Ever try tracing back a variable that could come from any one of seven modules that are useed with the current code you are trying to debug? There is nothing worse than working with modules that automatically export variables and methods without you knowing about. Don't do it!

That being said, maybe you should abstract out your time-out error to a method that returns the variable if you need to use it in several places. That is the whole point of subclassing, so you don't cut-and-paste the same piece of code all over the place.