RE-Cycle: An Epiphany After More Than 33 Years!

Friday, September 9, 2011

An Epiphany After More Than 33 Years!

We all have achievements in life we are proud of. Some may change the world, topple Governments or earn gold medals, but by and large they are comprised of little, personal ones.

Mine may seem trivial to some, but beyond the birth of my children (which in all honesty I have to share a little of that glory with my wife. She helped.) one of my greatest feats I am most proud of?

I saw Star Wars 126 times.

Empire Strikes Back 87 times.

Return of the Jedi 112 times.

Yes I know, in today's day and age of technical marvels and on demand TV, but kiddo's let me tell you a secret (and my kiddo's can't fathom this reality) this was back BEFORE VCR's, Beta Maxes, DVD, or Blue Ray. No downloads or Internet. OH NO! If you wanted to see a movie (edited films on TV not withstanding) you went to the Theatre! So seeing a movie THAT many times, in the theatre not only drained your allowance (for several months of advances) but took some creative maneuvering! Especially growing up in a town that had only ONE screen!!

So why do I bring this up? (desperate for writing material) Because today for the bazzilionth time I was watching my well worn VHS set of the films as we were working. Chip stopped in to say hi, and to drop off some goodies and as he noticed what we were watching told us he had seen a T-shirt at the mall depicting a Storm trooper with an angry face and the caption red "I had friends on the Death Star!" Well for some reason that started le thinking...Luke Skywalker was a JINX!!

I mean think about it. First his aunt and uncle get it. Some guy kickin' it with his buds in some dive listening to tunes gets his arm sliced off, Ben picks a bad fight and sacrifices himself after he just met the guy (OK you find out later on he helped hide the kid, but really). He then toasts the Death Star and waste untold thousands of lives! I mean could you imagine. Here's some schlep who can only find work scrubbing garbage mashers (and how come if the Death Star is so new, the garbage mashers are SO rusty?) to send cash home to his family on Hoth so they can pitch in for heating oil and Taun Taun meat, and he get's toasted for it! Then Han gets pickled in carbonite just so Luke's dad can test the freakin' thing! Then, all the folks working on Bespin are OUT of work, just because of some Shakespearean fratricide! SO Now we got poor Yoda, wasting away (literally) and all Luke worries about is "Oh my god! I wanted to bang my sister!? Then a bunch of shag rugs dressed in bones get burnt up cause they're only crime was covering for him so he could have a weekend at Dad's place! And in the end, the son of the other poor schlep who now has to work on the NEW Death Star cause for some reason dad's checks stopped coming in, buys the farm as well!
Seriously, you see this guy coming. RUN!
Yep. These are the things I think about while working on bikes!
Speaking of which (that's called a segue!) got three new goodies out! The sweet tandem! A really fine 2009 GT Bump, and another banger which quite frankly REAL sweet, considering EVERY component on that thing was rusted SOLID!
Must have been stored on the Death Star!
NIGHT!