I leave early Saturday morning for Des Moines, for the USYSA Region II Championship, naturally, a soccer thing. The weather is supposed to be clear and hot, of course. I’ll apologize to the other referees when I get down there, but with my karma, they should be expecting either drought or constant rain by now. I would feel better about being one of only twelve referees in our state selected to go, but there’s just not that many of us to begin with. I didn’t go to this tournament last year (I had two weddings that weekend), and this weekend, I am missing the opening ceremonies because of a Friday night wedding. But Des Moines isn’t that far away from here, so if I leave early enough, I’ll even be able to get a couple of games in on Saturday.

A couple of better-bloggers-than-me are going to guest-blog at the otherwhirled while I am gone.

When I return, I will still have quite a bit of work to do, but will begin doing writings related to my metaphysical studies, and more thoughts as we will be just on the long side of a calendar quarter away from being able to meet with The Elder and Unknown. Just because I haven’t had (or more properly, “made”) the time to write on that particular subject doesn’t mean it’s not still on my mind, of course. There’s also some issues (go figure) going on with my side of the family, which while I am only a cursory participant to at this distance, makes me wonder about how a whole lot of things could have been very different, if I’d just possessed a bit more patience and understanding during my early 20′s. Hindsight is a pain in the ass.

These tournaments, especially when I am at them without my family, I find myself wondering overmuch about The Elder and Unknown and her full brother, wondering what they’re like: their personalities, mannerisms, how they deal with situations, all that stuff. It’s impossible not to. To be honest, the way this spring and summer have gone, being so scattered and unsettled, I’m not really looking forward to that aspect of things. Ever since things first flared up with The Elder and Unknown contacting my mother, I’ve felt ungrounded. Three and a half months isn’t very long at all, but right now it’s over the horizon.

But, we’ll get there. We’ll get there….