Ehlana and Ethan:
Before we get to the news of the day, I can’t resist mentioning that the big, scary first winter storm of the winter and Polar Vortex this is on the way has already been downgraded to a nothing-burger, but stay tuned; since that is likely to change daily! We are still supposed to get snow this week and it could get messy, but at least for today, we don’t need to be terrified! ;^)
As for our top news of the day, we had an awesome night with Cassie and Michael! Yes, a last co-ed sofa sleepover for three tween couples was a highlight of the night, but we enjoyed making and sharing an awesome dinner with bonus guests Grandma and Grandpa – and they joined us because they’ll be heading south again on Monday while we’re back at school. Ethan and I haven’t been thinking about that very much so far, but we’re used to their winter travels; and are mostly just glad that they can still do that thanks to good health and interest in still exploring our country and world. This time they are going to Texas and plan on wandering along the Gulf Coast from Texas to Florida; so they’ll have a lot of fun with those adventures – and we wish that we could go along! While our grandparents visited with us a bit before and after dinner too, they didn’t stay because they moved on to spend some time with the Carringtons while we spent the evening playing music and watching movies with Cassie and Michael. There was a bit of video gaming for the guys too, but they only played for a half-hour or so; and chose the cuddle time and movie that followed our jam session. Cassie and Michael went to bed by around midnight; their tween guests stayed up too-late; and we still all got up on time this morning for Tai Chi and a hot breakfast. Church and Sunday school returned to normal today with the start of a new set of lesson plans for the Sunday school classes that go along with Pastor John’s sermon series; and it always feels different after the Christmas holidays. We spent more time at church because some collegians will be heading out and back to their schools before next Sunday; so there were extra cameo moments with them before we came home for lunch with Mom and Dad.
I want to take another side-trip to mention that Cassie and Michael had three kids with them when they went home from church, and while they are also helping his brother and sister while they’re busy working today; they are also continuing to juggle spending time with favorite people ahead of their trip; and that was with Sierra, Stuart, and Luke this afternoon and evening.
Compared to a play day with three very active kids, our afternoon and evening adventures have been tame. Ethan and I went to play at the lab or archives after lunch – and didn’t need details for why Dad still had quite a bit of work to do today after so much kid-free time this weekend! We had fun with our work, but don’t have any world-shaking news to offer; and our evening has been quiet with an easy-meal dinner, office work, and a Magi lesson for our entertainment before Mom sent us upstairs for bath or Jacuzzi time and a relatively-early bedtime. We’re also now ready to head back to school in the morning; the rest of the computing for our usual bedtime fun is finished; and now Ethan is hoping that I won’t drag out this report and keep him from heading off to his own bed soon. Doing that just to mess with him might be fun, but I’ll still pick writing more because I want to do that more than I want to let Ethan off that easily!
There are so many stories I could write about from around the world, but instead of getting too-serious tonight; let’s pick a few that we thought were interesting. First up isn’t a world event – or we’ll hope not, but the Boeing 737-Max is in the news again this weekend after a mid-air incident with a nearly-new jet that had a sealed exit door blow out a few minutes after take-off. They landed safely and there weren’t any serious injuries, but that kind of problem shouldn’t happen at all and definitely not with a new jet; and we’ll hope that this doesn’t prove to be another fleet-wide issue while also being glad that this wasn’t anther crash-disaster. Switching to news that we do find a bit unsettling, the reports about the Secretary of Defense being hospitalized for most of the past week due to complications after a minor surgery. The medical issues aren’t the story – it’s the fact that not even the White House or President knew that he was out of commission – a fact that has us wondering who was in charge of the military while he was unable to do his job. That says a lot about how the unelected parts of our government deal with elected leaders – or don’t seem to feel the need to do that at all. If that happens at the top; imagine what we never find out about in the bowels of government agencies!
I’m really tempted to offer a commentary on lying politicians, since there were a lot of examples of that this weekend, but while thinking about that; it would likely be quicker to write about the examples of honesty since they are rare by comparison! Instead of doing either, though, maybe I’ll just make fun of myself and offer an example. Ethan and I watched clips from President Biden’s speech at Valley Forge, and while I know that he said “this election” in one part of his speech; I heard ‘the selection’ instead; and that is totally my cynical bias affecting my comprehension! Sure, that was just a minor example, but considering the nonsense from the rest of that speech – and dozens of other political examples I could have chosen from; I’m trying to play nice when what we seem to need the most this year is an entire replacement of all politicians. Ethan assures me that congress is not going to vote for firing themselves and starting over; so we’ll deal with the system we have – for now! ;^)
It is tough to stay away from darker news stories related to the wars and other conflicts around the world, but for one last example of current events that caught our attention; one story from Ukraine could have been parody – but wasn’t. For anyone that might not know this in our future, Christmas for Orthodox Christians is in January instead of December; and most Russians are celebrating their Christmas this weekend. That used to be true in Ukraine too, but the Orthodox Church has been banned there; and replaced with a new Ukrainian church. I need to included those details because, apparently, a special service at one of these new churches included a choir dressed up as demons and other creatures while singing ‘carols’ about killing Russians and more. That is even more-ridiculous than the children’s choir in Israel that released a ‘special’ song and videos that was all about killing Palestinians for the glory of Israel and in retaliation for the Hamas attack in October. Satirists and comedians of the world will end up unemployed if real life continues to devolve into the absurd. That reminds me of another odd story from Ukraine, and while we can’t comprehend any church that purports to be Christian promoting murdering people while in demon costumes; the same could be said for what is apparently a trend in Ukraine for young women to post videos of them partying at clubs at the same time that military ‘recruiters’ are there and conscripting some of the men that are there too. Trying to even imagine that kind of scene here at home in Sheldon’s Pub isn’t possible, but then we can’t imagine how anyone can keep partying while others in their own community are being unwillingly dragged off to fight and probably die in a war that shouldn’t have happened at all!
Obviously, it is time for me to call it a night; since the alternative is to get started on a long rant about the stupidity of world leaders and the wars that they seem incapable of ending; so let’s just do that and Ethan and I will split up and get some sleep.
Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!
