It’s been a beautiful, sunny first day back
at home, and while I’ve been indoors and working a lot; we’ve had a bit of
outdoor fun here and there too.
I’ll admit that I wasn’t all that motivated
to get up this morning for Tai Chi, but a bit of self-healing helped out with
that; and I didn’t want to miss out on the good morning hugs and kisses with
Michael even if sleeping in would have been nice. Michael also opted to stay for breakfast, and
while we joked about it; I’m sure that wasn’t really because he didn’t want to
be a third wheel at home with Rebecca and Lucas. They looked to be very happy when we met up
with them before heading over to the park once Michael was changed and ready
for the football workout, though, so they obviously took advantage of the alone
time.
Good for them; since they won’t see each
other much again between now and Sunday.
I don’t know how Michael and I would handle that if one of us lived on a
farm instead of on the same street; but I’ll guess that we’d do a lot more
biking between our homes to spend time together than Rebecca and Lucas do. The good news for them is that Lucas will be
sixteen soon; and then he’ll be driving into town to visit Rebecca a lot. That won’t change their work schedules at
all, so they’ll still need to deal with being busy; but I’m sure that this
upcoming milestone in teen freedom is something that they’re both looking
forward to – just as most farm and small town teens do.
I was going to say all teens for that, but
it probably isn’t true for a lot of big city teens. That’s completely different when mass transit
of various types is an available option.
Driving cars or trucks and dealing with the traffic and every other city
transportation issue – like parking – must be daunting for a new driver; and
that isn’t even taking into consideration all of those extra costs for new
drivers. I don’t really want to get
side-tracked and write volumes about the differences between cosmopolitan and
rural teens; so let’s move on and get back to the news of the day.
Tim was happy with the turnout for his
football workout. Most of the regular
guys showed up, and that worked out for me too; since they didn’t need any
extra help with the drills. Rowen,
Rebecca, and I instead sat on the bleachers with some of the other girls and
spectators; had a fun little chat that was mostly about our trip and updates
about what we’d missed here at home while we were away. The second half of that was mostly girl chat
type topics; and didn’t include any details that I want to add here.
While I’m not interested in writing much
about football either, I will mention that Tim isn’t as happy with the level of
conditioning and play he’s seeing from most of the guys right now. He doesn’t think that they’re nearly as far
along as they were last year a week and a half away from the start of the
official training camp; and I can report that he’s right about that. Tim is also partially right to conclude that
not having any seniors working with them is affecting the effort that the younger
guys are putting in, but that isn’t the complete picture; since I can also tell
from comparing my memories from last year that Michael and Tim are now the best
players on the team. They were among the
best last year; but they’re now better than everyone by quite a bit. Being taller and stronger has a lot to do
with that, particularly compared to the younger guys; but they also work harder
than everyone else and have a lot of natural talent. That talent doesn’t surprise anyone for Tim,
since his family is all about sports; but some of our friends do seem to be
surprised whenever they’re watching Michael play.
I’ve never thought about that much, and it
isn’t as though Michael doesn’t have some sports nuts in his family tree; but
he and Rebecca are the only members of the local Stone family to be into
playing sports. Jake didn’t do much of
that at school; and neither did their parents when they were teens. They might not have been into playing team
sports; but I’ll guess that they all could have – or still could; if they
wanted to get involved. All I’m getting
at here is that Michael isn’t the only member of his family with the natural
athletic talent; so people shouldn’t be surprised at it just because they haven’t
seen it used in sports by the rest of his family.
Getting back to the news again, we had fun
talking and watching the boys play for an hour or so; and then it was time for
me to get home again and start working on chores with Mom. We had a lot to do after being away for two
days; and that kept us busy until lunchtime.
Naomi and Aiden were both gone by the time I was back at home, but Ethan
and Ehlana were also out because Uncle Adam took them over to the lab with him
so that they could play there for a few hours.
That made doing the housework and laundry easier – especially when Mom
and I cheated to get the work done faster so that we could both get started on
some family business work in the office once we had the chores out of the way.
We were in the office when Ethan and Ehlana
were dropped off for lunch by Aunt Leanne; and she, Zack, and Brianna stayed to
have lunch with us before they went home again to have an afternoon nap. That was a fun break, but then I went back to
work until Michael came over when he was set free from the Inn for his
afternoon break. We went for a swim with
Ethan and Ehlana then; took them on a bike ride to the park; played there for
an hour; went for another swim; and then wrapped up Michael’s break with an ice
cream snack in the dining room at the Inn that Miranda and Rebecca joined us
for before they needed to gear up for the dinner rush.
It was back to work in the office for me
after that while Ethan and Ehlana played in the back yard and Mom sat out on
the back porch to watch them while working on her computer. We both stopped our computing and made dinner
together; had that meal out on the back porch too; and then I took care of the
clean-up while Mom and Dad did a few other things – including getting ready for
their ball practice. I was on kid
control duty for that, and had a gang of kids to keep up with at the playground
while Mom and Dad played ball with their friends. Michael met up with us there, and came home
to go for a swim with Ethan, Ehlana, and me after the practice; but he didn’t
stay to hang out with me after that because we’re both tired out.
I came up to my room almost immediately
after saying goodnight to him. Mom and
Dad both still had work to do in the office, but they knew that I was worn out;
so they took care of getting Ethan and Ehlana off to bed – including having
them take baths before tucking them in for the night and getting to work in the
office. While they were doing that, I
had a nice long soak in my Jacuzzi; got ready for bed; and got started on my
usual bedtime computing while cuddling with Mandy. There wasn’t any family business work to do,
but I did have a few personal emails to deal with before getting to this
update.
One of those emails was from Violet; and
that reminded me that I haven’t included anything about her in my journal in a
while. That’s mostly because we’ve both
been busy and haven’t spent much time together since Jake and Stephanie’s
wedding; but I’m really thinking about her – and Dillon – tonight because we’re
down to days now before they head back to college. They’re in Woodvale tonight; went there after
finishing work at the lab for the summer yesterday while we were away; and then
they’ll be home again tomorrow night or Friday to spend a bit more time with us
before heading off to school on Saturday.
They’ll be spending more of that time with Dillon’s family, so we’ll
need to share them; but I guess that’s only fair considering how much time they
needed to spend working, at our house, or with Jake and Stephanie during the
last couple of months. It’s funny
thinking now about how little I’ve seen them in the last ten days or so while
also knowing that I’m going to miss them while they’re at school again. They’re going to have a great year, though;
and getting their own place together now that they don’t have to live on campus
is going to have everything to do with that!
I’ll save the details for that up for an
update this weekend or next week; but I will say that I’m taking notes for
future reference. Violet and Dillon didn’t
have any parental issues with their decision to cohabitate at college this
year, and I doubt that Michael and I would either, but just to be clear; I’m
looking at those details for more reasons than just for co-ed living. That’s something for another journal update
too; though I will point out that I’m not keen on the idea of not being able to
use my Magi gifts while stuck in dorms for a couple of years – especially since
I can’t afford to lose that much training time.
Even my family business work and language studies would be a problem in
residential halls where privacy is limited or non-existent.
Anyway, that really is a topic for sometime
when I’m not ready to drop from lack of sleep.
I don’t have anything else to add to the news from today either; so,
until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
