Ethan and Ehlana:
Happy 12th Birthday, Robyn
Johnson!
A family gift was sent and we know that the
Carringtons did a breakfast vid-chat with our cousin, but the rest of her
birthday fun was left up to her family and friends. There was some talk today about the coming summer
vacations for our cousins being interesting as the next group of kids are
hitting the teen and tween years, but then we are also going to start losing
the older teens that won’t be coming for longer stays due to summer jobs or
impending college adventures.
Here at home, the warmer weather continues
to be a news story with the high in the mid-fifties again, and we enjoyed some
of that sunshine while at school or while walking to various destinations, but
we also opted for the lab or archives work-play after school and then we had a
future plans meeting with Mom, Dad, Cassie, Michael, and a handful of
additional guests. That meeting was the
news highlight of our day; so let’s cover a few of those stories.
First up, Cassie and Michael had a
successful trip for all of the work plans, but they also gathered a lot of
information about activities in those countries related to the Hathorne and
Thorne families and we are collectively making new plans to thwart their
exploitative business ventures. That will
be a serious challenge; and we will need to be very careful not to lead any of
them to us through the family businesses and charities when we do attempt
offering better life-options and hope to local communities and people. Cassie believes that the Hathornes are
currently ‘winning’ most of their turf wars with the Thornes, but other than
Mexico; most of the other Central American countries are small markets compared
to the biggest countries in South America where the Thorne Empire is definitely
in-charge. Another trip to the region is
already on their schedule – and it is not a coincidence that they want to
return during the winter! ;^)
There isn’t any future plans news this year
for our favorite campground, but they have done a lot over the past decade and
more; so we can’t fault them for taking a break from the big new
expenditures. We do expect both our town
and Quarry Lake to be busier this summer as the completed trails bring new
tourists and campers; and we plan on biking with our friends too – if we don’t
all get bogged down with summer jobs and other activities. Here in town, the third bridge over the river
will be completed by spring – probably ahead of the Easter weekend; and the
green space park area between the ‘new’ section of town and the cottages should
be ready for use by the end of May.
There might be a playground added there eventually, but for now, it will
mostly be a picnic and play area with public access to the river and a dock
that will be very popular with the cottage owners and guests that won’t have
riverfront property. We are taking a
look at current business capacity again, but while the stores can get a bit
busy during the summer; our future plans leaders are looking at seasonal
options like a farmer’s market to add shopping opportunities without hurting
any of the existing stores. We like that
idea too; so stay tuned for that possible addition to future summer adventures!
Ehlana and I don’t want to bore you with
infrastructure details, but we should add that upgrades are planned for
everything from water and sewage systems and treatment facilities to road
projects and tech upgrades for the town and region connectivity. For that last part, we don’t really think
about having internet connections everywhere in town, but that isn’t the case
for our farm-based friends and neighbors; so Rowen is in charge of the upgrade
that will take those benefits out into the country and connect all of us. Yes, there is a very good chance that our
family business will supplement the costs; since that is why high speed
internet is an issue in rural communities – the per-person expense.
There was a lot of information that we
covered tonight, so we won’t try to cover everything, but we will add that
Cassie and Michael will be closer to home for their next trip – as in working
in our own country. We all often spend
too much time thinking about helping people in more need elsewhere in the
world, but we have significant family business interests in our country; and
there is just as much need to spread love and happiness and hope here. They’ll be traveling from west-to-east for
this trip and will stick to the southern-half of the country for the better
weather; and no, we don’t get to go along even though we would love it and
would learn more than we will in our school work.
That meeting rolled on until after eleven o’clock;
we helped Mom with the clean-up after our guests headed for their homes; and it
was past-midnight before we started our bedtime computer checks and twin chat. This update is getting a bit long, but we
shouldn’t skip yet another day for world news; so let’s cover some
highlights. Talk of peace in Ukraine
continues while hundreds or thousands continue to die every day on the
battlefields. Opposing political forces
might still derail a peace process, but if there isn’t a major change soon;
there won’t be much left of Ukraine for future generations on either side. One of the political stories from the weekend
was the elections in Germany where conservative parties won and there will be a
new chancellor soon, but that might not lead to significant change for regional
politics – other than that the incoming leader is talking about becoming
less-dependent on our country. That’s
likely a good idea for them, but we’ll see whether any serious changes actually
happen – especially when it comes to things like our military bases in their
country. Tensions continue in the Middle
East; and we’re especially-sickened by the horror stories coming out of Syria
as that country becomes unlivable for the majority of the citizens.
Our national politics continues to be more
about theatre than substance – though we would be as-interested as anyone else
if we actually do get to have some serious truths set free by the new leaders
of the three-letter agencies. Okay, that
might be bad if they have a file on Magi of the Light, but we would love to
know the truth about aliens; various historical events; and how many licks it
takes to get to the center of a tootsie-pop!
Yes, that last reference is seriously-dated; and I’ll take the blame for
personally collecting more useless information than Ehlana does because I read
a lot more. No, that also was not an
experiment that any recent Magi needed to try to get that answer; and yes,
Ehlana could make that calculation, but won’t; since she’s advising me that the
answer would be different pretty much every time due to factors ranging from
temperature to tongue size and saliva volume and more.
I’m wishing that I hadn’t gone there! ;^)
Fortunately, it is also late and time to
wrap this up. We’ve had a good day if a
bit busy and long; we’re feeling pretty good about our near and more-distant
future; and we really hope that everything we’re working on now will help to
make your ‘now’ amazing – whenever it is that you’re reading this in our
future. Stay tuned for our next report
while we get some sleep and then get back to living those adventures.
Until next time, live with love, fellow
Magi of the Light!
