About 20 years ago I purchased a little alarm clock for about $10. I specifically chose this one because it appealed to my sense of humor. It not only digitally showed the time, it also announced the time in a digitally enhanced voice on the hour, and it also had a choice of two alarms, one that buzzed with an annoying buzz, buzz, buzz and the other, that crowed like a rooster.
At first this cock-a-doodle-doo was cute and new, a novelty really…but later it became annoying and I deliberately left it across my warehouse because sometimes I fell asleep in my office and it got me up to go turn off the annoying thing. Not on snooze, no, never on snooze, but turn that sucker OFF! I can imagine when I wasn’t there it annoyed the cats I kept in the warehouse…lol. Fast forward a few years, I emptied out one of my warehouses where I had kept this cheap little clock and brought it and some furniture home to an unused bedroom. Unfortunately, I forgot about it, it got put on a shelf or in a cabinet and the furniture that was going into storage, blocked me from ever finding it. I must have also forgotten that I had replaced the battery with a new Duracel (damn you good battery!).
You recall that it announced the hour, on the hour, verbally? I am certain you can turn off this function, but, of course, you have to be able to FIND the darn alarm clock. So ever hour, twenty-four hours a day, it goes off. I’m mostly able to tune it out, but, at night, when everything in the house is very quiet, when I’m losing sleep over a story and my active mind won’t allow me to sleep, I hear it, EVERY.SINGLE.HOUR on the HOUR! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought of moving that HEAVY oak furniture to just FIND it, but when the actual time comes to go find the clock, I’ve forgotten it for another hour…or two, or twenty-four. I don’t actually ALWAYS hear it as it is so common in my household; we’re used to it…right? That battery must have been an extra super charged one, the top on the line, as it didn’t seem to die for the first four years or so. Then I noticed the time was a little off, and not just for daylight savings time. Every month or two or twelve it would be a little further behind. First it was the hour for daylight savings time, but that was okay, after all it was right half the year right? Then it was off five minutes here, and five minutes there. It is now off half an hour off as I’m sure the battery is finally dying, but not enough to stop the hourly chime of the clock going off. Now that it’s winter, it’s officially off an hour and a half, I have to stop, think, and calculate what the actual time is when I hear it. God I hope that battery dies soon. I’m just so very thankful I didn’t leave the rooster’s cock-a-doodle-doo on for a daily wakeup call…but then, it might have worn down the battery faster. Here is an actual picture of the clock itself that I found by googling it, you too can own one of these for only about $10…if you want to have the enjoyment I have experienced at its hands (pun intended to clock people).
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