Ehlana and Ethan:
Happy 27th Birthday, Luke
Taylor!
We passed along best birthday wishes to
Luke for Cassie and Michael while at church this morning, but that was the
entirety of our involvement in his celebration with family and friends. Ethan and I got to meet Skye Reynolds this
morning too, but that was another cameo moment that didn’t last long; since the
newest member of our town was in high demand while being introduced to everyone
today.
As for our news of the day, Uncle Adam’s
birthday dinner was fun along with a fair bit of work on both sides of the meal
and the kid control help we offered for younger cousins and next-gen kids. We had Naomi and Aiden with us for the meal
and when we brought those cousins and kids home with us from the dinner; and
then we were all kept busy for the rest of the night with keeping the kids
entertained while our parents were collectively having fun at the pub. Mom and Dad were not designated drivers last
night; and they came home comparatively-early too; since they weren’t getting a
kid-free night. Mom managed to avoid any
billiards challenges, but they did do a bit of dancing; and enjoyed the time
out with their friends. By the time they
got home, we had the youngest kids in their beds; most of the girls were either
sleeping or winding down toward nap time; and only Zack, Eli, and some of the
other guys were still up and playing video games in the lounge.
Naomi and I left it up toe Ethan and Aiden
to keep them out of trouble, but we all had a visit with Mom and Dad; and then
we joined the girls and went off to sleep soon after Mom and Dad went to
bed. The boys stayed up later; Ethan and
Aiden headed to their beds by around two o’clock; and Zack and Eli eventually
just fell asleep in the lounge with the video gaming rolling on without them.
Our Sunday morning started with Tai Chi by
the river; breakfast was an adventure; and we were kept busy getting everyone
fed, ready for the day, and to the church on time. We had a good morning with the service and Sunday
school; Ethan and I were on our own when we went home with Mom and Dad; and
took care of some clean-up chores through until we had lunch. Ethan and I met up with some cousins and
friends after that meal; we decided to bike to Quarry Lake; and had fun with
the ride and a bit of wandering around at our favorite campground while
enjoying the sunshine and the high that climbed into the mid-sixties. Some of us needed to be home in time for one
of the buffets at the Inn, but we didn’t do that tonight; and had a quiet
dinner with Mom and Dad. Ethan and I
helped with the cooking and clean-up; and then we worked in the office and did
a Magi lesson with Mom too.
While we kept busy with the family business
and charity projects, we had a vid-chat with Cassie and Michael too – this time
from Singapore for them on their Monday morning. We’re happy about that because Singapore is
their last stop before they head home; so it really feels like we’re close to
the end of their trip! They are going to
be doing more business meetings this week; since this stop is all about
finance, logistics, and shipping interests and projects that we are working on
for multiple businesses and charities.
Cassie and Michael are getting a bit tired; so they’re looking forward
to getting home again soon too.
That brings us up to the world news update;
and there isn’t good news to share tonight.
The Iran war is expanding; the American and Israeli forces have started
bombing oil refineries and storage tanks and desalination plants in Iran; and
retaliations are starting in Israel and other Middle East countries. This is a horrific change in tactics that
will devastate the environment; risk the health of millions of civilians that
won’t have clean drinking water, and cost tens of billions of dollars in
economic harm – or more; since destroyed energy infrastructure can take years
to rebuild.
Just to add a bit of a math lesson, we use
around one hundred million barrels of oil per day worldwide; so every ten
dollar per barrel increase in price costs the world a billion dollars a day –
and that’s before you add in all of the pass-through costs to final use
products that add much more to those extra costs. On that note, first-week costs of the war are
likely in the tens of billions of dollars between the cost of operations and
weapons being expended on both sides along with the costs of what is being
destroyed all across the Middle East.
For one example, Iran is reporting upwards of ten thousand buildings
damaged or destroyed – most of them civilian homes and businesses; and none of
the militaries are disclosing damage to their bases, equipment, or deaths and
injuries for military personnel. That
isn’t a surprise during a war, but there are significant costs that go far
beyond economic.
Before we move on from that war, we also
want to mention that President Trump and others have been talking about
expanding the war instead of trying to find a peaceful settlement – and we can
assure you that Iran will not be accepting ‘unconditional surrender’ as an
option for them. The worries we have are
because our leaders are considering sending in ground forces; and aren’t
excluding the possible use of nukes against Iran if they can’t get them to
capitulate with conventional warfare.
Both are insane; our leaders have not learned from history; and we will
be on our way to another Vietnam or Afghanistan debacle if we continue down
this path.
Let’s move on to Ukraine, since we should
learn from that disaster too – and haven’t; since western leaders still want to
keep that war going too instead of negotiating for peace there. We do need to mention that some oil sanctions
on Russia are being paused because of the war in Iran; and that will just add a
lot of revenue for Russia – especially as the price per barrel keeps going
up! So much for the plan to destroy
their economy with the sanctions, but then Ukraine also has the new added
problem of not having access to new weapons deliveries because everything is
being diverted to the Iran war – especially when it comes to air defense
systems and offensive missiles. Russia
does not have that problem; so they are continuing the non-stop attacks with
missiles and drones every day. The
frontlines stories are all bad for Ukraine too; and that could get a lot worse
soon once the spring thaw ends and the ground hardens up again by mid to late
April. That isn’t a prediction of
imminent defeat – and that’s a lesson that we should keep in mind for the Iran
war. Ukraine started their war with
upwards of a million soldiers and the vast weapons support worth hundreds of
billions of dollars from western countries; and they are still having their
country destroyed a little at a time over more than four years now. Iran is larger with two or three times the
population; so it makes no sense to believe that they can be defeated in a week
or two. Let’s also note that Russia does
not look at war the same way that western countries and leaders do; since they
definitely do not think that it is acceptable to assassinate or kidnap leaders
of other countries. Before we get
off-track; we also wanted to point out that Russia has not won their fight with
Ukraine in four years even with all of the bombing and a ground force of hundreds
of thousands of soldiers. Yes, that is
partly because they do not want to kill civilians indiscriminately, but they
are also having serious issues with changing modern warfare that includes tech
and intel capabilities that have changed the look of battlefields and tactics.
Both wars are ugly, but then so are the
economic and political problems elsewhere in the world. Cuba and Central America continue to be dangerous
hotspots; we really don’t think that President Trump should start another war
with Cuba; and there was news over the weekend about a new ‘partnership’ with
countries across the Americas to go to war with the cartels. We wish that there weren’t any criminal
groups at all, but that is not going to work – just as the war on drugs hasn’t
really worked for the past fifty or sixty years. That’s another can of worms that we should
probably save for another update; since we’ve already done enough of a rant for
one night!
Ethan and I are going to head off to
dreamland soon; since we want to be back at full-power ahead of our last school
week before our spring break. We’re
ready to have that week off; and hope that we’ll get some nice weather while we
get the time to play with our family and friends. We’ll have more on that when we get there,
but that’s all for tonight; so we’re out of here right now.
Until next time, live with love, fellow
Magi of the Light!
