Haha I think I could scale it rather easily out of a piece of plywood and some bungees, but we get into enough trouble with the neighbors as it is.

I'd like to believe he will look back on this and enjoy it. Mostly, he considered it a needless distraction that took him away from his video game for an entire Saturday. I've been trying to reinforce the concept of finding satisfaction in the completion of a hard or tedious task well done, even if there isn't any joy in the task itself. He didn't really want to do it, and I had to prod at him a bunch to see it through, but he sure seemed to like being able to say he built it himself, particularly after his friends told him how cool it was.

I recall driving my own father nuts in the exact same way, and while I value the time he spent doing things with me now, I sure resented the hell out of him when he pulled me away from Speed Racer or He Man cartoons. So I'm taking the long view of things.