I believe that I have mentioned before that The Blonde in the house is a clock-a-holic. She is now being abetted in this “disease” by none other than The Villages Hospital which has a facility that raises funds for charitable needs in Lady Lake. The facility there receives all sorts of objects, clothes etc. that can be re-sold and the funds used for good purposes. Now I have no problem with such a worthy endeavor. However, I am convinced that they encourage people to donate clocks as they are aware that The Blonde will snatch them up – particularly when I am not there to calm her down on her affliction.
She has reduced her clock-a-holicness somewhat in that she no longer grabs on to big clocks. Now it’s small ones – palm size essentially. This, naturally means that it is easier to spread them throughout the house in the event that someone needs to tell the time – in case their watch doesn’t work or they are short sighted and can’t see the big ones. All this clockness becomes really evident twice a year – when the dreaded time changes occur. It so happened that just before this last time change she bought two more palm sized clocks – with the workings being even smaller.
You can probably guess who has to change the time on the small clocks – she handles the big ones. The small ones are a different story. She can’t change them as her nails from one of the ever present nail salons are too big and cumbersome for such miniature work. Some of the clocks are so small that I have a difficult time finding where the dial is located. One in particular has a generally invisible plastic piece that you have to find and click up so you can turn the clock’s hands. They also have very small batteries that are vexing to change. (When they are changed the clock has to be reset – even if it is not a scheduled time change. I have tried to hold on when one stops until a time change, but that seldom works.)
Clocks of one type or another have been around for a goodly number of years. For many years they were not very accurate – nor were they palm size with small workings. In fact back around 1094, a Buddhist monk named Su Song built a great tower thirty feet high which was designed to reveal the movement of the stars and the hours of the day. It used water to trip the mechanism. However, it did not catch on as very few people wanted a thirty foot tower in the yard. One good thing though for Su Song was that he didn’t have to worry about changing the time twice a year – or he probably would not have built it.
The Blonde has been very excited recently as she has been seeking information as to where in Ireland her grandparents had been born. Recently with the help of a local genealogy expert, Tom Voyles, she has found out. When she was talking about them, I casually pointed out that I bet her grandmother didn’t have a bunch of clocks. I said that back in Ireland she was lucky to have a sundial. Big mistake! She is now out in the yard Disclaimer – in the event that anyone thinks I am a grouchy old man, please note that it is good to have The Blonde in the house around!
Barry Evans writes about Life in The Villages for Villages-News.com.
