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Just got back from a refreshing weekend getaway in Hakone. It was a really great trip--great weather, great location, great everything! We had a lot of fun.

We learned many things about our daughter on this trip, among them:

1.) She’s not good at mazes. We walked around inside a maze at the Hakone Open-Air Museum (a really neat place to go, by the way) and she led us in the same circle about five times.

2.) She’s not ready to sleep in a bed. She fell out of bed five times Saturday night; three of those times she managed to get herself pinned between the edge of the bed and the neighboring sofa, with her little legs sticking straight up in the air, kicking frantically. We usually sleep on futons at home, so if she rolls out of bed there it’s no problem--she’s already on the floor! This, I think, has led to very reckless sleep habits on her part.

3.) She loves onsen. Yuko took her into several of these spa-like baths at our hotel. Reika loved it, especially the one that bubbled like a whirlpool. She was stomping around in the bath like a two-year-old Godzilla.

Aristotle once said “All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind.” How true that is! These days, it seems like I have little time for the things I would like to do, would like to learn to do. 

Between working and parenting, it sometimes seems that I have no time at all left for the improvement of my mind (or body, too, for that matter). Which is not to say that I have not been trying. I bought a used Dell in January, with the aim of converting it into a development testbed where I could practice Web-related programming and the like, but since then I have had only a few chances to use it.

I’ve been thinking of cutting a deal with my wife in which we can each take a “day off” during the month, one whole day free of responsibilties, free to use as we see fit. Right now that seems like a luxury beyond reach, but when I think about it, I realize that it would only amount to a lousy 12 days of free time a year--not exactly enough time to acquire the programming skills I would like!

Still, I am sure my wife feels much the same way--if not even more pent in by her paid job and parental obligations. She handles much more of the day-to-day parenting than I do--and she has less opportunity to socialize. I can’t help but feel bad when I pedal off to the gym for a quick workout, leaving her with our daughter, again. I wish there were a way to have a family and a life, but at the moment it seems like I am forced to make a choice between the two. I can certainly understand why divorces are so common in the States: Having a family is a full-time job all by itself. Add a full-time job to that and you have no time for a life of your own--you are either a parent to an employee for all of your waking hours. I don’t think human beings are psychologically equipped to deal with a total lack of self-expression for the length of time it takes a child to mature into an adult.

To all the parents who have gone before me, holding a job and taking care of everything, I truly, deeply, sympathetically appreciate your sacrifice.

I’ve never been good at keeping a one, but an online journal is just what I need to keep all of my thoughts from running away before I can write them down.

I can see that it will take some discipline to keep a regular journal (something I’ve never really enjoyed doing), but I hope to be able to post a thought or two each day. 

Here’s today’s:

It’s good to see that Americans have come to their senses and started questioning the Bush administration’s handling of the so-called “war” on terror. Don’t get me wrong, I fully understand how serious this issue is (and how potentially explosive it can be), but I am glad that I am no longer alone in thinking that the Bush team has been riding this issue for political advantage for far too long now.