I had a good childhood +6

Where much is given much is expected. I was given a lot. If I turn out to be an OK person, I owe it to my family and the good start they gave to my life. We all stand on the shoulders of giants.

Reasons to agree

1. I don't remember my parents ever yelling at each other.
2. I argued with my Dad when I was in high school, and he just put up with me.
3. I was never spanked. I know people who spank are often also great parents. I'm not saying their are not. I'm just saying, for me that is one area that my parents were really great about.
4. My parents lets us have water fights. My older brothers didn't beat me up for squiring them (see image below, for verification).
5. My parents let me where weird aqua-man masks (see image below, for verification).
6. My parents took us camping, even when I was young, which is not easy (see image below, for verification).

Images that agree:

My squirting my brother Steve. My shorts are almost staying up.

My dad walked me up the narrows in Zion National Park

My Brother Steve, My Dad, my Brother Brian, and I

Big Wheel and Banana Seat Bike. Me sporting my aqua-man mask.

Chicago and Chicago Land are good place to raise a family

Background, definitions, and assumptions

• For a place to be considered good, it must be better than average. 
• Chicago land is, of course, Chicago and the surrounding suburbs.

Reasons to agree: +10

1. Chicago has lots of stuff to do, that don't cost too much money. 
2. Trips to the zoo are good for kids (+1). Chicago has good zoos. 
3. Chicago has good mass transportation (+2). 
4. Chicago has good architecture (+0). Its cool to live near good architecture. 
5. You can leave near Chicago, and still have a back yard. Despite criticism of suburban sprawl kids have fun in their back yards (+0).
6. Bolingbrook, a typical suburb of Chicago, has pretty good parks.
7. Kids like fireworks, and there are often good fire works shows around Chicago. For instance Navy Pier has free fireworks during the summer, their are good firework shows across the suburbs on the 4rth of July, and the Chicago Air Water show has good fireworks.
8. Numbers are what matter, and on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being best and 10 being worst) Bolingbrook, a typical Chicago suburb, is a 4 on property crime, and a 5 on violent crime, which is about average for the USA. 
9. You should make wherever you are home. 
10. Chicago has a lot of stuff to do.

Reasons to disagree: -6

1. Hiking is a good pastime. Hiking is only fun in the mountains. There are no mountains in Illinois. There is no good hiking near Chicago. City walking is not as cool as hiking in the mountains. Sure, Boise is hot during the summer, but its cooler in the mountains. It is hot everywhere in Illinois in the summer. It is too humid in the summer to hike. There are too many bugs, and the forest have too much undergrowth. 
2. State Parks in Illinois are anticlimactic (compared to Idaho).
3. There is a culture of corruption in Chicago, that rewards people based on who they know.
4. In Illinois kids from worse neighborhood go to much worse schools than those who are from better neighborhoods. 
5. A good place to raise a family is close to extended family. It is hard to go from a place you grew up in, and then just live somewhere else. It may always feel unlike home. 
6. Shooting is fun, but you have to pay to go shooting around Chicago. 

Total Score:

• Reasons to agree: +10
• Reasons to disagree: -6
• Net reasons to agree with reasons to agree minus reasons to disagree: +1+2
• Total: 

Images that agree: +3

Chicago has good mass transportation +2

Assumptions:

• Good means low cost, and high quality. Transportation includes parking. Not all transportation facilities are "public". For instance privately owned parking garages are part of the equation.

Reasons to agree:

1. If you are lucky you can find parallel parking for free around Lincoln Park Zoo.
2. Parking is $1.00 an hour, if you can find any, near Northerly Island. I drove there with 2 bikes in  my car, and my 7 year old son, and we rode to Millennium Park and back. 
3. Kids ride the Metra free on the weekends. 
4. The Water Tower Place Mall does parking validation. 
5. It costs $7 per adult to ride to Chicago Union Station (week-end passes, kids ride free). From there you can walk to a number of places:
1. Millennium Park. 
1. In the summer, kids can play in the fountain. Bring towels, and a change of clothes. It is sort of white trash, but they can change in the bathrooms. 
2. Each time you go down the kids will probably want to look at the bean, and get their photo taken.
3. I should probably walk the whole park once. Their are some statues on the south end I have never seen. 
2. Winter
1. Kris Kringle Market Chicago 
3. We walked, with 3 kids, and 2 strollers, all the way to the Hancock Building. It was a pretty long walk. When we got back to Navy Pear we took a water taxi bat to Union Station, to save our legs, and to make a train.

Reasons to disagree:

1. Sales tax is high in Chicago.
2. It costs $20 at a minimum to park in Chicago. 
3. It cost $7 for a weekend pass. So if you want to go in as a couple it costs $14 just to get there. 

Score: 

• Reasons to agree: +5
• Reasons to agree: -3
• Total: +2

You will probably face many setbacks

Images that agree: (stolen from Megan's Website)

People will take and publish unflattering photos of you

You will get sick

Nothing Last forever

Phil went on vacation, and the mosquitoes like him.

We lost power on vacation and came home to this.

Megan is helping our kids be Creative

Images that agree: (stolen from Megan's Website)

You should try to take pictures with loved one's on Holidays

Reasons to agree:

1. People need holidays

Images that agree:(some stolen from Megan's Website)

2011, Easter

1978 or 1979. Bobbie, Earl, Me, Dad, Bro

Basement sump pumps are annoying +1

Reasons to agree:

1. If you have a sump pump, it will fail. When it fails, is probably during a rain storm, when you need it to work. Crawl spaces in Illinois fill with water, if you don't have a sump pump, for some reason. 

Images that agree: (stolen from Megan's Website)

Our sump pump runs quote often, when it rains, leaving a pond which we tell the kids not to play in.