Ehlana and Ethan:
Our first weekend of the school year has
felt a bit strange for us – at least for today; since we’re done with the
summer baseball season and we haven’t had anything else on the schedule other
than a chores day! Now that we’re busy
with school, studies, football or cheer squad, and more to come, the least we
can do is help Mom and Dad when needed all day on our Saturdays; and that’s
what we did today – after our friends moved on from our co-ed sleepover last
night. Before we get to the non-news,
chores day report; let’s cover the rest of our story from last night.
After grabbing a snack dinner, Ethan headed
to the school for the bus ride to Brookbridge with the team; I met up with
Naomi and Sophia for the drive there with her father – and yes, Naomi got to
drive both ways again this week. She is
also very happy about the game and our cheer squad efforts; and Ethan was
again, in his always-quiet way – the team star thanks to four touchdowns and a
lot of catches and yards earned after those catches. We are biased, but it is also true; since
everything else that our team did last night started with Brookbridge trying to
stop Ethan and leaving other gaps that our team exploited. The score ended up at seventy-seven to
thirty-seven, so Brookbridge had some big plays and proved that our team still
has work to do to get better, but along with Ethan’s points, Aaron had three
running touchdowns; Aiden had two passing touchdowns; and Miles scrambled for
two short touchdowns on the ground to go with his passes for touchdowns that
made him the more-obvious star of the game to the fans. Miles loves that, but we might need to keep
an eye on him; since that could be a problem if his ego starts to exceed his
actual abilities. I’m not trying to take
anything away from him because he does have talent, but without Ethan, Aiden,
and Aaron; he’d likely just get crushed by the defenses. As for our cheer squad, we had a lot to cheer
about; the half-time routine was a hit; and we got a bit more of the wrong kind
of attention than we wanted from a few guys that needed to be persuaded to
leave us alone before they moved on to chase other girls that likely weren’t
interested in that kind of attention either.
Naomi, Sophia, and I got back to Naomi’s house well-ahead of the boys;
her father picked up a Pizzeria pizza order in-time to be hot for when Ethan,
Aiden, and Aaron did catch up with us; and then the rest of our evening
included that snack and drinks; a visit with Naomi’s parents; and some co-ed
cuddle time and teen chat and music videos as we wound down toward the co-ed
nap time. Some of us stayed awake longer
than others, but we won’t call anyone out on that; since we did all have a very
long day by then.
While we were with Naomi overnight, we
still ended up doing Tai Chi by the river – at Cassie and Michael’s house. We do not need to know why Mom and Dad
skipped the morning workout after a kid-free night, but we had fun with that
early workout; returned to the Seagers for breakfast; and then split up for the
rest of the day as Ethan and I went home to the chores day and our best friends
had other plans for work or chores or other entertainment with their own
families. Yes, summer is definitely over
and we have to share our friends more-often – especially with their own
families! The chores were standard fare
yard work that we did at multiple homes and cottages; it really did take most
of the day; and we dealt with a couple of short blasts of showers that really
only helped to cool us down from the work – as did the two swim breaks and regular
drinks to stay hydrated. It warmed up
into the nineties this afternoon, so some of the work was hot and dirty, and by
the time we were done for the day; showers were wanted and needed before we sat
down to the late dinner with Mom and Dad in the sunroom. We didn’t help with the cooking, so we took
care of the clean-up, and while some work and a Magi lesson kept us busy for an
hour or so after that; we headed up to the third floor early and now we’re
planning on an early bedtime to catch up on our sleep.
For us, the top world news of the day and
weekend is the BRICS+ summit in India that continues to prove how different the
rest of the world is approaching diplomacy and trade compared to America and
the European Union and other ‘western’ countries. They currently have eleven full members and
ten partner countries in the economic bloc; they represent more than half the
population of the world; and they want to create an environment for diplomacy
and trade that builds everyone up instead of exploiting and bullying weaker
partners. So far, they’ve announced a
deal to develop and implement a new payment system led by India and Russia that
we expect will also connect to China’s digital version of SWIFT; they are
trying to tell the rest of the world that they aren’t ‘against’ anyone, but
instead would like to work and trade with everyone; and they are making
economic deals with each other and sitting down to discuss all of the global
challenges affecting everyone from the current wars to the growing resources
challenges. Let’s also note that Saudi
Arabia, Iran, and the U.A.E. are all represented at the meetings; and at least
two of those countries need to seriously decide whether they want a peaceful,
cooperative future for their countries and people or the alternative of being
among the exploited vassals of the west!
That’s a bit blunt, but when your countries are being decimated in a war
that never needed to happen at all; a change in perspective is a very good idea
– and at least some of their diplomats and business leaders are getting a taste
of that this weekend!
We can’t totally ignore the wars; so let’s
go there next and then Ethan and I will call it a night. “The Houthis’ attacks and advances in Yemen
against the Saudi-backed and funded forces continue to get a lot of attention –
especially for the ports and islands they are taking over that give them total
control over the strait leading into the Red Sea. They’re attacking into Saudi Arabia too, but
it appears that Iraqi militias have joined the fight and have seriously-damaged
a primary pipeline in Saudi Arabia that is now shut down at least temporarily
and had been the primary alternative to getting oil and gas shipped while the
Strait of Hormuz shipping has been slowed and stopped over the past six months. Saudi Arabia is a very expensive country to
run; and they are going to be in extreme economic trouble if these attacks and
this war continue – especially when they also have a significant Shia
population that they’ve been exploiting for decades and would side with the
Houthis and Iraqi militias without hesitation.
The hatred growing against America and Israel is always at risk of
exploding; and we hope that the war won’t keep expanding as those forces
against ‘us’ grow and consolidate power.
In Ukraine, while his country is being
decimated, President Zelensky is busy trying to get more money and weapons from
the rest of the world – and he’s in Canada this weekend where he is sure to get
a token bit of both that will be meaningless to the outcome of the war and then
he’ll be here to talk with our leaders in Washington and offer up more lies and
idiocies that nobody should believe. We’ll
see what he gets out of that part of his fundraising tour, but the tens of
millions of dollars he’s siphoning off for his own enrichment won’t mean
anything if he loses the war and can’t get away from all of the Ukrainians that
will be out to get him when that happens.
That’s a too-dark turn for this update, but it is a challenge to stay
happy after reading so many horror stories about those wars and all of the
death and destruction that we again remind our future Magi readers, didn’t need
to happen.
That’s all we have for tonight, but stay
tuned; since we still have almost half of the weekend to go; and maybe we’ll
even get a miracle or two for the world news if there could be some political
breakthroughs that start in India! Okay,
that might be a bridge too far, since none of the ‘western’ countries that
oppose BRICS and are afraid of them have even considered joining and learning
to play nice! Ethan and I are ready to
get some sleep, though, so we’ll stop there; work on having happier thoughts to
take into dreamland with us; and be back again tomorrow night once we’ve lived
all of those Sunday adventures!
Until next time, live with love, fellow
Magi of the Light!
