When my Beautiful Girlfriend and I were\nkids, Batman and Robin were busy chasing bad guys each week on TV. \nThe show ran from 1966 to 1968; and some of the more memorable lines\ncame from Robin, when he would exclaim, \u201cHoly Luther Burbank!!\u201d\nor other strange lines. Why am I writing this? Well I was pondering\nhow quickly time passes. I mean hey, our oldest grandson turned 11\nthis year. His younger brother will be 7 soon. This is really\namazing. It sure seems like it was just the day before yesterday I\nwas changing diapers for a young girl who grew up to be their mommy!!\n \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As frogs like to say, \u201cTime\u2019s fun\nwhen you\u2019re having flies!!\u201d Robin might have said something\ndifferent to Batman way back when, like maybe \u201cHoly Time Zooming,\nBatman!!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Seems like parenthood is a gigantic\ntime thief. Or maybe that’s just what happen<\/p>\n\n\n\n
s when we get older. I mean, when we\nkids, it seemed like it would be forever<\/strong><\/em>\nfor adulthood to arrive. Nowadays I’d love to throw out an anchor or\nsomething and make things slow down a bit. So we became parents,\nthen grandparents, and now it seems that time just zips along at\nbreakneck speed. We got married when we were 19, which I thought\nwas a few years ago. Then I did the math… 46 years and counting!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n \nSheesh!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don\u2019t get me wrong, we treasure each\nday we are on the planet. We kinda like it here! But as one of our\nfriends put it, we have \u201cmore time in back of us and less time in\nfront of us.\u201d For the most part, we\u2019re not worried about what\ncomes next; we\u2019re both convinced that cool stuff awaits us in the\nGreat Beyond. But hey, let\u2019s not rush things. We\u2019re here now\nand loving life. It\u2019s just that Holy Cow, we\u2019re grandparents!! \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n I mean hey, I remember vividly when the\nBeatles first came to America on the Mayflower! Or something\u2026 \nAnyway, I clearly remember sitting in my grandparents\u2019 apartment in\nBrooklyn, NY when I was 10. My 8 transistor radio was glued to my\near while the Fab Four disembarked at JFK airport; with all the media\nof the day interviewing them every step of the way through the crowd\nof screaming fans. I even jokingly mentioned, \u201cHey Dad!! The\nBeatles just landed at JFK! We could go over there to see \u2018em!!\u201d\n \u201cYeah right!!\u201d he retorted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One cool thing about being a grandpa is\nthat you get to reflect on all the changes that have happened over\nthe years. Life is exactly the same only completely different these\ndays. With technology alone, things have changed just a wee bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Picture this, kiddies. When I was born\nin 1954, commercial TV had only been rockin\u2019 for about 13 years. \nMost stuff on TV was live broadcasts. If you had the TV on too\nearly, you\u2019d see a test pattern. If you had it on too late, you\u2019d\nsee a flag waving in the breeze while the national anthem was playing\njust prior to the station shutting down for the night. There were\nstill dramas and comedies being made for radio. And when you turned\non either a radio or a TV, you had to wait a few minutes for them to\nwarm up. Took several minutes for the tubes and their associated\ncircuitry to stabilize. Tubes?? Say what?? Yes, tubes. And even\nafter the radio or TV warmed up you had to mess with the fine tuning\nto keep your signals coming in clearly. When you dialed a phone, you\nliterally <\/strong><\/em>used a dial on the phone. None of the phones\ntook batteries in those days. No fancy ring tones, just a bell. I\nknow that some of you readers out there can outdo me on the dinosaur\ntechnology memories; but you get my drift. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now back to the present day. I\u2019ve\nnoticed some \u201cblack holes\u201d where a time warp knocks me in the\nhead when I least expect it. For example: I scurry to get ready\nfor work in the morning. Most of this zaniness is self inflicted,\nbecause I sleep till the last minute and then play fireman to get\nready for the hour long commute. We heat with sticks (we have wood\nheat), so it\u2019s my job to get the fires going. One is downstairs in\nthe old part of the house, one upstairs in the addition. I start\nthe furnace downstairs and then grab an armload of wood to offer the\nwood eater upstairs of course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Next, I yank open the fridge and grab\nmy lunch; shove it into that delightful Old Navy bag with the\nHawaiian lady on the front and the cloth drawstring (our daughter\nbought me the bag years ago so I would quit killing trees from using\npaper bags. She loves Old Navy but didn\u2019t really notice the hula\ngirl design till several years later.). \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pour the coffee into the travel mug,\ngrab the cell phone, and head for the garage at precisely 7:00 AM. \nGet my lunch bucket situated, maybe plug the smell phone into the\ncharger, come around to the driver\u2019s seat and turn on the car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n NOW THE CLOCK SAYS 7:08 AM FOR CRYING\nOUT LOUD. There is NO WAY it takes me 8 minutes to walk from my back\ndoor to the garage. As Robin might have said, \u201cHoly Time Warp,\nBatman!!\u201d And yes, the car\u2019s clock is correct; just like the\nclock inside. I\u2019m pretty diligent about that. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you are old enough to remember the\nRocky Horror Picture Show… I mean really remember<\/strong><\/em>,\nmeaning you were old enough to enjoy it when it first came on the\nscene… well then you and I really are in a time warp. Aren’t we?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don\u2019t believe any of this time warp\nnonsense? Well all I can say is: I bet you don\u2019t have kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019ll see\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n