I was reminded of the passing of time the other day in an unusual way. I was in the local Canadian Tire store (kind of a giant combination hardware-automotive-gardening store, for those of you south of the border) on Saturday; in addition to doing some last minute Christmas shopping, I was getting some very specific holiday supplies. My mission was to build a device that could make watering the tree a little easier: the design called for a funnel with a length of clear plastic hose attached to it; the device would be painted green (for camouflage purposes) and then fastened (hopefully invisibly) to the trunk of the tree with the hose extending downwards into the tree stand.
Getting the funnel was no problem, but finding the length of clear plastic hose was proving more difficult. I asked the guy working at the auto parts counter if he might know where to find tubing of the correct size, and I held up the funnel to show him the end I wanted to attach it to. The guy working at the counter was in his mid twenties, and as soon as I held up the funnel, his face broke into a broad grin and he begin nodding vigorously. “Right on,” he said and disappeared into the stock room behind the counter. For a moment or two, I wondered why he seemed to immediately understand my purpose and why he was so stoked about it.
Then I thought about it – I had shown a funnel to a twenty-five year old and asked for a length of hose to fit on the end of it. He is of course young enough to assume that I was going to fill the contraption with beer and drink from it. When he returned from the stock room empty-handed, he looked a little vexed; he apologetically told me that he had been unable to find any tubing of the necessary diameter and suggested that I check in the hardware section (far corner) to see if there was any there. I briefly considered telling him about the true purpose behind my funnel/tubing gizmo; instead, I thanked him for his help and wandered off towards hardware with my street cred intact.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!
Even at thirty-two I’m starting to feel time’s weight, mostly while watching VH1 and their semi-patented format of near-lebrities commenting on the not-so-distant past (I Love the 80’s, etc.).
Consider those evergreen Back to the Future movies — jumping between 1985, 1955, 2015, and 1885. We’re way closer to 2015 (where’s my hoverboard, by the way?) than 1985 now — it’s sobering to consider.