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Natrional Watch and Clock Museum |
I also learned a new word: horology, the study of
clocks and timepieces.
In a previous Post I covered the process of Daylight
Savings, its history and arguments pro and con.
I also covered how I had been celebrating DST even after I retired from
the corporate world. The highlight of my
celebration came about three years before I retired from WellPoint when my
staff, numbering then about 16, surprised me by decorating my cubicle the
Monday after the change, with posters, banners, celebratory cards and such. Pictures from that day are still among my
favorites.
I noticed this year that in another feature, Scott
Simon was suggesting worthwhile things to do with the extra hour we
gained. That was also my pattern when I
celebrated the occasion. It was easier
to suggest the Fall back, but the Spring forward gave an opportunity to give up
all your bad habits in the one minute before you lost the hour.
I did an inventory of the timepieces I have in my house: thirty-seven, counting both cars and the
cordless telephones. Some of these are
quite interesting. Others are more
mundane.
The five bedroom alarm clocks would fall into that
latter concept with one exception: the Bose that was a Christmas present from
Leonard Shaffer to the Officers of WellPoint.
It has a gradually increasing radio wakeup and dual alarms, both
features Mary and I have come to appreciate.
The four computers, the iPad and the two cell phones
all have time functions but since they require no maintenance, I rarely use
them for tracking time. Similarly, the
three TVs use as clocks is generally discounted.

That would be a clock I inherited from my mother and
gifted to my younger son. So he could learn to tell Ship’s time. It rings bells from 1 to 8 for the Watch
Shifts every four hours. I have another
Ship’s Clock in my study and find it’s sound comforting if I wake in the
night. The mantle clock mentioned above
chimes the Westminster chimes every fifteen minutes, a sound I tune out unless
I am listening for it. I wind it once a
week and it rarely needs setting.
I have another mantel clock that has a world time
function. That comes in handy when we
are following Wimbledon. It and several
others are electric. When IO was
commuting the 100+ miles for WellPoint, I had a residence in Westlake Village
and missed my Westminster chimes so much that Mary bought a battery clock for
the condo. Tim now has that clock too,
as it was sitting in our guest room and never had the chime turned on.
I also have a functioning gold-filled Gruen pocket
watch on display. Since it needs winding
daily, I no longer set it, but I did today and find that, while it still runs,
it loses about ten minutes an hour. I
think it must have belonged to my grandfather since its inscription is to the
employees of a Stock firm in 1923. I
have another pocket watch in a safe deposit box from another grandfather who
worked the railroad. I have another
mantel clock also in my loft. It was
made electric and doesn’t make an interesting noise so it is of little
interest.
The only other clock I have is a wall clock I got for
Mary for when she doing laundry. It is
in the garage with the washing machine and dryer.
As time marches on, I’ll end this here with the truism
that even a stopped watch is correct twice a day.
In my next Post I will reflect on the recent death of
mike Nichols, who Mary and I felt was a friend even though we never met
him. I hope you will join me.
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