California Dreaming. Only not California.

What are you doing for vacation this summer? Anyone going anywhere cool? Or really hot?

I haven’t figured out what I’m going to do for a vacation, yet. I can tell you for a fact that I need one, though. Last year, my son and I took a few days off to visit my dad in Nebraska. On a scale of 1-10, visiting family in Nebraska is more like staying here than doing a wildly recreative week on the Great Barrier Reef or slumming in Rio de Janeiro. In lieu of this, I get to go to the national conference of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies (Note to self: Don’t forget the camera; you don’t want to forget a minute of what are sure to be madcap adventures in San Antonio).

As I sit here, I’m getting my PDA ready for the trip, which isn’t for a week and a half. I accidentally let the battery die on the danged thing, which is the equivalent of a hard reboot—it’s forgotten everything it’s ever known. I did a backup the last time this happened, but I can’t find the file—story of my life. It’s all right, though. This gives me the opportunity to clean out all the old files, update my maps, change my music. It’s a good thing I’m not anal or anything.

I hear my family beginning to stir upstairs. They’re on summer vacation. Kathleen’s taking a Spanish class. Amy is working a part-time job. Other than that, until swimming lessons start for Hunter, summer is just a time to recharge the batteries. What’s that, honey? No. I don’t think it would be fair to call me jealous.

OK. Maybe a little.

Reason to vote No. 31: Some people have found taxation without representation revolting. Voting is how you determine what your representation should be.