Friday, March 19, 2010

What Values?

So by the request the of individuals involved and my duty to entertainment I have forced myself to take time and write a second blog entry. Now I know that I should write more because I am such an amazing writer and you all look forward to hearing my stories, but you also should know that I don’t care about anyone but myself and my writing a blog equals less time to do what I want. But because I am such a good person and such a dedicated friend I have taken time to write down this thrilling tale of a late night escapade.

What I have learned is that one’s decision making skills, productivity and responsibility levels and moral compass all decrease relative to the time of day. In the morning people get up and go to work and school. As the day goes on people become less productive, less morally conscious and their ability to make good decisions goes down the crapper. I am sure that you have all experienced this in your own life and most likely have a good story to go along with it, like the time you spent the entire afternoon on Facebook looking at girls profiles that you wish you were friends with, or how as soon at 7pm hit your diet plans went out the window. These stories are nice and you all have a story and they are all good but these stories only involve you abandoning one or two of your values. What makes a story truly great is when you abandon all of your values and then laugh about it. I have such a story that involves such and I am proudly sharing it here for your enjoyment.

Currently my two friends and I (identities withheld for their protection) are working on building a cafĂ© racer style motorcycle. A few weeks ago we picked up our starter bike, a 1975 Honda cb750. That night Chris, Bryce and I started to tear apart the entire bike so that we can repair, restore and replace anything that needed such. When we got the bike, we started to tear it down but were soon tuckered out because it was fairly labor intensive. We all went up stairs and started to watch the Olympics. As I am prone to do I fell asleep on the couch while my friends did heaven knows what. At about 1am I awoke suddenly to the sound of the announcer’s voice bad mouthing Apollo Ohno for something huge, I think. In blind rage I immediately began to yell at the television accusing the announcer of being bias and a hater. I then proceeded to talk about how the United States is the best. I can’t remember exactly what I said but I can tell you that it was some of the most patriotic chatter that has ever left the lips of man, that’s just how I roll. While still gaining full conciseness I noticed that Chris was awake.

Dan: “should we go work on the bike?”
Chris: “ Yup”
Bryce: “We goona work on the bike?”
Chris and Dan: “Yup”

And with that manly conversation our night got its second wind and we were off to finish tearing apart the bike. Because we still had “the most delicious nectar of the gods” in supply (Red Bull) we each pounded one and got down to business.

Now for those of you who are still with me after this long discourse of crap I have been throwing at you, this is where I am going to prove to you that morals, values, good decision making and anything else that you might hold to, decreases in personal value the later it is.

At around 4am we decided that we needed some plastic bins and a pallet so that we could organize parts and have a place to set the engine. So we were off to the 24 hour smiths to see what they had to offer. On the way to the store as Bryce was driving down the wrong side of the road and me with no seatbelt on, it was agreed that stopping for stop signs this late would just be foolish. Now this is something to be expected from Bryce and myself but it’s what happened when we got to Smiths that truly shows the affects of time on an individual’s standards.

Chris “They probably have pallets we can just take out back.”
Bryce and Dan “OK”

Now as Chris was carrying a pallet down the ramp it was noticed that there was a large amount of blue plastic bins nearby that would be perfect for storing our parts.

Chris “Look did you see that they have bins right there”
Dan and Bryce “o Ya”
Chris “Well since I’m carrying the pallet how about you two go and get some bins.”

Now the pallets were most likely a low cost to the store that may or may have not been used again and we probably could have had one if we had asked, but no matter how you slice it those blue plastic bins have some sort of value and probably weren’t sitting out there as door prizes for late night shenanigans. (The next person who says the word shenanigans is going to get pistol whipped. Farva what’s the name of that restaurant you like? O you mean shenanigans? OOOOOOOOOO........Man I love that movie).

On the way home our running of stop signs while driving as the British do continued with me still not wearing a seatbelt. Now this is dumb but what truly made this situation a complete abandonment of good decisions making skills all together was when we decided to run the last stop sign before home with our eyes closed.

This is how the running of the stop sign went:
“One, Two, Three!!!! Ahhhhhhhh!!! (In cases you’re wondering how to imagine that last sound I have written out, just think of three 12 year old girls at a Jonas Brothers concert).

Now I know that this story doesn’t involve us waking up naked in Mexico next to some ones mother, But I think when looked at as whole it truly illustrates my point that as the day goes on, individuals morals, values, good decision making skills and anything else they have ever held to all become unimportant. Now each value and moral has a magical hour in which it leaves and this magical hour is unique to each person. So if you are looking to figure out exactly when that hour is for a specific standard of your own then let me prescribe to you a case of the most delicious nectar of the gods and a few good friends.