You could use signals with a sleep (mentioned above- that seems harmless enough) or you give IPC a try which will allow you to pass relevant information ALONG with the signal to continue. Maybe then, you can be sure that the SIGARLM is really a continue and not a joke played on you by a mindless "other" root user.

AgentM Systems nor Nasca Enterprises nor Bone::Easy nor Macperl is responsible for the comments made by AgentM. Remember, you can build any logical system with NOR.