marching
band practice fairly draining; but I’ll get to that part of the story in a
minute.
As I mentioned, Tai Chi by the river was
good; Michael and I split up for breakfast; and then we walked to the school
together once we were both ready to go there.
Mom, Ethan, and Ehlana spent the morning at the lab after Mom did a bit
of work around the house first; and then I missed out on a play afternoon with
Naomi and Aiden – though they ended up spending half the afternoon indoors when
it got too hot out to play. Dad’s busy
at the office this week; and there seems to be more work for him heading into
the end of the month – particularly with some of his farmer clients as we head
toward harvest and they deal with changes and plans that often have to do with
work going on through the lab. I’m sure
there are better places in the archives to read all about how that part of the
lab business is going, but I will mention that every farmer working with the
lab is doing better with the new crops that Ehlana has helped to create.
Our tryouts ended up being a bit different
today compared to my first two years of doing them. That was because Jenny surprised pretty much
all of us by going ahead and picking her squad at the end of the
afternoon. I don’t know if it was the
heat or some other factors, but while I wouldn’t have done it that way; I also
didn’t disagree with her choices. Our
six returning cheerleaders are back; and the Grade Nine picks were Emma Norton
and Bethany Cane. Shannon’s boyfriend,
Gil, is Bethany’s brother; so they’re both happy to be on the team
together. Emma’s just as happy to be on
the team with Rowen and me; and I know she’ll have a lot of fun with us.
I’ve skipped over the morning workout news,
but as I think about it; having Jenny pick the squad really is the main news of
the day. The other girls are
disappointed, and Jenny could have handled that a bit better too; but the rest
of us picked up the slack on that and I think we’ll all be okay. Of course there is the possibility that we
were all just too drained by then to think anything; but my day wasn’t even
close to being over; so let’s move this along.
Jenny wrapped up our day with those
announcements at around three-thirty, and today, instead of waiting for Michael
and Tim; Rowen and I headed for our homes to hit the showers; get changed; and
bring food back for all four of us before we’d be starting marching band
practice. That was partly because I
needed to be back at the school early to help with incoming orders and money
for the fruit and vegetable boxes, and since they’ll be here on the Friday of
the long weekend; that kept me busy right up until the practice started. This is the last holiday weekend order until
Thanksgiving; so I was really happy to see that most of my fellow band members
took advantage of the opportunity to sell the extra boxes to visiting family
and friends – or to family and friends they’ll be going away to visit this
year.
Band practice was longer than usual despite
the extreme heat, but we needed to make sure that we were ready for the game on
Friday night; and also needed to work out the logistics of that. We won’t have all of the Maple Valley members
for most games because they’re either on the Maple Valley football team or
cheerleading squad; but we’ll still have more than enough musicians on each
instrument to make do; and we’ll shuffle a few parts around for the games. As I’ve mentioned before, our half-time
routine isn’t going to get us an invitation to a college bowl or pro game – or even
a big high school match, but we do sound good; and we’ll likely surprise our
small-town crowds.
So, we worked late at our band practice; that
meant that we were late getting started on our teen praise team practice; and putting
in some extra time on that practice too all added up to no time for any Michael
and me time once we could finally go home for the night. The teen praise team practice went great too,
but we were also all running out of steam by then; and that contributed to the
need for an extra run-through on some of the songs we’ll be singing on the
holiday weekend. I didn’t stay for long
at Michael’s house, but by then, he was in need of some proactive healing; so I
helped him out with that; kissed him goodnight; and then came home so that I
could get to work on my family business to-do list.
Before getting to that, I had a visit with
Mom and Dad; took care of getting Ethan and Ehlana tucked in for the night; and
then filled the tub so that I could enjoy some Jacuzzi time while multi-tasking
the work. Despite the fact that I was
already pretty much fried by then, I time phased the soak in the tub and all of
the work too; which is the only reason that I’m not still awake and writing
this report at three or four in the morning.
The work is done, though, and I can still get a handful of hours of down
time before I’ll need to be awake and going at full-speed again; so it will
hopefully be worth the effort.
I’ll let you know about that, but that’s
all I have for now; I really do need to crash and nap sooner than later; and I
can always add anything I might have missed with the next update anyway; so,
until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
