Some weekends are cooler than others. They are just worth it, the pictures telling a lot of the story. It never ceases to amaze me how tired or run down I might be at the end of a week or two week spell, then head the car north at an ungodly hour on a Saturday morning and the instant I arrive I am met by a smiling, running, screaming little 6 year old figure...shouting "DADDDDYYYY !". The stress just fades away into insignificance. It doesn't really matter what we do from arcade video games, visiting Coney Island (drive through ice cream/water ice/soft scoop place - drive through, what a concept. Or just walking along the lane or the park, seeing his beady little eyes find a ball bearing or interesting stone, or a dead bug, the simple joys of simple pleasures.

This went out by email a couple of weeks ago, but folks all say I should post it here...this is what I have to deal with...

"OK, so I'm sitting in church on my last trip up to NJ with my son. He's spent the previous day playing his All Star Baseball game, then a bbq at his coach's house, in the pool, playing in the yard, trampoline etc. So the pastor does the greeting and the first hymn, then gathers the children around him for the children's sermon before sending them off to Sunday School. He asks as it is a beautiful day what they have done so far that day. My son's arm goes straight up and I mentally scream "Nooooooooo". He gets to William 3rd, and my worst nightmare comes true. In a voice that could part waves, in front of the pastor, and in front of a congregation of 200 people he announces "My daddy pulled some ticks off my scrotum". The ground could have parted and swallowed me up and I could not have been more delighted. Little b*stard will be lucky if he sees his seventh Birthday !"



Biggest thrill was to find a Swallowtail butterfly chrysalis, literally on the point of hatching, and to sit and watch together as the butterfly split the shell, pulled itself out and blew up its wings, a total process
that takes an hour or so, though he would run off to find something more interesting, every two minutes or so he wanted to go look back and see what changed. He wants one of the attached pictures for his wall.