Twice a year we all reset our clocks, watches, vcrs, and any other appliance that keeps track of our time. Sounds like a simple task. But it's not. For instance take the clocks in the cars I drive – a secret combination of buttons on the radio is involved, which requires a thorough review of the owner's manual. And of course this change cannot be effected when you remember the need for it – which is at sixty miles an hour in heavy traffic. I wonder if there is a marked increase in traffic accidents the first Monday after Clock Days?
I wear a watch every day. If I leave the house without it, I have to come back home and get it. I check it hundreds of times a day, if not for the time, the date. The date is the reason I wear a digital watch. This digital watch is set by….wait for it …. A secret combination of buttons which requires a thorough review of the owner's manual! And this is made more difficult because the owner's manual on the watch is about 2 inches square folded and about 2 inches by 36 inches unfolded. If I can find the manual (a real problem since unlike the glove box in the car, there is no perfect place for storage) and reset the time, the odds are high that I've mistakenly also set an alarm and changed the date. I own about a dozen watches all but two of questionable value, but I only change the one I wear on a weekly basis. With any luck, by the time I want to wear any of the others, the time will be correct again.
It's four days and counting since the last Clock Day. I'm still working on changing all my timepieces. The clock on my desktop computer changed automatically; thank heavens, although it still needed my personal reassurance that it changed itself correctly. I haven't powered on my laptop since Sunday, so it's still unaware of the time shift. I'll keep it in the dark awhile longer. One of my vcrs changed itself; the other, a much older model, didn't. The clock on the DVD player is off, but who cares? The numbers are so small that I can't read them anyway.
The clock on the microwave is flashing the wrong time – but since it does that every time there is the slightest fluctuation in the electrical power to the house – I don't worry with it until my mother visits and she remarks on it.
I set the clock on my coffeemaker the day before yesterday. I was due to leave the house at 5 a.m. for an early meeting in Oklahoma City and I desperately needed that coffee to be perked and ready when I rolled out of bed. It wasn't. The little a.m. or p.m. light was not correctly lit.
Oh well. McDonalds has great coffee. And no buttons or flashing lights are involved.
Here's to Clock Day and getting on with it! Time waits for no woman!
Evelyn David
I wear a watch every day. If I leave the house without it, I have to come back home and get it. I check it hundreds of times a day, if not for the time, the date. The date is the reason I wear a digital watch. This digital watch is set by….wait for it …. A secret combination of buttons which requires a thorough review of the owner's manual! And this is made more difficult because the owner's manual on the watch is about 2 inches square folded and about 2 inches by 36 inches unfolded. If I can find the manual (a real problem since unlike the glove box in the car, there is no perfect place for storage) and reset the time, the odds are high that I've mistakenly also set an alarm and changed the date. I own about a dozen watches all but two of questionable value, but I only change the one I wear on a weekly basis. With any luck, by the time I want to wear any of the others, the time will be correct again.
It's four days and counting since the last Clock Day. I'm still working on changing all my timepieces. The clock on my desktop computer changed automatically; thank heavens, although it still needed my personal reassurance that it changed itself correctly. I haven't powered on my laptop since Sunday, so it's still unaware of the time shift. I'll keep it in the dark awhile longer. One of my vcrs changed itself; the other, a much older model, didn't. The clock on the DVD player is off, but who cares? The numbers are so small that I can't read them anyway.
The clock on the microwave is flashing the wrong time – but since it does that every time there is the slightest fluctuation in the electrical power to the house – I don't worry with it until my mother visits and she remarks on it.
I set the clock on my coffeemaker the day before yesterday. I was due to leave the house at 5 a.m. for an early meeting in Oklahoma City and I desperately needed that coffee to be perked and ready when I rolled out of bed. It wasn't. The little a.m. or p.m. light was not correctly lit.
Oh well. McDonalds has great coffee. And no buttons or flashing lights are involved.
Here's to Clock Day and getting on with it! Time waits for no woman!
Evelyn David
Evelyn, I would have posted a comment sooner but I was still an hour behind.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this great post. It's one of my pet peeves as well because with all the advances we've made in technology, we have yet to come up with a universal device to easily reset all of these digital devices. My biggest peeve, however, is the fact that they all waste "gray" energy by drawing power even when they are not actually in use - for what? - mostly to retain their clock settings.
Felicia Donovan
THE BLACK WIDOW AGENCY
www.blackwidowagency.com