Ethan and Ehlana:
The rest of our weekend from yesterday afternoon to now has been a lot of fun; and now we’re tired and past-ready to get some sleep; so let’s get right to all of the best news from our adventures!
We started the Haunted Halloween Walk fun by taking care of our set-up and a mini sound check for Naomi and the Haunted Harmonies. We followed that up by helping with the school band set-up at a separate stage further down Witch Falls Road from the staging area for the walk; and then we had time to have dinner from the food booths before we were up for our set – the first of the evening and just as the first round of walks began at dusk. We had fun; our audience appreciated our entertainment; and we sold some of our music through the Spinners’ booth that was taking advantage of the influx of visitors to town. We should mention that we had some showers while doing chores yesterday, but it was decent, if cool, last night; so that was good for the walk and the rest of the entertainment. We only had a little break between our band set and playing with the school band, so we played a couple of games and had another snack; then kept the musical fun going with another round of Halloween-themed, instrumental entertainment. We should have added the less-fun pack up time after that first set; and we did the same with the school band after a bit less than an hour of that set; and then we were able to take our turns on the walk with some of our favorite parents. That was our entertainment highlight of the night; and then it was time for us to head home to unload our band gear and be there for the kids we were booked to babysit for part or all of the rest of the night. We actually do have some space restrictions for doing that, so Sophia and Aaron were babysitting too – at her house – while Naomi and Aiden were with us.
The guys took care of the video gaming that started in the lounge as soon as Zack and Eli arrived while the girls hosted movies in the living room while our parents eventually headed to the pub for a couple of hours for the Halloween party going on there. They didn’t stay late, but some of the other parents did; and we ended up keeping most of our cousins, some of their friends, and some next-gen kids for the night – and we didn’t get to sleep until the wee hours of the morning and only got a few hours of sleep. We did go with the co-ed nap time with the only change being that we used the living room because we crashed before Zack, Eli, and a couple of the other guys.
Most of us were tired this morning, but Tai Chi was still by the river and we took care of all of the work around a major breakfast while getting everyone ready for church too. Some of us would have appreciated a nap while at church, but we’ll also pretend that none of the parents or grandparents in the sanctuary actually did that during the sermon and while the kids and teens were busy with Sunday school! That part of our morning was good; Ehlana and I were on our own for lunch with Mom and Dad; and then we headed to the lab for the afternoon while Dad needed to work in the office anyway. Let’s report that some of our next-gen cousins and their friends and parents went to the Pumpkin Patch farm while we work-played in our lab or archives, and we probably could have done that too, but we’ve had a lot of fun; and needed to do the work. Ehlana and I used some time phasing and other Magi talents to get more done today, but we headed home in time to clean up and go to the late buffet at the Inn with Mom, Dad, and a small gang of family and friends. That was the culinary highlight of our weekend; and then we came home and didn’t do extra work in the office. Mom did a short Magi lesson with us and we had some chat time that included a vid-chat with Cassie and Michael from their Monday in the South Pacific; and then it was bath or Jacuzzi time because we were running out of steam fast.
That brings us up to now, so let’s move on to the Cassie and Michael news of the day. As mentioned, they are already well into their Monday in Tonga – their last day there because they are moving on to the American Samoa and Samoa leg of their trip that is going to get weird for them from a time perspective because they’ll jump ‘back’ a day in time zones and then switch back-and-forth for their appointments in Samoa. They’ll be getting an extra Monday on their work week and have two trips into the future before returning to Pago Pago and the hotel they have booked there. It is also forecast to be a bit warmer during the days, but they could be in for more rain every day too; so we’ll keep you posted on that – and their work and any play time they get to have during week three of their travel and work adventures.
We are not going to cover a lot of world news tonight, but one story should have gained more attention than it has so far out of Russia – an announcement of a new cruise missile that is nuclear powered; has unlimited range; and can carry a nuclear payload while possibly being unstoppable by current air defense systems. It apparently had a successful test that included flying around for fourteen-thousand kilometers with many direction changes and other guidance and evasion testing; and has been built to destroy ‘high-value’ targets only. No surprise there, since we have no idea how much it costs to make a nuclear-powered missile, but that is a scary new weapon if Russia can manufacture even a handful of them! Word from the Ukraine front lines is that there are at least ten-thousand troops caught in one or more of the Russian ‘cauldrons’ that have formed in a handful of locations; and that could be another serious problem if the Ukrainian army loses not only all of those soldiers but also all of the weapons that would be there with that many troops. At this point, they aren’t defending anything anymore – they’re trying to survive or are fighting to the death; and both options are senseless and insane for the Ukraine leaders to let that happen again. There are no improvements for the Palestinians in Gaza yet; they are still only getting a small fraction of what they need for basic survival; and the world leaders continue to pat themselves on the back for ‘ending the war’ between Hamas and Israel that hasn’t stopped at all. Finally, we’ll find out in the coming week and change whether our own leaders will continue to escalate the trade wars with China and others as a trade conference starts in South Korea, but we don’t expect much or any good news; since ‘our’ demands are basically for China, India, and other countries to commit economic suicide by destroying their cheap energy partnerships with Russia. Add in escalating rhetoric, sanctions, and more against Venezuela, Columbia, and Nicaragua; and we’re only surprised that our country has any friends left anywhere in the world. Don’t include Argentina in that comment; since they’re getting a forty-billion dollar bailout from us that will mostly go to making certain American billionaires even richer off of bets that they made on Argentinean debt that would have been a bust without the American taxpayer-funded bailout but with now make them billions after buying all of that debt for pennies on the dollar and leaving the losses to others who didn’t have the inside scoop on that story from politically-connected best friends! The money side of that stinks, but we should be sad for the Argentinean people that are being ruined yet again by their corrupt politicians that have again brought their country to the brink of financial ruin while selling them out to the billionaires of the world!
Okay, we really need to stop now; so that’s all for this update. We are going to keep busy for this last week of October and through Halloween; so stay tuned to keep up with all of our not-really-scary fun and adventures! ;^)
Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!
