Ethan and Ehlana:
We got to meet the two newest members of
our town at church today – Natalia Ayres and Aaron Landry. Both babies and their parents were given all
of the attention they deserved, but we also want to mention that Erin earned a
bit of awe and commiseration from the rest of the mothers that were amazed by ‘little’
Aaron’s birth weight of nine pounds and six ounces! I’ll never be able to relate, and hope that
Ehlana won’t experience that in the future if the reactions we saw today are
any indication. Then again, she’s sure
to be teased about the likelihood of twins; so the changes of both are very
low! ;^)
Our evening with Mom, Dad, and our four
best friends was awesome from dinner time until I fell asleep before anyone
else, and while I’ve been teased about that a lot today; I didn’t actually miss
all that much beyond some quality teen chat time and the rest of a bad movie
and a playlist of music that Ehlana and our friends listened to until they fell
asleep too. Tai Chi by the river was
frosty, but we went outside for that workout despite the freezing
temperature. We had a hot breakfast for
eight that the teens cooked and then cleaned up after the meal; and then church
and Sunday school were more fun thanks to all of the baby-themed entertainment. For the record – Ehlana and I did actually
weigh more combined than Aaron did on his own even if his Mommy can’t believe
that right now. Our best friends went
home with their own families after church; we had lunch with Mom and Dad; and
then we headed to the lab or archives for the afternoon while Dad worked in the
home office and Mom might have worked too – or made his work more-challenging
with her distractions. We didn’t ask for
any details; since their smiles strongly suggested that we didn’t want to
know! We stayed home for dinner-for-four
instead of a trip to the Inn; did a bit of work in the office and a Magi
lesson; and then it was bath or Jacuzzi time for the teens in the house. Now we’re winding down with the twin chat and
computer checks; and we’re getting close to being ready to crash and nap for
the night.
Cassie and Michael are continuing their
work in the American Samoa islands – though they took some sightseeing time too
and are having some fun along with the ongoing work. Their Sunday is still continuing as ours is
ending, but their work is done for the day and they are going to play for the
rest of their day. Again, Ehlana and I
might not want any details!
The weekend world and political news
reports seem bi-polar along with weird and scary. Halloween is over, but let’s start with the
scary – news of Russia’s launch of a nuclear-powered submarine to go along with
the recently-revealed Poseidon underwater drones. This new sub can carry and launch somewhere
between six and twelve of those drones – as can an older sub that has been
retro-fitted to carry the drones too. We
do not want to even imagine as many as twenty-four of those drones ever being
used with each of them capable of creating ‘city-killer’ tidal waves that would
also be radioactive. If that isn’t
scary-enough, refer back to the previous update we did suggesting the use of
that new micro-nuclear power system adaptation to use in space – especially for
something that isn’t for space travel or other benign use! For the bi-polar news, our Director of
National Intelligence publicly claimed that our country is out of the ‘regime
change’ business while many other reports are claiming an imminent regime
change attack is coming against Venezuela and their President. Both can’t be true, and while we can hope
that Tulsi Gabbard is correct; we won’t hold our breath on that one.
Talk related to the trade war with China
are mixed too; and getting to the truth is a challenge; so we’ll just wait and
see what actually happens and ignore most of the rhetoric. One story we saw about Taiwan’s leaders
wanting to become the ‘Asian Israel’ is flat-out insane, since if they ever
tried a pre-emptive strike on China the way Israel has done many times against
their neighbors; China would destroy them long before any allies could respond
and defend them! That’s a lesson that
Ukraine should have learned before they launched their civil war against the
ethnic-Russian Ukrainians that declared autonomy from Ukraine in the Donbas
region in twenty-fourteen. The death and
destruction that has happened since then was predicted and inevitable; and now
everyone in that country is paying the price of those political mistakes. As we’re writing this, the Ukrainian army is
faltering all along the front lines, and we wonder if a total collapse might
actually be in the best interest for Ukraine if they are forced to surrender
before they lose tens of thousands more soldiers – including the thousands
currently caught in Russian cauldrons and being ordered to fight to the last
man. What is happening is beyond ugly –
and the Ukrainian and western leaders should bear all of the guilt for all of
the death and destruction. That would
not be a popular view among those leaders, but the war could have been avoided
peacefully; Ukraine walked away from every deal offered to them by Russia; and this
is really all about western powers attempting to destroy Russia and then gain
control of their natural resources and wealth.
Finally, let’s mention ongoing social
unrest not only in our country, but around the world. There are new bouts of unrest in a handful of
countries between the people and their leaders – including coup attempts and
more. There was a knife attack on a
passenger train in the United Kingdom this weekend with ten injured passengers
that definitely seems like a terrorist attack to us despite government and
police denials; and there are many more examples of various kinds of attacks
happening in our country and in Europe and beyond. Add in more political threats that are
getting more-overt and dangerous; and that all adds up to a potential powder
keg – or a lot of them; with the risk of one or more of those kegs blowing up
into new or larger conflicts.
Let’s stop there, since all of that news is
rather depressing. Our first week of
November is going to be very busy with everything from birthday celebrations to
the first playoff football game on Friday that is a home game for us thanks to
the undefeated regular season. Ehlana,
Naomi, and Sophia have already been working on new routines for the playoffs;
and their boyfriends really wish that we won’t miss most of that action while
we have to focus on the game instead!
Please do not cue jokes about Naomi sharing a ‘private’ cheer squad
demonstration – and don’t even spend time on those mental thoughts about my
girlfriend if you do know us in our future! ;^)
Ehlana is ignoring that comment and she is
teasing me anyway, so that’s all for this report; and I might or might not take
those thoughts and suggestions with me into dreamland!
Until next time, live with love, fellow
Magi of the Light!
