Halloween and football were the top stories at school today;
and we’re into the Halloween-themed lessons and activities now too; but before
I get started on that part of my journal report, I want to write about our
future plans and family business meeting.
The first thing I want to mention is that we’d all like to
include Aunt Grace and Uncle Mark in these meetings; but that isn’t an option
right now – even though that causes some minor problems dealing with our plans
for the lab. That’s not a huge issue
now; but could be once the lab is up and running next September. For now, Uncle Adam will need to remain the
g0-between us and Aunt Grace, and while Uncle Mark’s advice would be nice to
have; his main roles in our future plans won’t really start until Uncle Adam
starts splitting his time between the clinic and lab.
Our meeting tonight started with a lengthy construction
report. The lab building will definitely
be closed in by Thanksgiving; and then the interior work will begin in
earnest. A lot of the major equipment
has already been delivered, along with truckloads of everything from electrical
wiring and cables to bathroom and lighting fixtures. With the weather cooling off so much now; the
construction crews are definitely looking forward to working indoors soon.
The first apartment building is going up fast too, and
that’s going to be the other big project all winter. There are no new houses or townhomes being
started anymore, and the crews working on them have more than enough work to
keep them busy through the winter. All
of the construction in the new section of town is going to be very important
for us next year – especially since we’ll need the extra apartments and homes
for the new employees we’re going to need for everything from the lab for new
jobs in local businesses.
Getting those employees is going to be a team effort, and
while we’ve been working on encouraging teens in choosing college and career
paths; we’ll be spending more time over the next year working family
connections – particularly for family members that have moved away; but might
be interested in returning now that there will be so many new
opportunities. We also have the
advantage of having a high percentage of college graduates here; and there is a
lot of interest in the new opportunities for everything from our own projects
to new businesses that we’re not really involved with at all.
That’s all really exciting, but I want to mention a few
things about some issues we’re dealing with that aren’t cool; but are very
necessary. There likely isn’t a single
kid or teen in town – or anywhere else – that thinks much about things like
garbage, recycling, water, sewage, or any of the other similar details of
modern life that we take for granted – except for grumbling about any related
chores like putting the cans out at the road on garbage day. The new work we’re doing here requires having
someone deal with all of that; and we needed to talk about our plans in those
areas tonight.
Among other things, we’re going to need a new, larger water
tower; a sewage treatment plant upgrade; and additions to our garbage and
recycling services. Some of those needs
are more immediate than others; but we now have a ten-year rough-draft plan for
dealing with all of those issues. In
addition to that, Ethan and Ehlana are going to help with their favorite pet
project – building a wind and solar energy plant. I haven’t been in on any of that so far, but
they’ve found an old quarry site just a few miles north-east of town that Mom
and Aunt Leanne are going to make an offer to buy; and they’ve researched
pretty much everything we’d need to build and run the place – including finding
someone here in Witch Falls who would be perfect to run the new company. For them, the fact that he’s the father of
one of their future classmates is a bonus that they really like a lot too.
We discussed what was going on now with other businesses
around town as they all start getting ready for the growth we’ll be going
through in the coming years. The most
immediate change is the new store for Witch Falls
Electric and Lighting; and Aunt Leanne advised us that they’ll be opening the
new store in time for the Thanksgiving shopping weekend. Rowen’s parents are going to take over the
old store that’s closing, but that won’t be until January; and while they’ll
need to work on it for a while to get it ready for the data center they’re
going to open; Mom already has more than enough business lined up for their new
servers for when they are ready to open for the new part of their computer
business. There are going to be new
stores opening next year that are still in the early planning stages, but the
only involvement we’ll have is when we can help out with things like financing
or real estate and rentals.
The last major topic we discussed tonight was the archive,
charity, and business travels for our growing group of volunteers. Grandpa Grant and Grandma Eleanor continue to
handle most of the archive work; and they’ll have their hands full for the next
four or five years getting all of the physical archives moved from their hiding
places around the world to here. Rowen’s
grandmother is now getting help from other Magi to deal with the charity trips;
and there will be several trips going on nearly every week next year. Winter travel is especially popular, and
works best for some farmers and business owners while work is slower and taking
trips for two or three weeks is much easier than it is during the busier months
of the year. We’ll eventually hit a
limit for that with local volunteers, but we do have other programs through our
charities; and we can develop more volunteer networks as we need them – even
though they won’t be able to accomplish some of the things our Magi volunteers
can.
I guess that’s about it for the meeting tonight, so let’s
move on to the report for the rest of the day.
There’s no doubt that Fall has arrived in Witch Falls,
and we were indoors for Tai Chi again this morning. It’s easier than getting everyone bundled up
to go outside; and while I’m happy to do lessons with Michael, Ethan, and
Ehlana; it’s also nice when we can practice the more difficult forms
together. Michael went home for
breakfast today, and then he and Rebecca met up with Rowen and me for the walk
to school.
We traded Rebecca for Tim within a minute of getting to the
school, and then stepped into some minor teen weirdness. I should begin by mentioning that Michael
isn’t at all thrilled to see Rebecca hanging out with Jason; though he’s been
keeping his opinion to himself – especially since Marc Johnson is a classmate
and friend. He also loves his sister, so
when a couple of the guys started joking with Marc about how hot his older
brother’s new girlfriend is; Michael was not happy – and let the guys know it. That could have devolved into a minor mess,
but Tim jumped in; backed up his best friend; and joked their collective way
out of the awkward moment.
Michael still needed a little time to get over being annoyed
with those guys, but we had a busy morning that included one test and a new
project to work on; and he was back to normal by lunchtime. The guys played football after we’d eaten,
but Rowen and I skipped the game and the girl chat on the bleachers. It was too cool out to sit around doing
nothing, and we didn’t want to play in the cold either, so after walking over
to the field with Michael and Tim, we wished them luck; and then moved on
without them. We went for a walk; played
for a few minutes with Jessica Bassett and her friends; and had time for quick
cups of hot chocolate before meeting up with Michael and Tim again shortly
before we needed to be in Math class.
Starting the afternoon with a Math test was Halloween-scary
for some of our classmates, but History class was fun, and Mr. Ayres kept us
entertained with the best themed lesson of the day.
Just in case you had any doubts, Uncle Nick, Halloween
nineteen thirty-eight is famous for the Orson Welles and Mercury Theatre radio
broadcast of War of the Worlds that caused a national panic because listeners
actually believed the world was under attack by Martians. The broadcast was on October thirtieth, not
Halloween night, and once the panic was over; a lot of the people who had, for
all intents and purposes, fooled themselves became angry and outraged over the
incident. It was probably one of the
best examples of the power of radio to influence and affect the lives of
millions of people. Some very dark
aspects of human nature were displayed too, and though I’m sure a lot of people
would like to think that we’re all too smart and sophisticated to have anything
like that happen again; I wouldn’t be so sure of that – just look at how many
people get fooled by media practical jokes every April first.
My favorite this year was reading about how many people
still got tricked by the dihydrogen monoxide prank. Even if you don’t remember any basic
chemistry, you’d think that a joke that’s been going around for about
twenty-five years wouldn’t still fool so many people; and the reactions were
almost identical to those back in ‘thirty-eight. I’m sorry, but the police have better things
to do than investigate whether to charge radio show hosts with a crime for
informing their audience that they have water coming out of their taps.
We talked about that while doing our homework tonight – and
while Michael, Rowen, and Tim searched for the answer to that question about
Halloween nineteen thirty-eight; and Tim’s thinking about trying the dihydrogen
monoxide prank for next April Fool’s Day – except to adapt it for pop and juice
drinks instead. If anyone in our class
can pull something like that off, it’ll be Tim.
That went quite a bit off-topic; so let’s get back to the
update.
Our study session today was at my house. It didn’t take long to get our homework done,
and then Tim wanted to go to the park for some more football. Michael pretty much had to go along, but
Rowen and I stayed home and had a music practice instead before she headed home
and I started helping Mom with making dinner.
I would have liked to spend more time with Michael, but that wouldn’t
have happened at the park anyway; and I didn’t want to just sit and shiver on
the bleachers while he and Tim played football with their buddies.
It was just the five of us for dinner tonight, and then Dad and
I took care of the clean-up while Mom got everything ready for the meeting in
the office. I’ve covered the highlights
from that meeting, and after everyone went home for the night; I helped Mom
with getting Ethan and Ehlana bathed and in bed before we moved on to my Magi
lesson. It was heading toward
eleven-thirty by the time I came up to my room to get ready for bed and start
my nightly computing and studies; and that’s why it’s past two-thirty as I
write this.
I don’t have anything particularly interesting to report
from my studies and family business work, and it was a quiet email night too;
so I guess that’s it for tonight.
Michael and I are spending the evening at his house tomorrow, so I’d
better get what sleep I can now – just in case we actually manage to have a bit
of alone time. I wouldn’t want to fall
asleep on him twice in a row!
Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!
