Clocks Are Overrated

I am never on-time for anything, no matter how much I try.  I am either too early or hopelessly late.  It's not my fault, clocks and I just don't agree.  I want all the clocks in my house set to one time, and every single clock in our house chooses to set itself to a different time.  Even the time on my computer and telephones don't agree, and those are set automatically by the telephone and internet company.  One year, in an effort to be on the same time as everyone else in the world, I tried setting my watch to Big Ben.  My watch battery died within an hour of being set.  I think it fainted when it discovered it was actually in-sync with world time.

For Christmas a couple of years ago, we bought our son his own alarm clock because he decided he was ready for the responsibility of waking himself up.  More than eager to allow him this growth opportunity, I quickly ran up to the store to pick out an easy to use alarm clock.  There were 3 words I had used in my zeal to purchase this item which jinxed me: "easy to use".  As I stood in front of the 30+ alarm clocks available, I realized there is no such thing as "easy to use" when it comes to anything electronic.

I decided to go with the clock that automatically sets the time.  We were so excited when we plugged it in and it set itself.  I thought "Finally, one clock in the house will be accurate.".  Famous last words.  That clock hasn't been right once since we initially plugged it in.  This past weekend alone, the hour on the clock changed 3 different times........ in a 10 minute span of time.

When we bought our first VCR player way back in the early 1990's, it took us 6 months to figure out how to program the clock.  It took another 2 years before we figured out how to record a program using the clock feature. 

I'm still not sure if we ever figured out how to program the clock and set it to record on the correct tv channel.  My husband would remark "Well, it looks like we got the right time but the wrong channel......... again.".  I was so proud of actually getting something to record on the VCR that it didn't really bother me.  I was happy watching whatever it was that we'd captured on tape. 

Because of this, we did we exposed ourselves to a lot of different tv programming we wouldn't have otherwise watched.  I'm pretty sure that's how we got hooked on watching "Seinfeld".  After that success, we started setting the VCR to record and not worrying about the channel selection.  When we got home we'd grab some snacks and plop ourselves on the sofa in eager anticipation of what we had recorded for that evening.  It was kind of like a potluck tv night.

A few years ago we bought a foreclosed home.  When we walked through the kitchen the very first time, we saw the oven clock blinking 88:88 and it nearly made us reject purchasing the home.  I said to my husband "If we buy this house, somebody is going to have to set that thing so I can cook".  My husband looked somewhat nervous as he said "I can probably set it...... if you don't mind eating dinner at the same time as the folks who live in Europe, Asia, or the Middle East.  I might even get synced up with Siberia if we're lucky.".

After a couple of unsuccessful tries, my dad set the oven clock to the precise hour and minute.  He was very proud of himself and I was quite proud to have an engineering master for my father.  I set about cooking dinner and discovered that after he'd left, the clock stayed set approximately one hour before it went back to flashing 88:88.

I announced to my husband that fate was telling me I shouldn't cook........ my husband bought me a digital egg timer instead.  It quit working the second time I used it..........

Written by:  Christie Bielss