Ehlana and Ethan:
Happy 6th Anniversary, Sally and Joshua Parker!
Since our last update, we made it to the last ferry of the day to Victoria; that ride was a bit less than two hours; and the twilight-night crossing was amazing! We’ll also mention here that we think it is a bit weird for the city of Vancouver to be on the mainland of British Columbia while the Capital, Victoria, is on Vancouver Island. As Americans, we can’t say much about that; since our city of Washington is on the other side of the country from Washington State! Nobody else in the world would be shocked to find out that our leaders are geographically-challenged; since we prove that over and over again! ;^)
We were late getting to our hotel and rooms; didn’t stay up for long once there; and still only managed a handful of hours of sleep. This is an early update because we’ve finished our work and sightseeing in Victoria for the day; and now we’re heading out for some work and play elsewhere on the island. The transit time gives us the chance to write this report; and we expect to be busy for the rest of the day. The first thing we want to mention about our day-so-far is that the weather is awesome! It is sunny; the high is going to reach the mid-eighties; and the ocean and channel and water views are incredible!
Cassie and Michael’s work here is a mixed bag of transportation and environmental conservation projects; there will be one provincial government related meeting tomorrow; and we are helping to develop sustainable communities that are small-scale for the near future and hopefully scalable in the long-term. For the record, our ideas for that are not the same as we see promoted by the rich and powerful; since we focus on all of the people in each community and that makes each project unique while also working toward transferrable good ideas.
Our sightseeing so far today has mostly been cameo moments, but we’ll do more for the rest of the day; and most of our fun will include seaside and water play. We’ll share those stories with you tomorrow; since we’re also going to put our tech away – or most of it – for the rest of the day and focus on our adventures out here in the real world.
Back at home, thanks to the time change, we already know that Brianna pitched another no-hitter to help her Rebels team to the six-zero win over the Scions this morning. Leah and Hailey just finished helping their Mist team to a much-closer, thirteen-to-eleven win over the Fog; and those are two more reasons that Naomi, Sophia, and I are going to get razzed about our team’s loss last night after we get home! We’ve missed more chores again today, but Cassie and Michael are going to miss out on the anniversary party for their friends tonight; and that’s going to be a barbeque and barn dance that will start after the farm work is wrapped up for the day. That just leaves the world news update before we move on; so let’s make that quick and wrap this up.
I want to start with a story that won’t really get any news coverage. The Lake Mead reservoir at the Hoover Dam hit a new low water level, and while we are not getting on any bandwagons because of that; we do take note of changes that can affect availability for fresh water for millions of people. While that could be a future problem for the people downstream of the reservoir; it is one of the signs of growing water resources constraints that are going to have a growing impact on people around the world – especially when limited supplies lead to new conflicts.
As for the top two wars in the world, claims of imminent deals in the Middle East continue without any actual changes on the ground – and the deals that have been made have all be broken anyway; so this won’t likely be different even if yet another deal does get signed. There are no deals even being discussed for the Ukraine war, and while Ukrainian and western leaders still hype their own benevolence by offering a ceasefire deal to Russia; everyone knows that isn’t going to happen only to allow Ukraine time to re-arm and re-build their army; and it is no better than the same deals they’ve been offering for more than four years that Russia has rejected every time. While there is no diplomacy; the bombings continue on both sides; the front lines fighting is ugly and desperate for the Ukrainians; and every day the costs of war are getting worse for everyone involved.
We’re going to stop there – mostly because we’re closing in on our next destination and need to get back to the fun now. The countdown feels on to our return home, but we still have the rest of this weekend here on the island and then a work day on Monday in Vancouver before we head back to the United States; so we will enjoy the adventures and keep you posted on those stories along the way.
Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!
