Cassie’s picked the first-half of the trip home for her turn to drive; so I’m getting some work done while we talk about our trip to the big city and our plans for the coming week. Spending the extra few days with May and Lee was great, but that doesn’t leave us with much time at home again before we’ll need to be back at school; and that’s going to be more-true over the next two-and-a-half years now that Cassie will also have T.A. responsibilities as she begins her post-graduate studies.
That is all part of our plan, though; so we’ll just have to deal with missing out on so much at home – including a lot of Sierra’s first few years. I won’t get bogged down with regrets – we all do the best we can; and deal with the sacrifices or choices we make along the way. We’ll also try to make the time we do have with our favorite people as awesome as possible – including over the next few days before we do need to get back to school and work again.
I don’t want to write about May’s birthday fun yesterday since Cassie will include the highlights in her journal, but do want to mention that May’s parents like Lee and his family a lot – a fact that is partly-proved because May is still with them for the next few days instead of coming home with us! Lee’s parents are not nearly as traditional as May’s, but they are happy to honor those traditions; and assured May’s parents that they would make sure that May and Lee act ‘properly’ while she stays with them – in his sister’s room. That would sound funny to most of our friends, but I won’t comment on whether that actually matters for May and Lee; since that’s a private matter that Magi of the future don’t need to read about for any of our friends. May and Lee are happy; Cassie is sure they’re a match; and we’re happy for them.
Finally, before I wrap this up; I want to comment on the pandemic from the perspective of a small-town guy visiting a big city. We don’t have all of the restrictions being imposed in places with large outbreaks, but there is still a big difference in attitudes we could sense while traveling around the city. This isn’t a universal statement, since there are lots of people helping each other too just as we’re doing at home, but there are a lot of problems brewing as people get angry – and in too-many cases; desperate. We don’t have that problem at home because nobody has to worry about paying the bills on time or having enough to eat, and while we know very well that the challenges are tougher with the more people in need; that doesn’t excuse any of the bad choices being made by our governments on all levels that either don’t help at all or make things worse for the people hardest hit during the pandemic.
I’m not going to rant about this, but if anything about this trip wasn’t fun; it was being able to sense all of the bad feelings around us. Fortunately, we got to also spend a lot of our time around all of the good happening with Lee’s family and around the restaurant; and we’ll hope that the good they are doing will catch on in their city – and everywhere.
That’s a happy thought to end this update on, so I will; and move on to the next item on my digital to-do list for today!
Michael Stone
