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Just had two old battery-powered clocks go belly-up on the same day.

It made me wonder: Was it sheer coincidence, or an omen that I'm out of time?

Is there by any chance an English police box in your back garden or on your street?

Why, I do believe I did hear a TARDIS whirring, now that you mention it.

Oh, wait: that was distant thunder.

Magnetic field. Thats the problem. There'll be an alien pod near your house that has been dormant for centuries, and now it's activating.

Well, that must be it, then. The two weren't litter-mates, and one was well older than the other. They were very much just like these:



The unassuming one on the right was gotten new at a department store about 12 or so years ago, and the jazzier, Jetsons-style one on the left at a second-hand shop some years later; but I think the latter actually dated from the 70s, judging by its brown plastic case and rough condition. So doubtless you can understand the marvel their simultaneous demises presented.

RIP, clocks. My debt to your years of rugged service cannot be repaid. Alas, the very flower of horology, too soon struck down in their prime... Farewell! Farewell.

Are you familiar with the folk song 'Grandfather's Clock?" As long as these weren't bought on the morn of the day that you were born, I'm sure you'll be fine.

You say you'd had it for 12 years - that must be a record - ours usually fail within about 3 years, made in China, possibly to grow their economy.

But did I hold a funeral, you ask? In a manner of speaking. Let us say the rites were ... austere. Although I did afford our departed clocks the dignity of their own separate bins.

Was there anything special about the weather that day? Yesterday we lit our stove for the first time since late spring.

No, nothing out of the ordinary. Considering the times.

I once changed my mobile phone time by an hour when the clocks when forward or back. But this was some time ago and I didn't realise then that it updated automatically so I actually ended winding it forward or back, whichever it was, an extra extra hour. That would never have happened with manual clocks.

john wrote:That would never have happened with manual clocks.

They carry their own drawbacks. I've forgotten how to adjust the time on my car's clock (is nothing straightforward any more these days?) and I'm too lazy to get a new manual or even simply look it up online, it being a case of out of sight, out of mind. So of course when a passenger points out that the clock's off an hour, I just say, "Ah. It must be winter, then," as we drive past the snow and bare trees.

I recall a story wherein someone once asked another why none of his several clocks read the same time, and he replied, "Well, if they did, I'd only need one, now, wouldn't I."

Nanohedron wrote:

john wrote:
I recall a story wherein someone once asked another why none of his several clocks read the same time, and he replied, "Well, if they did, I'd only need one, now, wouldn't I."

Keep those stoped clocks. They are correct two times a day.