Ehlana and Ethan:
Happy 22nd Anniversary, Angela and Terry Malloy!
Happy 19th Birthday, Ryan Bassett!
Happy 26th Birthday, Serena Kendall!
Congratulations Serena and Shayne – You’re Engaged!
The Malloys are in town for the weekend and an anniversary vacation, so we would have spent time with them today, but then it has been stormy and wet and cooler there; so they didn’t exactly get to go outside to play very much. The weather let up enough for the co-ed ball game to go ahead after dinner, but it was still damp; and the spectator turnout was very low as ‘our’ Wild team lost twelve-to-ten to Palmer’s Pride. Some blame was sent our way for not being there to cheer for our team, but we all know that it had more to do with not having Jake and Stephanie playing tonight because the rain also meant a busier night at the Inn and they couldn’t get away for the game. Cassie and Michael loved the engagement news, and while Shayne proposed for Serena’s birthday; they’re calling it a joint birthday gift for both of them; and they are currently also on vacation to celebrate both birthdays and do visits with their families. We did a short vid-chat with them and also with Ryan, so while Cassie and Michael might have done more with Ryan if we’d been home; the gifts that had been left or sent ahead of time and the vid-chat wasn’t really different from normal for them anyway.
While it rained at home with a high in the mid-seventies; we’ve had another sunny day here and it was warmer too with an afternoon high of eighty-six. That worked great for our meetings, site visits, and sightseeing; the work was a lot of fun from new First Nations partnerships to resources development and environmental conservation projects; and our entertainment highlight was the visit to Science North. Each of the three science centers we’ve visited in Canada are unique, and while the one in Sudbury is much smaller than the center in Toronto; it was also still a lot of fun and I’ll admit that the scientist in our group had the most fun with everything we saw and experienced there.
Our top news for this report should be our current activity – the overnight drive all the way from Sudbury to Thunder Bay. That’s a bit over six-hundred miles; it will take around eleven hours plus stops; and we’ll be doing the full trip so that we can spend the entire weekend in Thunder Bay and the surrounding region on the northwest shore of Lake Superior. The teens in our group might take turns driving too, but Cassie and Michael could do it all and take turns napping, so if we help out; that will just be for the experience and driving practice. For the legal record, we won’t ask the Provincial police if our learner’s permits are valid in Canada, since while that likely isn’t a problem for most American drivers; our age might be an issue in at least some of the provinces where drivers need to be at least sixteen for the first level of graduated licenses. I’ll also add that I do know that Aiden hasn’t joined that club with us yet, but don’t really think about that at all; and he will be in the club by the end of October. Before we move on to the world news update, and since I’m thinking about driving; let’s mention the primary highway we’re using tonight – the Trans-Canada Highway. Depending on the calculations you want to use, this highway is between forty-six and forty-nine hundred miles long with a total of around eight-thousand miles in the entire system including all spurs and alternate routes. Even that ‘shortest’ number is half-again longer than the longest Interstate in America, so that is impressive, though as with the Interstate highway systems at home; this one has a wide range of quality and the maintenance and repair work never ends. We’ll be using this highway a lot for the rest of our trip to the west coast, so that’s enough for tonight; and we might have more on that part of our travel story as we experience the longer-distance drives between the major cities in the Prairie provinces.
That brings us to the world news update, and since we have lots of time on this long drive; let’s go for a longer report and maybe a bit of a rant on the never-ending idiocies of our world leaders! The Middle East continues to be a disaster on a lot of levels, but our hypocrisy report of the day is thanks to a story about President Trump and others commenting on allowing Saudi Arabia to have a nuclear program and enrich Uranium at the same time that they’re destroying Iran supposedly to keep them from enriching Uranium. Conditions were added through the day thanks to having that pointed out to our leaders; and the entire story might have just be theatre; since Saudi Arabia would be crazy to agree to those conditions while Israel is continuing to destroy Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, and Lebanon. The Straits out of the Red Sea and Persian Gulf continue to either be open or not, but oil prices went down a bit today for no apparent reason other than some bets made money while others lost trading on nothing valid. The bombs and missiles and drones kept flying; so did the threats; and we’ll see whether that escalates again over the weekend or not.
As for President Trump’s threats, he isn’t restricting them to enemies. He threatened Canada again today, and since we’re in the country; we’ll hope that he doesn’t decide to go to war with them too – especially when the spat of the day is over the new bridge between Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan. President Trump decided that the deal made with Canada to build and manage the new bridge wasn’t ‘fair’ to our country; he ordered changes; and now he’s mad that Canada didn’t invite him to the official opening ceremony. That’s ridiculous, but then so is his rants about Europe and the taxes and other charges the European Union is imposing on American companies for various reasons. News flash to the President – we have taxes and tariffs and other costs for pretty much every foreign company that imports products and services to us; so there’s another major example of hypocrisy in action for our leaders!
Let’s take that topic for a transition to Europe and their latest sanctions package on Russia that won’t do anything except increase tensions and anger. Add in a plan to pirate Russian oil tankers in the Indian Ocean and elsewhere, and if they are dumb-enough to actually do that; it will not end well for the countries involved. Their leaders really do seem to be driven to destroy their own countries; so we’ll expect the worst from them – along with the inevitable consequences. There is more talk about support for Ukraine and the war against Russia, but other than the ongoing tactics change to send drones against civilian warehouses and stores; there aren’t any serious plans being publicized to help on the frontlines or with the non-stop Russian bombings across Ukraine that are causing massive damage and casualties. Okay, we can mention that European countries are working toward expelling draft-age Ukrainians to send them back to Ukraine to die for their country; and we will never understand how any leaders can live with themselves while committing moral crimes like that – especially when those leaders are often the same people claiming to hold concepts like bodily autonomy as sacred! As far as the frontlines action goes; Russian forces continue slow advances; more Ukrainian troops are at risk of getting caught in several different cauldrons, and since they are rarely permitted to retreat; that never ends well for them.
That’s enough for tonight, since after all of that; I’d rather enjoy some travel nap time cuddled with Aiden instead of ranting on; since that is a much happier place to be! Stay tuned; and we’ll hope for some good stories to share over the weekend as we work and play in our final stop in Ontario before moving on to Manitoba on Monday.
Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!
