LOST... but no big deal...

 
i lost my yo-yo. this is the first yo-yo i've lost in 20-something years of playing with yo-yo's (i admit that some i've broken and discarded; notably ALL of the midnight specials i threw religiously throughout my childhood).

this would kind of be a big deal for me, seeing as i'm only throwing the one yo-yo all year. i guess it could even be said that i've officially FAILED in my mission to throw one yo-yo for all of 2012... however, to those might say "that [yo-yo] was [his] last hope," i answer "no. there is another."

the 'eh' disappeared on 5/19, while i was waiting for my daughter to finish her second swim practice of the summer. i was hanging out on our pool's playground with my son. he was clambering on things and i was shooting the moon with equal glee, garnering the amazed attentions of a few kids hanging out nearby. we had picked up chick-fil-a for dinner, and alex had received some sort of round lantern for a toy (what kind of lame kids' meal toy is that?)... which was about the same size and weight as a yo-yo.

at some point i sat on the little picnic table under the gazebo, and i must have put the 'eh' down. with the aforementioned toy in my pocket, i apparently did not notice its absence when i got up. though i realized it as soon as i got home, it was not there when i went back. perhaps one of the kids who were so enamored of my trickery snagged it as i made my exit. perhaps they even though i left it behind on purpose.

in any case, though i was crestfallen to realize that my yo-yo was gone, it occurred to me shortly thereafter that there are worse fates which may befall a yo-yo than to be picked up by an excited child.

eventually, i accepted the inevitable; that i was not going to find the 'eh' in the short-term, and that i had to move on to phase 2. fortunately, when devising this scheme, both steve and i recognized that the ephemeral nature of a wooden yo-yo might preclude it from a full year of constant play. it's not unlike the sci-fi movie contact, where the billionaire benefactor reveals a second trans-dimensional space center after the untimely destruction of the first: "why have one, when you can have two for twice the price?" (thanks again, steve.)

i had put so much time and energy into doctoring my first 'eh' to play perfectly that when i made the switch, it was pretty striking. the wood was raw, white, and virginal. the sleeve needed to be sanded and "burnt in" in. the gap was all wrong and the axle too long. most of all, i just needed to play the hell out of the thing. every yo-yo is different, and when you're dealing with wood, even two yo-yo's of the same make and model will respond differently. regardless, the fact that there is no silver bullet (wow, what a pun), and no panacea for getting wood yo-yo's to work well is perhaps, what i find most compelling about playing them.

the last 3 weeks or so have been a blur of hard play. i've seen the oak soak in a great deal of my sweat and filth (and that of the world). i've made a video with it, and have made the segue into using it for my 365yoyotricks.com entries. it's survived a few walk-the-dogs on concrete and wooded trails (yes, i walk the dog - deal with it). i've handed it off to a few kids to try at our new "yolex" yo-yo club (not ideal since i then have nothing to throw!). it's gone on a few nice day-trips in the early summer and a jaunt down to disney for star wars weekends (during which i used it to show the darth vader the "darth vader" trick - impressive. most impressive.)

perhaps it's also noteworthy that writing this post has also been the most time i've spent online in a few weeks. i've found that spending time on the computer has made me feel really disingenuous lately. too much time cultivating or maintaining some kind of 'persona', and not enough time just being a person. i need to spend more time interacting with my family (or skateboarding, paddling, cutting the lawn, and otherwise embracing the real & here & now) than i do crafting pithy statuses, posting pictures that make me feel interesting, or polishing my own virtual effigy. i do try to be earnest and simple with these posts, so i thought it was a decent exception (ok, and especially for that vader pic).

so, maybe i failed to hang on to the original 'eh'. maybe i should be more broken up about it (i AM sorry i was so careless with it, steve). i'm a big believer in accepting consequences for one's actions though. i make a LOT of mistakes, and i don't always get held accountable to the extent that i should. i lost the 'eh' at a time when i kind of needed a series of wake-up calls. when life gives you those moments, you can either lie around bemoaning your fate or existence, or you can wind back up and get spinning again, truer and better than before.

you lose yourself. you find yourself... or start over.