Ethan and Ehlana:
Happy 41st Birthday, Aunt Leanne!
We’ve had an awesome day so far – starting with bonus exercise buddies for Tai Chi by the river that was with the Carringtons and Naomi after they all joined us today! Breakfast was a group meal with the Carringtons too, and at their house; so we needed to get ready for church and then go over there – or the other way around for Dad and I while Mom and Ehlana got ready first. That meal was a blast; we had fun at church with Aunt Leanne’s birthday one of the top reasons for that; and Sunday school was good too – though not newsworthy by comparison to the rest of our day-so-far.
We were on our own with Mom and Dad for lunch, and then we were part of a gang heading out to the pumpkin patch farm for our annual visit. As always, we had a blast with the activities there; and our highlights included the haunted barn, the hay ride and pumpkin picking, the corn maze, and the snacks and treats! We were out there for about four hours including the round-trip; and now we’re getting cleaned up and ready for Aunt Leanne’s birthday dinner party at the Inn. Buffets at the Inn for any reason are always great, and while we’ll definitely be with the other kids and tweens while the parents have fun roasting Aunt Leanne; we’ll definitely have more fun ahead of us too. This update is early because we’re not sure what we’ll be doing for the rest of the evening after dinner; so we want to get this out of the way in case we’re too-busy for it later. Dad still has his week in the city to get ready for tonight, and we might end up helping out with a kid-free night for Aunt Leanne and Uncle Adam; so we’ll wrap this up now and be ready for whatever life brings for us later!
That is pretty much all we have for now, but before we go; there is one tiny bit of news that we want to comment on today. This isn’t important in any way – we’re just writing about another dumb example of extreme hyperbole in journalism. Today, we’re apparently under extreme threat from an ‘Arctic Blast’ that is imminent for more than half of the country! That use of terms might bring up visions of freezing to death instantly, but unlike the movies, real life is different; and now we are apparently expected to be afraid of slightly-below-freezing nights and mid-forties highs during the day – for a few days during the second-half of October! We know – that sounds horrible and life-threatening, but we’re a resourceful group of people here in our little town; we have fall jackets and sweaters; and we even have indoor heating that we can turn on for those chilly nights! ;^)
Okay, that’s a bit too-much, but then so is this apparent need to try and scare people over nothing-burger events. Add in the non-news for warmer-than-normal temperatures immediately after this arctic blast; and the dumb just gets more-obvious. This little blip of weather news goofiness isn’t something that we should get into a long commentary about, though it is an easy-to-see example of how most mainstream news sensationalizes stories in ways that seem to be designed to make people afraid – whether from extreme weather or nuclear war. First impressions on reading that last comment might be about the fear and manipulation, and that’s true-enough, but we also see the flip side of that – the potential for people to get so numbed by constantly feeling threatened that can make it impossible for them to react properly to real and imminent dangers. This might not be the same as the crying wolf cautionary tale, but it is true that people will get complacent if they ‘survive’ what they are told are crises whether serious or not; and then are unprepared to act during real emergencies.
Okay, that went longer than we wanted, and it time to head for the Inn soon; so that’s all for this report.
Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!
