Ehlana and Ethan:
We’re back!
Okay, we’re only back in the United States and just recently cleared the border and customs, but we didn’t have any issues there thanks to Cassie’s extreme organization; and ‘our’ customs agent even seemed to be happy to welcome us home! I’ll add that she also appreciated Michael a lot, but we kept our mouths shut; and she did not choose to take him aside for a more-personal search or interrogation!
As for the rest of our adventures so far today, we were up early in Vancouver for Tai Chi by the hotel pool; we followed that up with a swim; and then we packed up and checked out before going out to a working breakfast and the rest of our work and play that kept us busy until mid-afternoon when we hit the road for the border. That fun included a work lunch, two site visits for a port transportation project and a sustainable resources project that experiments with reviving damaged ecosystems specializing in coastal systems that interconnect marine and land bio-systems. The teens in our group skipped one financial meeting because it was boring; and we visited a museum instead.
Our trip to Seattle has been fun – even with the minor blip passing through customs. For the record, Cassie did not need to Confund the border guards or customs agents; we did not get picked for an enhanced search of ourselves or our rental van; and we were on the road again within a half-hour – including dealing with paying the duties for a handful of purchases that were not included in allowed limits for things like souvenirs. We’re writing this update now because we have time before we get to Seattle; and we expect to be busy for the rest of the day from going for a late dinner to some sunset sightseeing. Let’s also note that Mother Nature likes us, since we are going to be in Seattle; and the weather is sunny and warm! Try not to be shocked, but despite perceptions thanks to Hollywood and many fiction authors; it apparently doesn’t rain every day in Seattle! The rest of our news for today can wait; so let’s move on to news from home and then our world news of the day.
The top story from home was the weather. After some thunderstorms overnight, their morning low was our ‘warm’ high around here; and then they soared into triple digits with a mix of sun and clouds. Thanks to that heat, our cousins and friends apparently opted for a lazy do-nothing day – when that was an option; and then our friends with jobs on farms or other outdoor work had to suffer through the heat and hard work. We’d feel guilty about that, but then we’re having too much fun, and if we’d been home; our work happens in my lab or Ethan’s archives where we get to stay cool. Okay, we sometimes get stuck working in that kind of heat on yard chores, but we also try to do that work when we can when it is cooler. Mom and Dad stayed cool today; and we are not going to comment on why they don’t seem to have much to tell us about their kid-free adventures. Let’s just hope that they won’t end up with any belated souvenirs from our trip!
That might be even-scarier than the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine! No, that isn’t serious or true, but we don’t need to let facts get in the way of the fun. The actual news from the Middle East is that peace is off today; Iran and President Trump are now demanding war reparations as a condition for opening the strait, and demands for an end to the war and blockade of the strait are hardening on both sides. We won’t try to guess on whether that will lead to more war or a flop back toward diplomacy that is still mostly theatre and no substance. While that gets a lot of media attention, Israel continues to ignore their supposed deals with Lebanon and Hamas while bombing and killing and destroying targets in both places. Saudi Arabia must be regretting their attack on Yemen; since the Houthis appear to be taking the war to the Saudis and their allies in Yemen; they are still blockading their strait and targeting Saudi ships. We’re not getting much news from the Iraqi side of the fight with Saudi Arabia after they targeted Iraqi militant groups, but that will continue to be a problem for them – and likely for American forces too.
While we’re earning new enemies in the region every day – and so are our allies; Ukraine appears to be getting all of the help they need from their western allies and backers to help them fight to the last citizen! At the rate they’re going, that plan is going to succeed sooner instead of later; and the reports out of Odessa and Kiev are getting uglier every day as Russian forces pound those cities every day and there appears to be no air defenses left – making those attacks nearly one-hundred percent successful. Russia has definitely taken their fight to a new level now, and they are obviously looking to starve the Ukrainian armed forces of all supplies from weapons and command to fuel and food. Predicting how long that will take is impossible without the inside information, but the amount of damage is accelerating; and is unsustainable for Ukraine. We know that the biggest risk that would come with a collapse in Ukraine would be a western decision to escalate to a wider war and get involved directly, but we’ll hope that doesn’t happen; and pray that somebody in Ukraine will get a clue and find a way to take control of their government and military and then take whatever deal they can get from Russia before the only choice left is total surrender.
That’s enough for this update. We’ll be in Seattle soon, and while Cassie and Michael are going to do some follow-up work from their last visit; we’ll also spend most of the time playing and spending some time with Uncle Mark’s family. Stay tuned for those stories; and we’ll get back to living the adventures.
Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!
