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!
