{"id":10196,"date":"2026-07-18T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T00:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/?p=10196"},"modified":"2026-07-17T21:36:55","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T21:36:55","slug":"potpourri-post-family-business-and-an-exoplanet-with-air","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/potpourri-post-family-business-and-an-exoplanet-with-air\/","title":{"rendered":"Potpourri Post: Family Business and an Exoplanet With Air"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Sauk Centre weather and forecast Wednesday, July 15, 2026: briefly, hot.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n
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Minnesota Pollution Control Agency \/ Current air quality conditions July 15, 2026: smoke at hazardous levels.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

It’s been quite a week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smoke, probably from fires near the Minnesota-Canada border and elsewhere raised \u2014 or lowered \u2014 air quality here to hazardous levels. I’ve probably got the best respiratory system in the household, but even I was feeling less than perky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the ‘up’ side, our second-oldest daughter and granddaughter came visiting. Son-in-law stayed back in North Dakota, keeping things running there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That two-day visit was a very good experience, and gave us a chance to have a video conference with a lawyer to sort out family property\/estate\/whatever arrangements for at least the next generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was a very good experience, but it was also a lot of excitement; and I haven’t been a 40-year-old kid for decades. Between the heat, the smoke, and the excitement, I’ve been feeling \u2014 I’ll call it relaxed and call it a day. A week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The visit’s main purpose was to sort out the financial side of this family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good news is that we’re a family, and all on the same page with what that means. What makes it a tad complicated is that we’ve been trying to find a way to define how that works in a way that the legal system we live with will recognize. That’s where the lawyer came in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I may talk about that later, but not this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s see, what else?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right: during that conference, explaining how the land two of our daughters, son-in-law and granddaughter are living on relates to the family this way: we didn’t settle near Hillsboro. Hillsboro grew near us. I may talk about that another time. Probably will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Now For Something Completely Different<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Finally, and skipping to a favorite topic of mine, a couple science news items:<\/p>\n\n\n\n