i suppose if i've made the effort to create this page, i should make the effort to update it more than every 23 days. it's not air-tight yet, but i'm working on it when i can. so much has happened since the last entry, and that's a considerable change from the past few summers. we set out at the beginning of the season to spend more time as a family, doing things outdoors, etc., and we've done quite a bit. money is always an issue, but we've managed to entertain ourselves with minimal expense, maximum joy. luckily, we are all easily entertained... we just spent last weekend camping with my sister, kathy, and her family, my sister, karen, and my family. the eleven of us had a great time. at one point we were on the beach outside old fort niagara, and i said to my sister, "i dread the day when my kids don't get excited about looking at rocks on a beach." alura is partial to sea glass, sierra likes finding shells and unusually colored rocks, and rylee looks for smoothed porcelain- 'they look like teeth". my wife, jennifer, paints animals on rocks, so she combs the beach looking for animal forms. i am forever searching for the perfect skipping stone. camping for us is all about rocks and sticks. walking sticks, fire poking sticks, marshmallow roasting sticks... if my kids are going to fight with swords, no matter how much i discourage them, i'd rather they use their imaginations and a blunt stick than a fifty dollar, battery-operated, light- up, scimitar with sound effects. i sound like an old codger when i say that kids today have no imagination, but for the most part it's true. or when imagination is encouraged, it seems that it's completely without scope and over the top. like so many other things their is no middle ground. i believe firmly that children are entitled to be children, but where is the balance? we're encouraged to buy toys that talk, walk, think, and play for our children. it's sad when a kid picks up an ordinary teddy bear, squeezes it, then asks "why doesn't it do anything?" the computer chip has made it possible to pull the world together in so many ways, and dumb down our kids at the same time. god forbid you ask an adolescent to add without an electronic device to aid them. gone are the days that families can enjoy a car ride with music or conversation. we have to break off from each other with a portable tv in between us with a set of earphones for everyone. perhaps we don't want to talk to our kids anymore. they are just another commodity to pour our money into as a substitute for genuineness. perhaps it's just training for the future. we're preparing them to become mindless, working drones in the cubicle hive, only capable of establishing fractured relationships and bad credit. i also don't subscribe to the idea that kids can't be held accountable for their actions, because they are children, and don't know better. ha,ha,ha did i mention that i it was a relaxing weekend? can you tell i've been back to work for three days? pardon my abrupt tirade. i'll settle down now. that reminds me- it's time for my medication. ha,ha,ha. i suppose my parents didn't do such a bang up job either... they weren't perfect either. perhaps someday my kids will be sitting across from an expensive therapist complaining about all the times their father dragged them off to the woods for another family outing when all they really wanted was a battery-operated sword with sound effects. whatever...