New Robots - New Trampoline

He almost has too much going on for a 7 year old, but still manages to build robots, ride his bike, make straight A's, and bounce for an hour each day on his trampoline. What a great kid.

The Bear Dogs and some Spy News

Rat-dog and Cleo both have their favorite bears, and are ferocious with them. A real bear (miniature) will be in serious trouble if it walks through their yard.

Camron has called me twice today and catches me everytime I go outside. He had two spy missions for us to take care of (we tracked down a distortion bobber hidden on the property by an evil fisherman, then later had to disassemble it and get rid of the components), and then he wanted me to help him make a big salad for his parents. He collected the last of the spinach and lettuce from the garden and was going for tomatoes but I think his grandfather ended that. I haven't seen him since.

His parting words were that I return my spy identification rubber band so he can make a sling-shot just in case we need to be armed later.

Ready for Halloween

Yesterday Camron walked toward my house wearing a Mardi Gras mask, and when Kilo saw him, she became as wild as usual. He said,"I didn't think she would recognize me when I'm wearing a super secret identity". I said, "she can smell you", and he said, "darn, I thought it would help".

Today he asked me to help him draw a Pumpkin Family. I only watched, but he is very good (for a left-handed 7 year old).

Camron's Sister

Cashlyn has almost learned "Pop Goes the Weasel". Her mother sings, and she bounces and laughs on Pop.

Today's Project

Camron has been building bionicals (roboticals? Modern science is so confusing for me.) and this is his latest one. He has hundreds of parts and pieces, a lot of them in my driveway, and is building them in families now.

Today's Project

Camron has been building bionicals (roboticals? Modern science is so confusing for me.) and this is his latest one. He has hundreds of parts and pieces, a lot of them in my driveway, and is building them in families now.

Camron meets Aggie Pelvic ExamBot

He merely smiled.

Cam News

I haven't seen him in a while, but we talked right at sundown and when I left he was thinking of something interesting that we can do tomorrow afternoon. For now, his basketball is flat and he seems real interested in standing by the side of the road, watching cars fly by to the ball field

Something is Definitely Up

I went to the store earlier and when I got back there was an envelope stuck in my gate. It is addressed from Camron to Kenneth and even has a one of a kind stamp. The letter inside read, "Meet me at the pond. I will give you a hint." He wasn't at the pond but will catch me later for sure.

Camron Update

Camron is happy to have his privacy back and will soon be peering through my gate with his binoculars once again. He enjoyed having his uncle here, for a while, and now is enjoying having him gone. I think they are both probably relieved.

Golf Story

Camron and Jake found some of the missing golf balls and have been playing the one hole that Camron and I made. Jake was talking about once when he had done the Tiger Woods trick of bouncing the ball on the head of the golf club and Camron was thinking he wanted to learn how to do that (as opposed to the work of actually getting a ball into the hole) so I told them that I once watched a guy ramp a hot-rod over a burning truck and right before the hot-rod smashed into a brick wall, the guy ejected, did a flip and while he was upside down, spit a golf ball out of his mouth and drove it 275 yards and made a hole-in-one. Both of them said, "really?", so I had to tell them, "not really".

For Sale - Robot

Camron wanted to show me what he had built during the past five days because I "might be interested in buying it". It is his first robot and it is made out of a large plastic coffee container, a nut can, duct tape, electrical tape, a flashlight, and some other things that I couldn't identify. He had already completed it before he watched I Robot yesterday. I have decided to invest one dollar and help him create a display for his new line of robots.

Where Were We?

I still see Camron most days, but his Uncle Jacob is here and they spend a lot of time doing other things.

Mario Party Six?

Camron's Uncle came back from Louisiana with them, and I haven't seen him very often for the past week. Just now he called me over to the fence to show his new creation. It is a friend he made after playing(?) Mario Party Six. It is different.

Just another Tangent

Camron called and asked me to meet him at the pond to look at his new project. I did, and my first impression was of the moon landing. He was standing on the berm with a flag, and he saluted when I walked up. He has created a special Mario flag and wanted me to be there while he "made the dedication". Kilo barked the entire time so I couldn't hear everything, but did leave with some bewildering parts of statements:

"Mario invented golf. Well, first he invented the putter (for no apparent reason), then later he invented a little white ball, and when he had those two things, he thought of golf."

"All of us, even the dogs, have a little (of the) Mario personality in us. It makes us jump up and down and turn circles. And some of us have a little (of the) Luigi personality in us.

I apparently also have yellow mushroom personality and my sister has blue mushroom personality. Following the personality lecture, he described the last of the Grandfather Ridge Backed Turtles. It came to Earth in a space ship and three years after the first dinosaurs showed up, they killed the Ridge Backed Turtle - and that is why all turtles today have smooth backs. (???) He then tried for some time to plant his flag. Lots of hammering and no luck until he finally got it to stick in the herb garden. Later in the evening he called and invited me to a grand opening today. I can't be completely sure, but I think we are celebrating the opening of a portal to another dimension. I hope it isn't a dimension of bionical doom or anything else that will tie me up for the afternoon. I really have work to do.

What Has Happened With Water Guns?

I was in the yard and heard Camron asking him mom to have a water-gun fight with him. She didn't have time and I could tell by his voice that he was upset. I told him to fill the guns and I would meet him at the pond for some water-gun fun. I should have guessed it's a new game when the water guns looked like his robots, with big holding tanks, but was still remembering the 5 cent water guns of my youth that could only shoot a small stream maybe up to 10 feet away. He gave me a hefty looking gun with a malfunctioning water tank line, and drenched me with something that could hurl a large stream of water probably 100 feet. We could have just used water hoses. Anyway, the water felt good in the heat, and his mood always improves with even a little attention.

RockSquare - Official Poster

Camron said that I am lucky because when the band isn't booked I can listen to them for free. My sister was kind of concerned about some parts of the drawing of her in the poster but Camron explained that the odd looking bumps are her shoulders.

Hanging out with The Band

Camron and his Grandmother have started a band - RockSquare. They have only practiced one time and it was just my luck to see their first live performance, and have my camera. The performance was ... energetic and the only injury happened at the very end during Camron's air guitar solo. It started as a slide down the pond berm while strumming windmill power cords, then turned into a skid, then a stop, then a nosedive to the bottom of the berm. It was spectacular! And he was barely even skinned and bruised.

Breaking the Law? Not Always

I still haven't helped Camron with his projects, but yesterday evening we were talking and he said that he would bet me that Rat-dog couldn't be outside for more than five minutes without running across the road, and the winner would get to play with the Gold Robot first. Rat-dog didn't even last one minute.

Camron - "Dogs know one thing that humans don't know."

"What is that?"

Camron - "Dog language. When their friends across the road are barking they might be saying help, help, our doghouse is on fire!, but we wouldn't know it."

"I never thought of that before."

Camron - "They also know one more thing that humans don't know. If there is a girl dog across the street, they are going to go, and they don't even care what she looks like."

Roboticals? - No! Bionicals!

Camron has tried to connect with me all weekend. He has taken all of his bionicals apart and wants help assembling a super-bionical. I made arrangements last night to meet him by the gate at 8 AM. He said he would call and to not be surprised if he called real early. I worked around in the yard until he appeared at about 9.

Camron - "I've called and called and I think you missed eight o-clock"

"Well, I'm here now. Where are your roboticals?

Camron - "They're bionicals and I have another plan for today. Did you know that Chuey doesn't have a home?

"Yes. I heard that. (The people in the house down the road, where Chuey comes from every morning with a pack of chihuahuas, and goes back to every night, were told the other day to keep their dogs contained. They said that Chuey was dumped at their house and doesn't belong to them. They have never bothered about keeping any of their other dogs at home, and still don't, so they probably don't own him.) What do you have planned?"

Camron - "I'm staging that now (?), but I think we will build him a house. Probably a size 2 or 4 since Chuey is about a size 1. Uncle James said we could get materials from his shop to build it with, or we could borrow those logs from Dana and build a log-cabin dog house."

He is sitting on the sidewalk outside my gate with Chuey and Rat-dog while we are talking. I am sitting on the sidewalk inside my gate and Kilo is beside me.

"If you make him a house and encourage him to start living here, then you have to watch out for him in a lot of other ways. For example, it is against the law for dogs to run loose. You have to keep your pet contained, which is in a fenced yard, and on a leash when it is out of the yard." At that point the dogs across the street started barking and Rat-dog and Chuey bolted through the driveway and across to the neighbor's house.

Camron - "There they go, breaking the law. But maybe just Rat-dog is breaking the law since Chuey doesn't have a home to stay at."

"Any dog that runs loose will be picked up and impounded, but the law is enforced against the pet owners. They are the ones considered to be breaking the law."

Camron - "Then Grandma and Grandpa are breaking the law. Mainly Grandpa. Grandma goes out and whistles for Rat-dog to come home all the time. And she can't run after him any more."

He then decided to visit his Grandmother for 30 minutes before we started the project. It has been 3 hours and he just called to say that he was sure 30 minutes was over. I don't really want to build a dog house, but will work on one of his projects before the day is over.

4 PM and Camron just caught me outside again. I haven't been avoiding him so much as.... - well, I guess I have been. Anyway this time I promised for sure that I would help him at 6 PM when it isn't so hot.

Camron - "Is this a different Gate?

"Yes. I moved the one from the back yard."

Camron - "I noticed that part of your fence is down."

"I've been fixing it."

Camron - "Your fence was broke?"

'No. I just decided to change it."

Camron - "When the sun is right there (pointing to the sky) I'll meet you here and we can work on the bionicals."

"We're not going to build a dog house?"

Camron - "We'll save that for when you are off work."

Hope I make it.