Ehlana and Ethan:
We’re home and indoors tonight; our best
friends are with their own families; and we’re all going to catch up on our
sleep tonight while taking a break from camping and enjoying the comforts of
our bedrooms. Our play day yesterday,
camping last night; and more outdoor fun today was all really awesome, but not
newsworthy, so we’ll move on; and offer some commentary on local and world news
instead for this report.
Coronavirus issues continue around the
world; though the hotspots are moving around – either within countries or in
new places. The reported numbers are
growing fast; and we wish that more people – and especially the world leaders –
would look at this pandemic as something we need to deal with together. We mean that on a global level, since while
some countries have made efforts to help outside of their borders; most have
not; and that’s true within countries too as even local regions fight over
limited resources to fight the pandemic.
That isn’t a suggestion that we disagree with policies that restrict
travel and encourage social distancing and lockdowns where necessary, but we do
have a problem with how a lot of that has been done; and those restrictions don’t
also have to keep us from helping each other around the world. We definitely shouldn’t be feeling good or
comfortable here at home while the pandemic is devastating people, families, communities,
and countries just because it doesn’t affect us personally.
That ought to be true for any crises and
problems that are constantly going on, but should be especially-true right now.
Ranting about this in our journals won’t make
any difference; so we’re really only offering our commentary because this is
going to continue to be an emergency through the rest of this year – and possibly
for years to come. The big increases in
new cases both in our country and elsewhere is also affecting us here at home –
even as we still haven’t had even one local case. We do see the new outbreaks in the places
that were first to ease their pandemic restrictions; and that’s affecting our
community and plans for the summer. The
most-obvious for the near-future is what we will and won’t be doing over the
holiday weekend; since we’re trying to balance keeping safe while still having
at least some holiday fun.
The Fourth of July is also one of the
biggest holidays for our local businesses; so trying to help them to survive a
tough year is important too – if not as important as keeping everyone safe and
healthy. We’re glad that those choices
aren’t ours to make – and won’t be anytime soon, but since our parents are
involved; we do agree with pretty much everything we’re doing in our little
town – even when that’ll mean a comparatively-quiet holiday weekend. We’ll have more on that next weekend – and next
week; since we are also working on plans for still having the annual cousins’
vacation visits. That’s something to
look forward to – as well as a reason for us to wrap this up and get some sleep
soon; since tomorrow is going to be a holiday weekend prep-chores day for
pretty much everyone in town.
Before we do that; we’ll also add an update
for Cassie, Michael and May. They’re
looking forward to the weekend, and while Cassie has to study for mid-terms
too; they’re going to try and have some fun as well – including a visit to
Eagle Gorge that will be a play-study session for Cassie and her summer school
buddies while Michael, May, and the others that are going along get to play all
day. That’s going to be a lot more fun
than we’ll have, but since we have been able to play all week; we can’t
complain about anything.
There is rain in the forecast for tomorrow;
so we reserve the right to change our minds about that by the time we get
around to our next update if we end up having a wet, messy work day! ;^)
Finally, getting back to one final comment
about the pandemic; we should mention that we hit another milestone –
two-and-a-half million confirmed cases in our country. We’ll also hit ten million cases worldwide
this weekend – up another million in under a week, and while that seems huge;
it’s really still just the beginning when looking at this from the perspective
of the total world population – or for here in our country. Regardless of anyone’s view on under-counting
actual cases; we expect those numbers to keep growing – though not without
pauses and plateaus just as we’ve already seen as first waves of the virus move
through different countries.
Let’s stop with that instead of ranting on;
we’ll go get some sleep; and then do what we can to help out in our own small
ways – with the chores that are boring, everyday things; but are needed to keep
the world going – even for junior Magi Masters.
Mom might let us have some Magi-powered fun with the indoors chores, but
that isn’t an option for the yard work; so we’ll have to do those chores the
hard way – like everyone else.
If that isn’t true for you whenever you’re
reading this in our future; we’ll either be jealous; or still around and
enjoying the ability to openly use our Magi talents. You decide whether we’re foreseeing that
future or not! ;^)
This is Ehlana and Ethan Proctor; live from
the hidden home of the Magi of the Light – and May the Magi Force be with you!
