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!
