Ethan and Ehlana:
Happy 3rd Birthday, Hannah Sinclair!
We’ve actually spent some time with Hannah today because her parents and brother brought her here to have her party at the festival with a couple of friends and other Johnson clan family; and they are staying the night at one of the family cottages. Before we get to the rest of the news for today-so-far; let’s cover the rest of our story from Friday.
First up, we won the football game over Hillcrest, and that was good news, but our defense was more than a bit deficient – or both offenses were just that good since the score was seventy to fifty-four! Ehlana wants me to include that I earned four of our ten touchdowns and Aiden and Aaron had two each, and we did all play well, but the real difference for the game last night was that Hillcrest settled for four field goals to go with six touchdowns and basically ran out of time as we traded scoring drives all night. It was also a long game thanks to all of those scoring drives and time between possession changes; so the fans really got their entertainment value too. That is true for the cheer squad sidelines and half-time fun; our favorite cheerleaders earned a lot of attention for their routines and amazing tricks; and their Halloween-themed half-time routine was a big hit too.
Thanks to the long game and time needed to pack up and load the bus and other vehicles, it was past-eleven before we hit the road for home and after one o’clock before we met up with the girls at Aiden’s house. We still had a snack and some co-ed cuddle and chat time while listening to music videos, but then we crashed and napped for the few hours we had left before needing to get started again this morning.
As noted yesterday, Cassie and Michael hosted a gang of next-gen kids while we were busy anyway, but they added in some help from Brianna and Faith; so they had quite a gang outside for Tai Chi by the river that we joined them for before splitting up for separate breakfasts. We also fed Hailey and Leah; and then we got busy with some yard chores – just the basics instead of another full fall clean-up. We stayed together and worked at multiple homes, but still managed to get done, cleaned up and over to the park before noon and we have been playing since then. Sophia and Aaron didn’t stay with us all of the time this afternoon because they needed to spend time with their own families and other friends, but we crossed paths a few times in the midway and went on a couple of rides together too. The group we were with around lunchtime opted to snack and still go on rides, so we mostly shared fries and other treats while in lines or walking between rides and still managed to devour a fair bit of food. We only watched part of one stage show this afternoon and only played a few games while spending most of our time with the thrill rides. That worked for us because now we’re at home grabbing our band gear and getting changed for playing our set at the dance and then staying for the rest of the dance with our dates. We have driver support and Dad’s truck for our gear with Aiden up first for the pick-ups to get his drum set. By the time we get to the park; we’ll be able to set up on the main stage; grab some dinner; and then get started on our set that’ll be for the first hour and change of the dance. We’ll let you know how that goes for us with the next report, but that does pretty much bring us up to now and we do need to get guitars and Ehlana’s keyboard and gear outside and ready to load up soon; so let’s wrap this up.
The weather has been awesome for the festival with lots of sun and a high in the mid-seventies – and it is forecast to be even-warmer tomorrow! We’ll enjoy everything when that does happen for us compared to colder, wetter festival weekends, but we should also mention that there are record numbers of visitors so far this weekend too. We should also report that Zack is having a self-declared weekend birthday party, and in addition to hanging out with his friends all day; he’s hosting a major sleepover and probable all-night gaming session at his house tonight instead of for his actual birthday tomorrow. We haven’t heard for sure, but will predict that Brianna will stay anywhere else tonight!
On the world news front, our President is escalating tariffs again with plans to impose one-hundred percent tariffs on China starting November First – a certain path to economic chaos for the world – and for our country; since China is not going to destroy the relationship it has with Russia to sell more to consumers in our country. To be blunt, our leaders and advisors are apparently arithmetically-challenged; since they don’t seem capable of understanding that comparatively-inexpensive, abundant energy from Russia is necessary for China’s manufacturing juggernaut and economy, and as their partnership grows and they develop new deals with other countries; they won’t need our consumers at all within another decade or two! Let’s also mention that the fighting in Ukraine is escalating yet again – especially with the air attacks on both sides, and we really don’t want to think about what winter will be like for a lot of Ukrainians if they have limited capacity to heat homes or even keep the lights on now that Russian military is focusing on destroying energy and rail infrastructure. The peace talks for Israel and Gaza have continued so far, and we will hope for better, but expect the worst from Israeli leaders; since the language for the ‘new’ peace plan doesn’t actually seem to lead to anything permanent or hopeful for the Palestinians and is really just an admission of surrender for Hamas and a return to an even-worse open air prison for the surviving Palestinians to what they had before the war started – and that had already been atrocious!
Ehlana and I really need to get happy and ready to share our music with our family, friends, and everyone else at the festival tonight; so that’s all for this report.
Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!
