Ehlana and Ethan:
Our first weekend of the school year has felt a bit strange for us – at least for today; since we’re done with the summer baseball season and we haven’t had anything else on the schedule other than a chores day! Now that we’re busy with school, studies, football or cheer squad, and more to come, the least we can do is help Mom and Dad when needed all day on our Saturdays; and that’s what we did today – after our friends moved on from our co-ed sleepover last night. Before we get to the non-news, chores day report; let’s cover the rest of our story from last night.
After grabbing a snack dinner, Ethan headed to the school for the bus ride to Brookbridge with the team; I met up with Naomi and Sophia for the drive there with her father – and yes, Naomi got to drive both ways again this week. She is also very happy about the game and our cheer squad efforts; and Ethan was again, in his always-quiet way – the team star thanks to four touchdowns and a lot of catches and yards earned after those catches. We are biased, but it is also true; since everything else that our team did last night started with Brookbridge trying to stop Ethan and leaving other gaps that our team exploited. The score ended up at seventy-seven to thirty-seven, so Brookbridge had some big plays and proved that our team still has work to do to get better, but along with Ethan’s points, Aaron had three running touchdowns; Aiden had two passing touchdowns; and Miles scrambled for two short touchdowns on the ground to go with his passes for touchdowns that made him the more-obvious star of the game to the fans. Miles loves that, but we might need to keep an eye on him; since that could be a problem if his ego starts to exceed his actual abilities. I’m not trying to take anything away from him because he does have talent, but without Ethan, Aiden, and Aaron; he’d likely just get crushed by the defenses. As for our cheer squad, we had a lot to cheer about; the half-time routine was a hit; and we got a bit more of the wrong kind of attention than we wanted from a few guys that needed to be persuaded to leave us alone before they moved on to chase other girls that likely weren’t interested in that kind of attention either. Naomi, Sophia, and I got back to Naomi’s house well-ahead of the boys; her father picked up a Pizzeria pizza order in-time to be hot for when Ethan, Aiden, and Aaron did catch up with us; and then the rest of our evening included that snack and drinks; a visit with Naomi’s parents; and some co-ed cuddle time and teen chat and music videos as we wound down toward the co-ed nap time. Some of us stayed awake longer than others, but we won’t call anyone out on that; since we did all have a very long day by then.
While we were with Naomi overnight, we still ended up doing Tai Chi by the river – at Cassie and Michael’s house. We do not need to know why Mom and Dad skipped the morning workout after a kid-free night, but we had fun with that early workout; returned to the Seagers for breakfast; and then split up for the rest of the day as Ethan and I went home to the chores day and our best friends had other plans for work or chores or other entertainment with their own families. Yes, summer is definitely over and we have to share our friends more-often – especially with their own families! The chores were standard fare yard work that we did at multiple homes and cottages; it really did take most of the day; and we dealt with a couple of short blasts of showers that really only helped to cool us down from the work – as did the two swim breaks and regular drinks to stay hydrated. It warmed up into the nineties this afternoon, so some of the work was hot and dirty, and by the time we were done for the day; showers were wanted and needed before we sat down to the late dinner with Mom and Dad in the sunroom. We didn’t help with the cooking, so we took care of the clean-up, and while some work and a Magi lesson kept us busy for an hour or so after that; we headed up to the third floor early and now we’re planning on an early bedtime to catch up on our sleep.
For us, the top world news of the day and weekend is the BRICS+ summit in India that continues to prove how different the rest of the world is approaching diplomacy and trade compared to America and the European Union and other ‘western’ countries. They currently have eleven full members and ten partner countries in the economic bloc; they represent more than half the population of the world; and they want to create an environment for diplomacy and trade that builds everyone up instead of exploiting and bullying weaker partners. So far, they’ve announced a deal to develop and implement a new payment system led by India and Russia that we expect will also connect to China’s digital version of SWIFT; they are trying to tell the rest of the world that they aren’t ‘against’ anyone, but instead would like to work and trade with everyone; and they are making economic deals with each other and sitting down to discuss all of the global challenges affecting everyone from the current wars to the growing resources challenges. Let’s also note that Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the U.A.E. are all represented at the meetings; and at least two of those countries need to seriously decide whether they want a peaceful, cooperative future for their countries and people or the alternative of being among the exploited vassals of the west! That’s a bit blunt, but when your countries are being decimated in a war that never needed to happen at all; a change in perspective is a very good idea – and at least some of their diplomats and business leaders are getting a taste of that this weekend!
We can’t totally ignore the wars; so let’s go there next and then Ethan and I will call it a night. “The Houthis’ attacks and advances in Yemen against the Saudi-backed and funded forces continue to get a lot of attention – especially for the ports and islands they are taking over that give them total control over the strait leading into the Red Sea. They’re attacking into Saudi Arabia too, but it appears that Iraqi militias have joined the fight and have seriously-damaged a primary pipeline in Saudi Arabia that is now shut down at least temporarily and had been the primary alternative to getting oil and gas shipped while the Strait of Hormuz shipping has been slowed and stopped over the past six months. Saudi Arabia is a very expensive country to run; and they are going to be in extreme economic trouble if these attacks and this war continue – especially when they also have a significant Shia population that they’ve been exploiting for decades and would side with the Houthis and Iraqi militias without hesitation. The hatred growing against America and Israel is always at risk of exploding; and we hope that the war won’t keep expanding as those forces against ‘us’ grow and consolidate power.
In Ukraine, while his country is being decimated, President Zelensky is busy trying to get more money and weapons from the rest of the world – and he’s in Canada this weekend where he is sure to get a token bit of both that will be meaningless to the outcome of the war and then he’ll be here to talk with our leaders in Washington and offer up more lies and idiocies that nobody should believe. We’ll see what he gets out of that part of his fundraising tour, but the tens of millions of dollars he’s siphoning off for his own enrichment won’t mean anything if he loses the war and can’t get away from all of the Ukrainians that will be out to get him when that happens. That’s a too-dark turn for this update, but it is a challenge to stay happy after reading so many horror stories about those wars and all of the death and destruction that we again remind our future Magi readers, didn’t need to happen.
That’s all we have for tonight, but stay tuned; since we still have almost half of the weekend to go; and maybe we’ll even get a miracle or two for the world news if there could be some political breakthroughs that start in India! Okay, that might be a bridge too far, since none of the ‘western’ countries that oppose BRICS and are afraid of them have even considered joining and learning to play nice! Ethan and I are ready to get some sleep, though, so we’ll stop there; work on having happier thoughts to take into dreamland with us; and be back again tomorrow night once we’ve lived all of those Sunday adventures!
Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!
