I'm pleased to announce the third incarnation of the library's website.

The first one went up, I believe, in early 1997. We were at that time the first website in the county, and one of the first library websites in Colorado.

Some years later -- around the year 2000 -- we rolled out a new version, more graphically sophisticated.

Over a decade ago, I ran across a book that was like a revelation to me. "Generations," by Neil Howe and William Strauss, worked through the whole history of America -- and made some definite predictions about the future. Those predictions, it turns out, have been right on the money.

The basic premise of the book was that there are four key generational types. They follow each other in regular sequence, about every 20 years or so. The mood of the nation depends on the relationships of these generations to each other, and their own phases of life.

Years after I moved out and started my own family, I went back home to visit my dad. Somewhere in a day's knocking around town, he realized that he needed something, a tool, I think. Then we saw the old Sears store.

We roamed around till he found what he wanted, then stepped up to a cash register. Dad poked through his wallet and at last pulled out his battered Sears charge card.

"Haven't used this in a while," he told me, with a hint of nostalgia.