Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Time Keeps on Slipping...

We were sitting around the other day when my brother happened to spy the clock in the living room. It was off by quite a bit. "I guess you forgot to set some of the clocks," he said. That clock probably hadn't seen new batteries in two years. He looked at the other clock and it was off, too. We laughed. "I guess time doesn't mean too much in this household," he said.

The second clock is always off. My niece uses it to get up in the morning on weekends that she stays with us. She has inherited my morning sluggishness, and keeps that clock set about 30 minutes ahead. We don't bother to change it during the week. The kitchen clock is somewhat dependable. It is right most times ~ if the batteries aren't weak. We go by that one. My car clock is usually off. Not only do I keep it set 30 minutes or more ahead (a throwback to work days), but annually, at time change, I fail to reset it in a timely manner. Sometimes I go a week or a month or more. It's just a pain to remember which buttons to punch. The VCR clock now ~ forget about that one. It hasn't been set since the VCR was new and we could still find the owner's manual.

My bedroom clock is always off. Like my niece, I keep it ahead, but it can't be at a normal pre-set. If it was an exact amount, and always the same, I would remember it. I must fool myself. I set it, maybe 47 minutes, or an hour and ten ahead... I'm just groggy enough in the A.M. to fall for that. I do have one of those automatic, self-setting clocks to fall back on ~ but I'd swear it loses a half hour between upstairs and downstairs. I'm always running behind. Maybe the clock just loses signal. Maybe our little valley exists in some kind of twilight zone. Maybe the clock has adjusted itself specifically to our crazy household. Clocks or no clocks, one thing is sure: time can't stand still. "Time keeps on slipping... into the future."

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