The Activities of Life

The Chikamori Selfacy

The Activities of Life

Things didn't stay quiet for long. After all, cosmic objects flying around ended up dropping into Riverview, causing a fair-sized explosion landing right in the middle of a demonstration. That didn't make for a very comfortable situation for the protestors.

It never really is fun to be the target of a five ton celestial object that crashes down right in your midst as you're going along doing your daily business. Imagine how suprised you'd feel if you ended up having such an object land right in your midst.

Caitlin got up the next morning and cooked breakfast for everyone.

Through diligence and hard work, even though she was in the teaching career, she ended up mastering the cooking skill. It would stand her in good stead, when she was able to cook virtually any base recipe with the exception of having to go to the bookstore to get recipe books so that she would be able to cook other menu items. It also allowed her to be able to pull the items out of the oven without burning them as she was skilled enough to know when those items were done. Aidan and Caitlin enjoyed chatting about things while eating breakfast and Masayoshi also ate since they had to head in to school and work respectively very shortly.

It was unusual to have a farm in the middle of the basement...but Haruo and River did. The manure was used for the indoor garden. It was a win-win situation, they could stay warm while milking the cow and harvesting the eggs and well as feeding the cows and chickens. Why not: winter was a chill -16, even though it was starting to warm up and turn into spring. Thankfully the cold winter was over and the weather was now over freezing at 4 degrees celcius. It's Canada; we use the metric system.

The grow-rugs had to be useful for something, right?

The renovated house looked far different than the one that they moved into and it was fully spring by the time that the renovations ceased and they were able to live in the house in peace and quiet. It was a picturesque home and they were able to enjoy the yard as opposed to barely having one in the other yard. They filled in the pond and redug it, making sure that all the fish were moved along with the re-siting of the pond. Also the kids got an outdoor "football" (soccer to you Americans) net so their kids would have something to do.

Also they got a treehouse to play in too which overlooked the pond. After all a well-occupied kid is one that stays out of trouble. Give them something to do and they'll stay out of trouble.

Haruo when he was done fishing, which was something that he was enjoying doing now that the pond had unfrozen to the point where the fish were active again and the water had warmed up to the point where the fish weren't in torpor. The two double-fountains, one large and one small, kept the water circulating too. Each day the daytime average temperature was rising and it helped that he could continue to pursue fishing as a hobby albeit self-employment. The novelty of being a 5-star chef had worn off and the sheer drudgery of the work had taken its toll. So it was just fun to be able to call his boss and tell him to take his job and shove it(and having the finances to be able to do so) pretty much was the icing on the cake.

When Haruo was done telling his boss where to go and how to get there, he spent some time fulfilling a wish to utilize the training dummy which he hadn't touched for several months. And then he started cutting gemstones. He had a lot of them in his inventory that he had to go through, but he would do them a little at a time. He hadn't been getting much of a reception from the Apothecary when it came to handing off his cut and polished gemstones for consignment. So far in three days he hadn't heard anything from the apothecary and Haruo was starting to wonder if the apothecary was pocketing the gemstones and feeding him a line (But Haruo is not Evil_Haruo in this story-line) and he decided that he would just feed the apothecary low-end jewels to see if what he was suspecting was true before he took action to get the police in on it.

River took the opportunity that evening to sell two of her paintings; one large and one medium paintings that in total brought in a fair amount of money into the household, more than enough to be able to pay the tax-bill without having to do too much worrying.

When their children came home, it was first crack the books and do their homework. River and Haruo were both stringent on that. Adhering to that strict rule and getting the best marks, even if they didn't feel like they were doing much other than learning by rote and regurgitating the lesson, it meant that they would have a leg up in a higher institution should they choose to go to university. When their kids were done, they ate dinner and headed upstairs to bed after having a little free after-school time to do what they wanted to do. Sometimes school is sheer drudgery but instilling hard work-ethic was important to do at this age.

After all when they got out into the real world, the realization that they needed to adhere to social norms and part of that was the ethic of working for a living: the more education that they had, the easier it would go for them. But River and Haruo knew too that the world was changing and that they would have to change with it. Be open to change Each successive generation would have their own pitfalls that they would have to negotiate.

Renovation Annoyance and Finally Moving In

As enormous as the house was, it wasn't really a practical house...with only one entrance to the entire house...so it was back to the drawing board again. In that regards, it was spring again before they could move back in once a few things were adjusted (think entire house rebuild) When the new house was finally finished, Masayoshi did some science research and then tried to create nanites.

And River sold paintings while Haruo wrote books.

It was hard living in the house while certain sections got demolished and others got built...but they managed admirably. They could have afforded to move into another place while it was building, but they figured, what the heck...why waste money when they could just move around the house while the house was being altered to fit their needs and city hall's requirements: y'know...city by-laws regarding houses having to have two exits and built to code. At least they had the money to revamp the house.

When the new house was done, Haruo decided to celebrate by trying to learn to play the violin. Yeah...that didn't go over too well with the rest of the family. It sounded like a cat getting its tail surgically removed without anaesthesia.

While River painted next to him. Haruo decided to play on the Bosenklavier concert grand piano (it's supposed to be a 9' Bosendorfer 920 concert grand piano) which cost him §100,000 mainly because he bought two. He was at Level 10 for piano playing which meant listening to a lot of Wolfgang Simis Amadeus Mozart and Johann Sebastiasim Bach but River indulged her husband's musical proclivities.

Of course it didn't stop him from torturing their ear-drums again with the violin. After all Bach did write the Double Concerto in D minor. And it would be nice to get to the point where he could play that. Though unfortunately it would probably take a number of "tortured cats" to do that.

Mama Fiona bought yet another painting from her beloved daughter and even though she was busy with fund-raising for her next run at public office, she still had time for a hug from her daughter.

Weekday mornings were usually hectic with the five kids and two of the four adults in the house having to fly out the door. But at least weekends were less so giving them the opportunity to relax and enjoy the morning as a family, before heading off to do their individual things.

The kids took advantage of the bowling alley (in their basement); well, when Dad and Mom are rich, you get to enjoy the finer things in life.

Allan try to mix up a potion and well, the results were rather frying.

He might want to try to remember the mixture amounts a little better the next time around.

The New House

Eight Months Later

We pick the story up eight months later as Haruo, River and family move into their new home in Riverview.

The new house was substantially more ornate than the other one and it had several garages. After selling several of their cars, they were able to downsize to the point where they were able to utilize the garage's parking spots. Haruo did enjoy the two Minus One Kelvin fridges in the kitchen. As a Level 10 5-Star Chef, he was able to whip up most dishes with relative ease.

Alanna was amazed at the house and how it looked as she walked in the door of the home.

There were quite a few nice new things about the new home that would make the family feel comfortable: the kitchen with the double Minus One Kelvin fridges, the wall-size TV, the wonderfully ornate dining room with the panelled walls.

Spending the money to be able to afford a nice house like this was worth it, Haruo thought to himself.Seeing the look on River's face is worth all the money in the world. Of course, the first thing that River gravitated towards was the easel and with her job as a painter, it was the logical thing for her to do.

River's step-sister headed downstairs to the ice-rink to spend some time on the couch reading.

...while River concentrated on producing more paintings to sell. She was now making over §20,000 per commissioned painting and it was a far cry from the days when they were newly married and struggling to get by. They had enough money that they were making a comfortable living.

Haruo, after seeing that his family was settling in, headed up to the Aleister's Apothecary Shop to see if there were any items that he consign that would be profitable.

He was rather hungry so rather than going home, he headed off to the diner to grab a bite to eat.

The Chikamori family and Satoshi had grown estranged since Molly was not happy with the move out of Sunset Valley to Riverview, but that really couldn't be helped. When one ends up being married, you support your spouse with your heart and soul, 110%.

For the Chikamori family it meant that even though they weren't together as an extended family, it certainly meant that life would still go on regardless of the situation that they found themselves in. Satoshi threw in his lot with his wife and hopefully the two of them would make it. Haruo and River had threw their lot in as far as taking care of Aidan (Satoshi's son and Haruo's cousin) and raising him so that he would have a chance. Molly didn't like the situation, but she knew for a fact that if she had to deal with Aidan, he'd probably have been taken by now and there was no way in hel that Haruo would let that happen to his family, nor would Yasunobu be happy about that situation either.