Ethan and Ehlana:
Happy 4th Birthday, Jessica
Warren!
Happy 25th Birthday, Elliott
Roberts!
We’re having another very busy day, but
promised a double update; so let’s get to it while we are home for a quick
break and getting some gear together for a second camping night.
Ehlana and I were with the first wave of
family and friends that headed to Quarry Lake yesterday and that was entirely
so we could help with our day camp set-up.
Brianna and her best friends got right to the play time with swimming
and playing on the water slides while we worked, and then we joined in for a
while until we all stopped for the picnic lunch. Since I got teased about ‘officially’ joining
the club of guys that really appreciate time with girlfriends in swimsuits
along with Michael and some of our favorite fathers; I’ll also mention that I’ve
always felt that way about Naomi; so maybe those joke-makers have the issue
with changing perception of Naomi – not me.
Aiden and Aaron got teased too, and that was mostly happening whenever
we helped the other guys with work while our favorite girls were busy helping
out with Brianna and her friends and the younger cousins.
Ehlana and I were not with Brianna’s group
for the rounds of group activities like climbing the rock wall or the other
entertainment options, but we had fun with the group that we were assigned to
lead with Naomi and Aiden. We had fun
with the climbing, zip line rides, a half-hour on Aqua Bikes; and a half-hour
on the trails with rental bikes with the rest of our play time spent in the
water or on the water slides. We really
lucked out for the weather, since we ended up missing out on all bad weather in
the area while at the campground. There
was a thunderstorm late in the afternoon, but it happened while we were heading
home; didn’t last for long; and only delayed unloading all of the vehicles for
about ten minutes before it moved out of the area again and we got back to
sunshine and we got a bit of extra humidity.
The barbeque birthday dinner was still on; and Ehlana and I were among
the teen workers that helped out with getting that meal out and the kids all
fed. Our ball practices were still on,
so we ended up missing the tail-end of that meal – and Brianna’s gift-opening
and the cake and ice cream dessert while we headed to the park for our baseball
workouts. We had fun with that; hurried
back to the Carringtons after that; and were back to work because I was in
charge of the outdoor movies set-up. We
did jump in the river for a quick cool-down swim and got changed before
starting the movies at dusk; and then we were able to enjoy some co-ed cuddle
time while we watched the movies that Brianna picked out with some help from
her friends. Zack, Eli, and some of
their buddies weren’t all that entertained with those choices, but they played
nice with Brianna and just went off to have their own fun on or in the
river. That is progress from our
perspective; and we won’t try to scare Brianna or any of the other girls around
their ages with suggestions that they might prefer Zack and Eli right now
compared to where they might be in the not-so-distant future if they get around
to ‘crossing over’ and joining the fledgling tween couples’ club! ;^)
Brianna had parental approval for two
movies; we managed to get through both of them by midnight; and then some of us
went for a late-night swim before wrapping up the day with quiet cuddle and
chat time around the tents. The younger
cousins were with us for the night, so we didn’t have any co-ed tents, but we
stayed up late; and only had naps anyway before getting up again at dawn for
Tai Chi by the river. We loved that
workout with the extra exercise buddies, and then it was time to get busy again
while getting all of the campers fed.
Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne had extra parental support for that meal, but
it was also a work day; and we were drafted to keep the younger kids
entertained all day. We’ve been doing
that and will continue for the rest of the day because we’re doing another
outdoor movies and camping night. Our
adventures today included biking the trails; park playground fun; swimming,
canoeing, and back yard games. Pizzeria
pizza was delivered for lunch; and now Ehlana and I are, as mentioned, grabbing
clean clothes and more camping supplies before we need to get back to the
Carringtons to help with another barbeque dinner. We might actually end up with more campers
tonight, but the older teens have other plans; and the additions are other
friends that weren’t at Brianna’s party yesterday – including a few of our
friends. We’ll also be doing a park trip
for the co-ed ball practice, but we won’t have time for computing later; so we’ll
save those stories for our next report.
We do want to include a quick world news update, though, so let’s do
that; and then we’ll need to get back to the ‘live’ action!
The Ukraine conflict is back in the news
ahead of other stories because Russian air attacks have been escalating to new
levels, with nightly swarms of hundreds of drones and missiles hitting targets
all across the country. The report from
last night was that more than seven-hundred drones and missiles were sent into
Ukraine; with the biggest change being the apparent expansion of target
choices. The destruction is terrible;
and dealing with all of the extra damage must be exhausting for the emergency
services workers that are being overwhelmed by the fires, injuries, and
everything else that is happening in the aftermath of the destruction. The frontlines fighting is even uglier;
Russian forces are making progress in many areas; and nobody can really even
guess at how long the Ukrainian forces can continue to fight before they don’t
have enough fighters left and their defenses collapse. That does seem to be inevitable to us –
unless Ukraine’s allies decide to send in their armies; and we don’t even want
to think about that kind of escalation that really could lead to a world war.
There is less news right now from the
Middle East, but the fighting still continues against the Palestinians – not that
there is much fighting happening on the Palestinian side while Israel continues
their genocidal campaign in Gaza. Israel
also continues attacks on Yemen; tensions are still high between them and
Lebanon; and they continue to occupy parts of Syria – basically colluding with
the new leaders in Syria while the world again does nothing as Syrian
Christians and minorities are rounded up, tortured, and killed by the formerly
most-wanted terrorists. The fighting
with Iran is still paused, but the underlying issues are not resolved; and the
entire region is still a powder keg just waiting to be set off again.
There is more talk about tariffs of various
kinds around the world for various reasons, but all that really seems to be
happening is that countries and businesses are finding ways around any tariffs
or they are adapting and making other deals to replace any lost international
trade. Basically, that means that the
rest of the world is looking to move away from trade with ‘western’ countries
and making deals with the countries that aren’t trying to bully them. Since China and India have a third of the
world’s population; it isn’t surprising that the rest of the world wants to
make the biggest deals with them. There
is always a lot of rhetoric about the much-lower economic activity, but most of
those discussions ignore very-important issues such as which countries have the
natural resources and production capacity.
We’ll add that there is a huge difference for costs too, and that
shouldn’t actually be a surprise to anyone in the west; since we’ve all been taking
advantage of those differences for decades now so that we can have our cheaper
tech and other products! Our leaders can
talk all they want about bringing some of that production home again, but that
is also very simplistic; and won’t change the reality that we can’t compete on
prices against much-larger workforces and production capabilities.
China, India, and a lot of other countries
are figuring that out now, so our leaders better figure that out sooner instead
of later; since we really need to start getting along with the rest of the
world instead of being the biggest bully on the block. We can’t actually win that fight when the
only way we could ‘win’ would lead to the entire world losing everything. That’s definitely too-much doom and gloom for
any day – especially when we are having so much fun with our family and
friends; so that’s all for today. We
really need to get going now, so stay tuned for our next report; and we’ll get
back to living the adventures that we’ll write about sometime tomorrow!
Until next time, live with love, fellow
Magi of the Light!
