Thursday, June 10, 2010

Time flies, especially if you're an alarm clock

If there's one thing I hate, it's an annoying alarm clock. The blaring start to the day can trigger some instant rage, and my arm goes a-whacking for the snooze. I'm an extremely light sleeper, and Jason is not, so when it's HIS alarm going off, well, sometimes I have to apologize for my rude shoves.

A long time ago, before the overhaul of the downstairs bedrooms, I bought new, grown up, non-battery-operated alarm clocks for guests to use. Not long after, our remaining travel alarm clock surrendered to its regular beatings, so one of the new clocks migrated up to Jason's side of the bed. Since I don't have very good uncorrected vision, I wanted a closer target to squint at in the middle of the night if I awoke for some odd reason, so the other got plunked on my nightstand.

But we soon noticed something funny about these two clocks--they gained time. Every day. We didn't pay much close attention at first, because who notices a minute or two here and there? When we would realize our clocks were wrong, it would be by a good half hour or more. It was easy to blame the kids, because we knew their penchant for clocks and other electronic devices, and we considered Timex to be a trustworthy brand.

Not so much. I got slightly more investigative with it and figured out mine was gaining about 1 1/2 minutes per day. What a nice, polite amount of time, hmm? Not over-indulgent, just a slight mincing of my getting ready time, a little nudge-nudge to hurry it up in there already. But 1 1/2 minutes a day turns into nearly 10 minutes a week, and if I reset my alarm clock as often as I dust my bedroom furniture, it could quickly become an hour or more--fast! I'm all for setting clocks a little speedy, but the changing time has been getting on my nerves.

I'm going shopping tomorrow after my 28-week check up and lovely glucose tolerance test, and as much as I hate plunking money down for a new set of alarm clocks, I just might. I am that fed up.

4 comments:

maren said...

I always love your posts. You bring a smile to my face and you're also talented in the crafty department. Something I really need to work on.

I've also missed along the way that you're expecting again! Congrats!

shaunjoy said...

Awww, you're so sweet to apologize to your husband for 'helping' him hear his alarm clock. Shaun's a heavy sleeper too, but believe me when I say I don't feel a single twinge of regret after having to kick him early in the morning. :)

The main clock I keep my eye on when trying to leave the house is an old-fashioned wind-up clock in the living room. Only problem is that when I (frequently) forget to wind it on time, it loses time and then I can't figure out why I'm showing up late to everything.

Sabrina said...

Our alarm clock has a battery in it so any time the electricity goes out or the cord gets bumped it will keep running. For some reason when ever power is restored it seems to add a couple extra minutes. Grrr. Happy shopping!

Anonymous said...

Maybe he appreciates your "helping" him wake up more than he did mine when we were at home. I would just yell at him from across the hall until he finally woke up. . .and sometimes it took a lot of yelling:) Jan