Ehlana and Ethan:
The Haunted Halloween Walk last night was
awesome – especially thanks to the great weather; and we had a lot of fun –
even with all of the work we did to go along with the entertainment that we got
to share when not working. Ethan and I
helped with the set-up for the fundraiser booth and stage for the marching band
– though we didn’t actually do any marching.
The newly-formed color-guard did have routines to go with each of our
songs, though, so it was more than just a concert band show. Ethan and I took turns at the fundraiser
booth with Naomi or Aiden and we helped to get quite a few monthly orders for
the food boxes and a lot of pre-orders for the musical Christmas ornament; so
we’re off to a great start this fall toward or fundraising goal that we hope
will raise more than what is needed for the trip; since extra money will
support arts and sciences programs for the school – including subsidies when
needed for lower-income students. We
went on the walk with our four best friends and some parents; didn’t have
Miranda leading us this year; and enjoyed the show because it gets better every
year as tech improves and the special effects get more-amazing. In addition to the booth and band work; we
spent some time helping with the next-gen kids – including Cassie and Michael’s
nieces and nephews; that was a highlight of our night too; and then we
eventually headed home with Aiden for the co-ed sofa sleepover he hosted. Halloween movies, teen chat time, and co-ed
cuddling kept us awake until too-late; we had a nap eventually; and used Magi
healing this morning ahead of Tai Chi by the river.
That brings us to the start of today where
that workout and a hot breakfast got us all going again; church and Sunday
school included helping younger kids’ classes with Halloween-themed crafts that
were fun and messy; and then Ethan and I chose to go on the family-and-friends’
bike ride to Quarry Lake this afternoon instead of going to the lab as usual
because it was another beautiful day and because some of our favorite parents
went along too. That didn’t include Mom
and Dad because they worked in the office instead – or didn’t for at least some
of that time. We don’t want or need
details! Ethan and I did have fun with
the biking, and while most of the best activities at Quarry Lake are shut down
for the off-season; we had fun with what we could do there for an hour and a
half; biked home; and then helped Mom with making dinner. We shared that meal with Mom and Dad; went to
the lab or archives for the evening to make up for taking the afternoon off;
and now we’re winding down fast after bath or Jacuzzi time and a quick chat
with Mom and Dad before they headed for their bed for the night too. For the second time in this update; we do not
want details for what they might be doing now.
Instead of pondering that, Cassie and
Michael were on the move again tonight – their time; and they are transitioning
from the Congo to Rwanda with plans to do most of their work in that country in
and near the Capital city of Kigali.
They won’t be in Rwanda for long, so they have a packed schedule; and
will hopefully get a lot done even though they won’t be able to do as much
traveling to project partnership sites as they would have liked to do if they
had more time to spend in each country.
I want to mention a bit of lab-related work here too because there have
been some Ebola outbreaks in the Congo, Rwanda, Kenya, and elsewhere this year,
and while most of our family business projects related to medical services are
about basic health and medical care, we do have partnerships that allowed
Cassie to get samples of the latest Ebola strain to send to our lab; and the
first shipment is now on the way to us with more to follow from other
countries. The projects I am working on
are far more-important when diseases like Cancer are affecting millions of
people, but I will be studying this virus soon too; and would love to at least
come up with better treatments or a viable vaccine if not an outright cure. The fatality rate for this strain of Ebola is
too-high even with early intervention, but then that’s been true for many other
diseases in the past; so we know that there is always hope – even when so much
of the current medical industry is built around the wrong profit model that
favors treatments over cures.
Profit is still king for most world issues
too. That doesn’t always appear to be
obvious when watching things like the riots in Europe and elsewhere while
clearly-seen in political circles – especially during elections. There were a couple of big elections over the
weekend in Brazil and Serbia; the Israeli election is on Tuesday and our
midterms are a week from Tuesday; so the next few weeks are going to be very
interesting – even as we also know that most of what happens in politics is
just theatre where the only differences between the political sides is which
billionaires will make more money after backing ‘their’ politicians. That is cynical, true, and needs to be
changed; so doing that is definitely on our to-do list for our future. No, Cassie will not be a future President or
world leader, but maybe we will have a future Magi interested in changing the
world in a political sort of way! Okay,
let’s add that we’d need a Magi of the Light to do that; since there are
already a lot of Dark Magi working in the shadows to affect and control
governments and politicians!
While we’re still commenting on politics,
that election in Serbia isn’t ending well for the ruling party that called for
the snap elections, since the main opposition party is apparently winning a
majority of the seats in their parliament and will be taking over. That could move the country toward the
European Union and away from Russia, but the entire region is in such a mess
right now; we don’t expect any changes for the better – just new kinds of worse
– especially if they entirely walk away from all of their connections to Russia
that are a big part of their economy. As
for Brazil, there were some election issues and their Supreme Court ordered
polls to be re-opened for two extra hours and vote counting to stop until the
new closing time; so it could easily take until morning or later to determine
the winner of that run-off election – especially since there are definitely
regions of the country with very different political views where one leader or
the other have much stronger or weaker support.
As of when we’re writing this, the incumbent leader is leading and
projected to win, but his opponent is not conceding defeat; and challenges to
the vote results are likely – especially after that court-ordered voting
extension. Let’s hope we don’t have too
many of those issues again for our elections!
As for the wars, the top news today was
that a tri-lateral meeting between China, Russia, and America is going to be held
in November. We don’t expect to see
anything real happen from that meeting; and Ukrainian and European leaders are
sure to object to any attempted deal that even hints at Russia winning the war
or getting anything they want to end it.
While politicians talk, the destruction and death continues; and every
day the airstrikes and fighting continues will make winter that much harder on
the Ukrainians and Russians most-affected by the war.
The Houthis continue to get most of the
attention in the Middle East right now because they continue to advance into
more parts of Yemen that are still controlled by Saudi-backed forces and they
are continuing attacks on Saudi airports and oil infrastructure. More ships are being hit in the Strait of
Hormuz and Persian Gulf too, but we think that the stories out of Israel ahead
of their election should be taken more-seriously than they are. All leaders vying for votes at the various
levels are almost entirely on the same page for what they believe should be
done to ‘protect’ Israel; and they are all sounding insane to us – as well as
becoming the Jewish version of World War Two German leaders. That’s harsh, but not compared to the
Palestinian genocide – and those Israeli leaders are talking about doing the
same to all of their Arab and Turkish and Persian neighbors. One commentary we liked mentioned God’s
promise to Israel that their lands would be from the Nile to the Euphrates
rivers, but he also pointed out that God also told Israel that they needed to
follow His commandments and not do the things that he hates – like lying,
deceiving, killing, and the rest. For
the record, we do not need to guess at how God feels about what Israeli
leaders, military, and some of the people have been doing to their neighbors –
especially when we are all God’s children!
That’s enough for tonight. It’s late and we only have time for a long
nap; so we’ll get to that – and hopefully be back to full power by morning as
we head into the last week of October.
Until next time, live with love, fellow
Magi of the Light!
