Keeping up with time

The following was posted by Staff Reporter Jerry LaVaute:

On Sunday morning, I turned back the clocks in the house.

Spouses often divide household tasks between them, be they frequent or daily tasks, or less-frequent tasks like clock-setting, and this job fell my way years ago.

So, after a brief, inane discussion with my wife Jan early Sunday morning about what time it was (I referred to new time and old time in an effort to figure out which one she was after), I began the task.

I have noticed half-consciously in recent years that there are many clocks in our house.
But on Sunday, I went on a mission to count the number of clocks in each room, and shared the results with Jan.

Modern life can get out of control sometimes, and as I began the task, the number of clocks in a home seemed to me to be an example.

I started in the kitchen upstairs: one clock radio, one coffee-maker, one microwave, one stove, and one wall clock. Except for the wall clock, they’re all digital clocks.

Seems excessive, right? Five clocks in a single, rather small room?

Move on to the living room – one clock radio, one analog clock atop the corner cabinet, another on a stand by a chair.

Yet another clock is on the wall in the hallway, for the programmable thermostat that controls the timing of heating and cooling cycles in the home.

There is one clock in each of the upstairs bathrooms. One of them includes a digital thermometer that conveys the outside temperature to those indoors.

In the master bedroom are three clocks, one on the VCR, one is the alarm clock, and one is a weather alert radio.

I am clueless about how this weather radio operates, including how to turn back its time. I bought it recently from ABC Warehouse, and for the price of a pack of batteries for power backup in case the electrical power goes out, the salesperson programmed it for me.

This was a bad idea. I don’t know what it’s supposed to do in bad weather, so I’ve positioned the instruction manual neatly underneath the unit, awaiting the opportunity when I will master this latest bit of technology in my home.

I move on to the clock radio, which for all its complexity (different types of alarms, two unique alarm time settings) is relatively easy to change – there’s a special button for the elimination of daylight savings time – I hit it, and we fall back by an hour.

The only upstairs room in which we don’t seem to have a clock is what we call the cats’ room, so called because it’s where our two cats stay, protected from the little dog that sometimes terrorizes them.

The little dog is prevented from entering the room by a 30-inch piece of wood in the doorway. The dog’s name is Moses.

But the cats, whose names are Morgan and Mocha, have evolved into what seems a quiet, enjoyable life, helped perhaps by the absence of clock-watching, and the knowledge that they are free to roam the house each night, after Moses is sequestered safely in the bedroom.
In the kitchen downstairs, there are five clocks - microwave, clock radio, coffee-maker, wall clock, stove.

In the family room, there are three clocks, including one that used to hang in my mother’s living room – a nice reminder of her for me.

When I added it all up, including clocks on cell phones, computers, wristwatches and clocks in cars, the total exceeded 20 clocks or watches in or around my home.

It’s a lot, for sure, and it’s a lot of clocks and watches to change twice each year. But unless I’m prepared to move in with the cats, I guess I had better get used to it.