Ehlana and Ethan:
Cassie and Michael arrived safely in Gabon and got right to work pretty much from the moment they cleared customs at the airport. it is warm there too – though our last hot day here was warmer as we flirted with triple digits for a little while this afternoon before dipping back into the nineties; and it is cooling down quickly from there as we’re writing this tonight. The forecast showers held off until this evening and not until after the marching band practice; so we’ve enjoyed the last blast of summer-like weather before we head back into fall by morning. We’re sure that Cassie and Michael are going to be very busy, but with the time change; they are currently sleeping and will be up soon to get started on their Wednesday in Libreville. Let’s mention that Cassie and Michael have a very aggressive schedule for this trip; so they will also be doing a lot of driving between stops pretty much every day as they work their way across Central Africa for the west-to-east parts of their trip while most of the way back across the continent will be flight-hops between Capital cities back to the west coast. We’ll have some of those stories for you as they go along, but you can read their journals and travel archives if you really want all of the details.
Here at home, our day started with Tai Chi by the river and breakfast with Mom and Dad were good; some of our teachers took advantage of the last hot day for extra outdoor time; and all of our practices went well from my cheer squad workout at lunchtime through the football and concert band practices through our evening marching band practice. That one included doing the recording session for the Christmas ornament fundraiser; the song we picked was ‘When we’re together’ from Disney’s Frozen holiday special; and the first order will be ready by Thanksgiving. Aaron hosted our dinner and study break between practices; his Mom opted for grilled burgers and hot dogs with cold salad sides; and we multi-tasked the studying to get everything done before we needed to be back at the school. It was just starting to sprinkle as we left the school tonight, so we split up for our homes instead of adding in any extra walks with Silkie; and then Ethan and I did a bit of work and a Magi lesson with Mom in the office before coming upstairs for bath or Jacuzzi time. Before we get to the world news update; I’ll add that we haven’t kept up with the post-festival action at the park; but have been advised that the work is done now; and the last of the rides have moved on to their next festival or fair destination.
Both of the top wars were getting political and media attention today. In the Middle East, the airstrikes and fighting on the ground continues between Saudi Arabia and Yemen; more threats are being directed both ways – including from Ansar Allah with warnings against any country that joins to help Saudi Arabia and warnings to Aramco employees to evacuated company facilities because new strikes on oil infrastructure are imminent. There are reports of some airstrike exchanges between Israel and Iran; and there are hints out there that Israel’s leaders might be attempting to provoke Iran in an attempt to resume that part of the war so they can have an excuse to cancel the elections that the current government is likely to lose if it goes ahead at the end of the month. More ships are being attacked in the region; and the anger grows throughout the region.
For the Ukraine war, the top stories are that Ukraine is now targeting Russian data centers while they are also complaining that they are suddenly not getting advance warnings from their western ‘partners’ for incoming airstrikes from Russia. That might be related to President Zelensky’s recent insults directed at President Trump, but it is more-likely just added theatre; since they are definitely getting help for those drone strikes on the Russian data centers. We are sure that the new targets will just lead to worse for their own facilities and infrastructure; and we expect to read all about the next retaliations from Russia any day now. Ukraine and European leaders are complaining about the ‘diesel deal’ with Russia, but others have been pointing out today that Europe has still bought more than three-hundred billion dollars worth of oil and gas from Russia since the war started; so it is hypocritical to complain about that much-smaller deal – if it actually even ends up happening; since Russia must have conditions for doing those exports, so if they don’t get what they want; the deal could end up going nowhere. Finally, for Ukraine, President Trump was asked about his claim of an agreed energy ceasefire for Russia and Ukraine that both sides deny; and he declared that it was true and done because he said so and they’d better do as told. That was a fairly-insane statement, but also makes it clear that he is living in a different reality from the rest of us if he actually believes that he has the power to make every other leader in the world bow to his whims. Okay, that might be true for the weak and dependent countries, but it is delusional when attempting that kind of nonsense against countries like Russia and China.
We’ll only mention a bit of general world news tonight; and it is about growing unrest around the world. The example we’ll write about is the small island nation of Mauritius, near Madagascar, where protests and riots are apparently the worst seen in nearly thirty years and entirely due to economic and social stresses related to rising prices that are much-worse for the people in a country that relies heavily on tourism and on an island that requires a lot of imports – especially for fuel and food and basic needs. This is another canary warning for what is coming for the rest of the world if we don’t change course, and while the reactions will vary; fighting over resources is inevitable at this point and will only be mitigated if we stop all of the fighting. That probably isn’t going to happen until things get much worse; so we’ll prepare; do what we can to help where we can; and that’s all we can do.
We can also share the love and joy in our own lives with as many people as we can, and we need to be at full-power to do that; so we’re out of here and off to nap time right now.
Until next time, live with love, fellow Magi of the Light!
