We hadn't seen grandson Henry in about six weeks, the most time since his birth back in March.

We were cautious in our greetings. While visiting in July, I made the mistake of interrupting him deep in the depths of play (I had never seen him play so well) to quietly say, "Hello Henry."

He burst into uncontrollable tears. So this time, bigger and cuter than ever, we observed him once again in the depths of play. This time wife Louise and I quietly sat down beside him and didn't say anything.

He looked at me. He looked at Louise. He looked back at me. He looked at Louise. We looked at him. We looked at him again. Finally, I rubbed his back and said, "Hi there Henry. How are you doing?"

To that he gave me a tremendous smile and soon we were all laughing and playing and giggling. His latest thing is to place a toy truck in his lap. He doesn't try to scoot it along the floor. He holds it. Then starts throwing both arms in the air, one holding the truck, while moving his legs up and down off the floor, while jabbering "Mum mum mum, da da da, bob bob bob, dii dii dii."

Everyone, well, most people want the best for the kids and grandkids. With Henry's light hair and deep blue eyes, I'm thinking he could play James Bond in say, 30 years, following the trend of Daniel Craig.

I can see it now:

VILLAIN: I've got you now Mr. Bond. It is impossible for you to escape my trap.

HENRY AS BOND: Mum mum mum, da da da, bob bob bob, dii dii dii.

OK, maybe he needs to get his language skills up to par.

Henry carries some real Lebzelter traits. He loves and is fascinated by dogs and he loves the water. Being that he lives in a progressive suburb of Rochester, N.Y., there is a beautiful community center a mile from his house.

The morning after we arrived, son Derek and I participated in Henry's swimming lesson. The center doesn't have just a swimming pool. Picture a somewhat smaller but still pretty hefty version of Erie's Splash Lagoon. It has a series of pools, starting at one so shallow it won't get your toes wet.

There are areas for kiddies. There is a nice slide. There is a pool for swimming laps. There are lifeguards all over.

The center also has a large room with exercise equipment, from treadmills to bikes to elliptical machines and more.

It has rooms for group exercises and classes. It has community rooms for meetings.

It is a vast complex but son Derek said the cost of swimming lessons is minimal. The reason being, property taxes are fairly high so homeowners are already paying out.

On one running jaunt near Derek's home, I took a trip around the local high school, which revealed an all-weather running track, tennis courts and what looked like two football fields or maybe football and soccer.

It being Indian summer, the area has walking and biking trails and droves of people were out taking advantage of it. Many older people were on bikes. People were walking their dogs.

OK, I know I've written about progressive areas before and compared them to Ashtabula County. Consider this an update to the situation.

I may have been 200 miles away, but duty still calls and while there I updated the Star Beacon Web site. What did I see? Ashtabula County’s only mainstream, conventional book store, Waldenbooks, is leaving Ashtabula Towne Square.

Later, I saw this message posted on our Web site in response to the closing story from somebody identified as "Sue."

"Why would Rustabula need a Bookstore? Uneducated, Unemployed...a Book Store? You have got to be kidding! Of course it's gone down the tubes...why read, when you can just steel, collect unemployment or welfare?"

Yeah, things aren't good when the people criticizing the uneducated use the word "steel" for "steal."

I cite the example because Rochester, firmly in the rustbelt, too, has nothing on Ashtabula. Our Conneaut Creek, Ashtabula River or Grand River can beat out their Erie Canal any time. But their Erie Canal has a beautiful, unique, rustic shopping center with different types of restaurants and a biking and walking trail. And it is connected to a downtown of the nearby town of Pittsford, which retains the rustic flavor, is always busy (at least the varied times I've been there) and the shops all look beautiful and filled.

Areas like suburban Rochester don't have the natural waterways and beauty of Ashtabula County. But they have forwarding thinking people, they have more employers and they have employees who can do the work. Their best and brightest have not all left.

Yet they have more severe winters than we do. Imagine a place with lousier weather than Ashtabula!

I look at the Rochester area from an outsider's point of view. And yes, when comparing its public community center, I would be remiss not to mention our county has a very nice YMCA, but it is a private concern.

I hate having Henry three hours away, although I know it could be worse.

But he lives in an area that has the services and opportunities we should be giving our children here.

There is some hope. The voters earlier this month turned away the efforts of some politicians whose prime goal appears to be promoting the negative. We've elected at least some people who seem to have a vision.

In Conneaut, another town meeting is coming up to create ideas and figure out how to turn them into reality.

Since the most recent visit to Henryland, perhaps I can steel some of the things I saw there and see if we can begin to make them work here at home. Wait, OK. Sorry. Maybe I can steal them. Yeah. I have to get away more.



Lebzelter is special sections editor. E-mail him at bobleb@starbeacon.com.