Life in the Bubble or Living on Rodeo Time

Many have suggested that everything moves slowly in Rodeo and projects never seem to be completed within the allotted time span. Like the Deep South before air conditioning when life was lived at a much slower pace it lead to the belief that southerners were genetically predisposed to laziness and sloth, but here in the valley this belief manifests itself in frustration, anger, and recriminations generally resulting in misunderstandings and hurt feelings. There is an alternative explanation for these observations that does not require blaming individuals and several indirect lines of evidence support the notion that time is actually slowed in the area around Rodeo and Portal.

The idea is that this area of the San Simon Valley exists in a bubble which is moving at close to the speed of light relative to the rest of the planet. By traveling at close to the speed of light time would slow inside the bubble. If true it would not only explain why things appear to take forever but would be an empirical validation of Einstein’s theory of relativity.

I’m not suggesting that the San Simon Valley is visibly physically moving nor am I suggesting the bubble itself is visible. No, just the effects of moving at close to the speed of light can be detected in the way things work here.

But what lines of evidence are consistent with this notion?

1. By September last year, 5 residents of Portal had turned 90.
2. There are a high number of academics with PhDs in the area. With no University the question becomes why would they congregate here in the middle of nowhere?
3. There are a number of Astronomers and telescope facilities in the valley, again out in the middle of nowhere.
4. Mail service is slow and inconsistent.

The number of people who are advanced in years is disproportionate to the areas low population density. Portal has few residents and consists only of a café/motel and a post office.

The high number of academics could be the result of some ones discovery of the slow time bubble at some point in the past. Of course they would share the information with their friends who would also want to take advantage of longer life spans by moving to the bubble. The end result would be a high number of academics in the bubble all enjoying long life spans.

The number of Astronomers and observatories while consistent with the dark skies found here, it is also consistent with the explanation given above.

It has been noted that priority mail from the bubble takes several days longer to reach its destination then when mailed from Lordsburg or Douglas (which are outside the bubble). Just the time a letter spends sitting in the post office before moving out results in days passing outside of the bubble where time is moving faster, the end result being late mail.

This notion also has the added benefit of explaining why some people are concerned about the light sport aircraft and aviation activities in the valley. Their concerns must stem from a fear of the aircraft poking holes in the bubble and letting out the slow time which would adversely affect their life span. But since it is possible to cross the boundary in cars without creating permanent damage to the bubble, aircraft do not pose a threat to the slow time found here.

This has been an exercise in circular reasoning which can also be found here in the valley and seems to be a specialty of student pilots.