RE-Cycle: Time, Perception, the Universe, and Everything

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Time, Perception, the Universe, and Everything

OK. Perhaps the title suggests a much loftier goal or premise then I can deliver. I will though touch briefly on how we perceive the passage of time.
When one spouts the age worn phrase "Time sure flies when you're having fun" I take that to mean that when you are otherwise engaged you don't feel compelled to "check" the elapsed time. You merely enjoy the frivolity and only become vaguely aware of times march when your body begins to feel the effect of said gaiety. Then of course there is the reverse, that when you are otherwise inactive, such as while being engaged in mind numbingly boring tasks, such as school or some dead end job, or waiting in line at some state agency (HAHA! Hiya uncle Chip!) time seems to crawl at a snail's pace.
From my personal perspective, time seems to run faster when I am working, as their never seems enough time to do all that needs to be done! Such is why it has been a few days since I have last checked in!
With everything we are currently having to endure with our fourteen year old's incessant need to, oh how do the insipid counselors and therapist say it....? Ah yes "discover his identity" ALLOT of time has been lost at work. I owe much gratitude to my lovely wife and eldest son Elijah for keeping the shop open and going whilst I trounce about from appointment to appointment with Nimnut, having to continuously absorb the phrase's "I don't know..." and "Because..." over and over and over and over,,,
again.
In the end, I think someone, SOMEWHERE NEEDS to create a special "High Endurance" Award, specifically engraved with the inscription "To he who has shown great tenacity and restraint, in NOT dishing out an extreme thrashing of a young teenager" and present it to me with much ado and fanfare, ticker tape parade, key to the city, all expense paid vacation to a mystical place where NO children are allowed, and we parents get to swim in a chocolate fountain, and theirs a full FREE bar, with nightclub acts, can-can girls and 24 hour massages....
But I digress....
Needless to say the whole ordeal has been EXTREMELY taxing on NOT only me, but my lovely 7 and a half month pregnant wife, who is not having any easy go due to stress, but also my eldest who has had to pick up much of the slack left by me not being there, and also the rest of the kiddos who are beginning to think I have disappeared, and only materialize briefly in the morning to bring them to school. We haven't even had nighttime story time in almost a week!
It would be manageable, though if it were not for the fact that the boy just keeps trying to get away with what he's not suppose to be doing!
The latest bit was he brought energy drinks to school (no IDEA where he got them) a case of Red Bull and a case of Monsters, and was selling them in the cafeteria. Now, as much as there was a brief moment of respect for his antreppanuer spirit (as a teenager I use to go to the free clinic and get boxes of condoms for free and sold them at school for two bucks a pop) he had been warned twice that this was unacceptable. Apparently this time he became upset and hid out in the library for two periods...a clear violation of his probation. But my frustration was only furthered when I spent the better part of the day TRYING to get in contact with his probation officer, the police, the school and to this point three days later NONE have returned my messages!
At this point I could EASILY break off into a pages long tirade about the ineffectiveness of our judicial system, lament over budget constraints or the wailing "children's rights" activists that have bound and gagged the schools and parents in matters of discipline...
But I won't.
(suffice to say that some eastern philosophy regarding the effected application of "public caning" isn't all that "off!")
In the end, the thing that keeps me going is the knowledge that somewhere under that veneer of dim wittedness there is a nice young man who at times surfaces, briefly and perhaps all the effort will eventually pay off.
I swore to my wife when we got together I would never abandon her OR the children...
Although that whole "swimming in chocolate" thing SURE looks good from time to time!

ANYWAY!
Have been able to put out MANY a new ride even in the light of all of this, but only have three (done yesterday) to show off. All the others were gone quick as you can blink! Two sweet BMX'ers and a FULL rebuild on a way light "Old School' Diamondback Sorrento MTB we got it trade. It was a "locked in the shed for 4 years" wreck when we got it, but NOT anymore!
Also have several new gems I hope to bang out today!
So hope to see ya'll REAL soon!