Happy 36th Birthday, Patricia!
I was too busy to have much to do with
Patricia’s big day, but I did stop in to drop off her gift from Michael and me
on the way to school; and Rowen’s having a sleepover here while her parents get
a kid-free night. That, by the way, is
good for them, but not really a big deal this time; since they’re going to get
a week of kid-free nights while Rowen and Patrick are in Florida with the
band. Owen also hosted a birthday dinner
for her, and Mom and Dad were two of the guests; but Rowen and Patrick missed
that too while we were at the marching band practice.
Before I get to the rest of the update, I’m
going to write about the weather for a moment.
I didn’t mention it in the last report, but
the weather here was pretty good – and not much cooler than it was in Orlando
yesterday. That got a lot of attention
from the band teens and tweens – along with earning some jokes about that from
the students that won’t be going along on the trip. A few of them might even be privately hoping
for warmer weather here compared to Florida next week, but that would be for
the entertainment value – not because they’re jealous. That’s definitely true, by the way; since there aren’t any
students staying behind that couldn’t have signed up to do something with the
band – even the few with no musical talent at all. Getting back to the weather thing, though; we’ve
had another nice day here to wrap up the month, but it was a bit cooler; and we
were happy to see that it is getting warmer in Orlando again. That trend is going to continue; we’re in for
at least a few days of cold heading into the weekend; and we should get daily
highs into the upper seventies while we’re in Florida.
Let’s hope that the forecasters aren’t just
messing with us!
Having the decent weather here made our
last marching band practice much more comfortable than it should be for the
last day of January. That was good for
us, but it was also more fun because we included a march around the two blocks
for the school and church as part of our parade practice; and we had quite a
few spectators that came outside to watch the show – including walking a block
or two to stand on the sidewalks and watch the show. That support was awesome; and we’re feeling
great about being ready for the big stage next week! Our practice went perfectly, and I’m glad of
that; but I’m happier to be finished with the fundraising work. I had to deal with the last bits of that
between the band practices; we finished making sure that all band members are
set up with the uniform options we might need in Florida; and we handed out the
finalized itinerary and the rest of the travel packages for both the band
members and their families.
I’ve skipped the concert band practice, but
we did have our last practice for that ahead of the seniors’ Valentine’s Day
party that we’ll be playing at on Valentine’s Day; so we worked hard to get
ready for that too – even if that wasn’t as exciting or intense as the marching
band practice. We were late getting out
of those two practices; so that led to a late start and end for our teen praise
team practice. I wouldn’t suggest that
our last practice was a disappointment after the marching band fun, but it was
a bit tougher than usual to stay motivated by then. I do love the music, though, and it’s always
fun to sing and play with Michael; so we managed to get through that hour and a
quarter of praise and worship prep time before heading home – to my house.
Rowen and Tim met up with Michael and me
again. They’d been at her house for some
birthday time with her mother after marching band practice, but we all still
had to do our homework; so the boys were with us for that – and a bit of cuddle
and chat time in the lounge once we had the work done. The homework took an hour at normal speed; we
watched music videos while cuddling and chatting after that; and then the boys
went home at a bit before midnight. I
got to work after Rowen and I saw our boys out and on their way home; and she
opted for some quality Jacuzzi time while I did that. A time phase was an option, and I included
the bathroom so that Rowen could have a long oak in the tub and still get to
sleep in decent time. You’ll find this
next bit of information interesting because I stayed in that time phase for a
while after Rowen fell asleep. We had
some girl chat time before she did that, and it had taken what would have been
a while for her post-bath hair care before she joined Mandy and me in bed; but
the really interesting part of this bit of news is that Rowen will get to have
a really good night of rest thanks to the time phase!
That wasn’t something I was thinking about
at first after she fell asleep, but I became aware of the fact that Rowen was
getting hours of sleep while I was putting in the extra hours of work I wanted
to get done tonight. I dropped the time
phase when she was up to nearly four hours of nap time. If I’d continued; she’d have been waking up
fully-rested by the time I was done my work and ready to get some sleep. Making that change wasn’t a big deal for my
work; since I needed to do some of the jobs in real time anyway; but it is
something to think about experimenting with in the future. I can’t do that for myself, but it could be
an occasional option for my parents and the twins if I’m working anyway. I’d also need to measure the benefits against
just using healing to help restore someone from being fatigued, and while that
wasn’t an issue tonight when Rowen was inside my time phase anyway; extending
my time phase to include the second floor or the entire house would be a
significant power drain compared to healing.
I don’t really want to spend more time on
theory or practical uses of time phases right now. Rowen may be getting a great night of sleep,
but I’ll only have time for a nap – and self-healing will be required when we
do wake up in a couple or three hours.
While I’ve missed writing about the rest of my day other than the
micro-visit with Patricia before school, there really isn’t anything newsworthy
to report from my morning routine at home or our school day. Now that our last band practice before the
trip is done; the next three days are really just hours to get through between
now and the big adventure. I still have
at least one tough work day to get through too, though, and I really do need to
get all of the nap time I still can have before morning; so, until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
