The weather forecasters are not going to
get any phone calls today about being more than a bit off on their predictions
for today; but that’s only because the nicer-than-expected temperatures and
lack of rain were to our benefit. The ‘feels
like’ high reached eighty; with the official ‘real’ temperature in the
mid-seventies. We did have a lot of
clouds except for a few hours of sunshine around dinnertime; but the only rain
we ended up getting came tonight – after dark; when nobody cared about it except
for the farmers that were happy to have some rain.
Tai Chi by the river this morning was again
a lot of fun; though we won’t get to do that every day as the weather keeps
jumping all over the place from day-to-day.
The warm weather did also allow for more outdoor time at school –
including at lunch; so that was fun; and that helped to make up for the testing
we’re doing this week ahead of March Break.
That isn’t anything major; so don’t expect to hear anything else about
that – though I’ll add that I don’t really bother studying for most of those ‘normal’
tests unless I need to do it for show with some friends. I do still help with tutoring at school or by
phone or computer chats; but that’s not ever newsworthy – at least compared to
the more intense studying my classmates want to do at mid-terms and final
exams.
Michael and I had some play time after
school; we went biking at the park without the twins or their friends so that
we could bike some of the more extreme trails; and then we were at his house for
a barbeque dinner that we had out on the back porch because it was so nice out. We did our homework after that – and after
doing the dishes; but then I came home for the family business and future plans
meeting that Mom and Dad were hosting. I’m
way overdue for an update on that; so let’s just get to the latest highlights.
First up, from my perspective, is the new
apartment building in the new section of town – the only one that will be on
the river unless we need another expansion sometime in the future. That’s important to me because it will soon
be home to some of our favorite collegians – including Jake and Stephanie, Christina
and Josiah, and Violet and Dillon. Yes,
two of those couples still have a year to go before they’ll be done college,
but they’ll have their apartments for this coming summer, holidays, and the
work experience that they’ll all be doing here at home – either at the lab or
elsewhere. That’s going to be a surprise
for four of them; though they’ll know about it soon – since they will need to
deal with the real life details like signing leases. They’re all getting some financial support
for their new homes; but I won’t add those details here; since it’s really just
between them and our families – and not anything important for anyone else
either.
That does remind me that we’re closing in
on only two more months before Jake and Stephanie will be home to stay; and I’m
glad that we’ll have more than a year here with them before Michael and I will
be off to college.
While I’m thinking about that; my plans
were discussed tonight too; and I suppose it’s about time to write more about
the five years I’ll be away at school – especially since I’ll need to work on
that with Michael, Rowen, and Tim fairly soon now. Aunt Leanne has purchased the townhome
development project through the family business where we’ll be leasing two
townhomes – one for Rowen and me; and one for Michael and Tim. We’re doing that because we can then live
off-campus while going to college – and I really need to be able to do that to
keep using my Magi talents to do my work and all of the studying I’ll have with
a very heavy class schedule. My plan is
to earn my PhD in five years, so that will include a near-double class load and
going full-time during summer sessions too.
Michael, Tim, and Rowen are all going to earn Master’s degrees in their
own fields; so they’ll be able to take summers off to come home and work at the
Inn, store, and shop to help pay for everything.
I know for sure what the numbers will be
for those townhouse leases, and while that really doesn’t matter much to me; it’s
important for working out the budgets that we’ll need to get the parents to
approve – along with proving to at least two of them that we’ll be better off
living off-campus than in the residential halls. I’ll make the math work one way or another;
but don’t really expect that to be a problem – especially when we will be
staying in-State instead of going somewhere exotic or winter-friendly. There are better schools for all of us, but
our State college has decent programs for all four of us; and there are other
reasons for me to stay relatively-close to home.
Let’s move this along; or I’ll still be
writing this when it’s time to get up for Tai Chi again.
Next up is the Inn. The expansion is going to be done ahead of
schedule; though the official opening won’t be until the weekend after Memorial
Day. The guest rooms will all be done in
time for the Memorial Day weekend; but they’re also fully booked for Violet and
Dillon’s wedding on that Saturday. We
didn’t discuss the wedding tonight; but we did talk about that grand opening –
because the rooms will all be used for the weekend by local couples – and they’ll
all be enjoying a kid-free weekend while getting to try out the luxurious new
rooms.
The Memorial Day weekend will also include
other future plans and local projects that will be completed; with the first
one I want to write about being the park and town trails. The loop that goes all the way around town;
and all of the biking and walking trails in the park will be finished for sure –
especially now that we keep having such great weather for working on them. The trail to the west and south of town will
be around the base of the ridge; it’ll pass between the homes and cemetery on
the east side; and go from the new section of town to the park along the north
side of the river – across the road from the lab and med center. Michael and I rode on some of the new trails
in the park today; and that is going to be a real draw for both local families
and visitors.
Sticking with the biking theme; bike
rentals and trails will be opening at Quarry Lake this year too; and as they
continue to expand their park and campgrounds; they have some great woodlands
and old quarry areas for those trails. I
can hardly wait to get out there and give them a try too!
The week ahead of Memorial Day will be when
the new apartment building will likely open; and that will also conveniently
work out with our newlyweds so that they can get their place set up ahead of
the wedding.
As I mentioned, we didn’t talk about that
tonight; but Violet and Dillon’s wedding is one more thing that I’m out of the
loop on too often; yet I should mention more often – especially now that we’re
down to less than three months to go until their big day. They picked the Memorial Day weekend because
it makes travel easier for their families and friends. We’ll have a crazy weekend, and I’ll need to
work at the Inn a lot to help with the extra business that a wedding will
create along with the usual holiday weekend busy; but then it’s also a great
opportunity for Jacob and Miranda to show off the new Inn – and maybe an
expanded menu now that we’ll have two chefs in the house by then! Sure, Jake and Stephanie will be busy with
the wedding too, but they’ll work when they can; and Violet and Dillon’s
wedding guests will love getting to try out the buffets while they’re here on
that Sunday!
Okay, I can write more on that as we get
closer to the wedding; so let’s move along.
We did an update on the projects that will
be worked on in the new section of town; I have some new work to do with
Rebecca and Jenny for their little part of our future plans; and we discussed
some longer-term plans that are going to be needed to get ready for our future
in the five-to-ten year range. That
included discussing re-purposing older building that are going to be empty;
adding new businesses and other infrastructure to our town and the surrounding
area; and even getting ready for the next-steps in the Ascension of the
Light. Yes, that will affect the entire
world; but we need to be ready too – for both the good and bad that will go
along with the ascension.
The family business part of the meeting
wasn’t all that exciting, but I will report that we still managed to have a
decent year despite the problems all over the world, and while it sometimes
seems like we’re hardly making a dent when it comes to making things better
when a hundred other things seem to go wrong for every one problem we solve; we
are doing more with our charities every year too. We’ll need to keep making more money to do
that, though; so I’ll be doing even more whenever I can to help make that
happen – especially this coming summer.
We wrapped up the meeting at ten o’clock;
and then Mom, Dad, Ethan, Ehlana, and I got to work or studying in the office
once our guests had gone home. the twins
had kept the younger kids entertained while we had that meeting, but while they
could have gone to bed then; they opted to work on their doctoral studies
instead. I used a time phase; we worked
until a bit before midnight; and then we all came up to our rooms for the
night. I still had some work left to do
in real time, but only needed an hour or so to do that; so I will at least be
getting to sleep in decent time tonight – if you don’t add in the fact that the
time phase added hours to my day and isn’t really any different that working in
normal time until four or five o’clock.
That is a good reason for me to wrap this
up and get all of the sleep I can, though – especially when I’m sure to have
another late night tomorrow night when I’ll be busy with band and praise team
practices. It’s been a long day, but I
do really love our future plans meetings – and wish I could get to more of them
than I have lately. This is going to be
a fairly-exciting spring and summer around here, and if Michael and I don’t
just end up working day and night; I’ll hope that we get to join in for the fun
that will be going on here – whether that’s enjoying the great outdoors here or
at Quarry Lake; enjoying the new or upgraded dining and shopping; or getting to
have fun with things like family and friends weddings.
I’ll keep you posted on all of that, but I’ve
had enough for tonight; so, until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
