We have had a few decent storms over the past week or so, and I keep having to re-set the digital clocks. (The analog clocks have batteries.) After one storm, I run around the house and re-set the clocks only to have another storm roll through and commit the same offense. Again, I am re-setting clocks.
This routine goes on one more time until Mother Nature, in her infinite wisdom and with her sarcastic persona, calms down enough for me to re-set the clocks and enjoy them keeping real time for an entire day.
Until I notice the stereo.
Many people don't have stereos anymore. They have play lists on their phones, and, like magic, music is readily accessible to them with headphones, earbuds, or portable speakers. I still have a stereo. It's an older stereo: 3-CD player, AM/FM tuner, dual reel-to-reel tape, and a turn table with a diamond-tipped needle.
Yuppers; this is a niiiiiice stereo. Except for the digital clock. Its time is all wrong.
Finally, I have the clock on the stereo all set. This is fabulous! I can listen to tunes while I finish re-assembling the room I have torn apart AND I'll know what time it is. I decide that the stereo needs to scoot about two feet to the left so I can move a computer next to it. I unplug the stereo from the top plug and quickly put it into the bottom plug.
Damnit. The time is back to 12:00 a.m., which it most certainly is not. I re-set the clock again on the stereo, much more quickly and valiantly this time. I start moving more furniture and piles of stuff around, but the stereo is not going to relocate any further. Its clock, however, is waiting for the "reset" button to be pushed, flashing itself into thin air because I am done trying to have the stereo read the correct time.
After about fifteen minutes of being "done trying," I march back to the digital clock on the stereo. I re-set that sucker one last time. If this one doesn't stick, though ... I mean, really. For crying out loud, it's not like I don't have other clocks to keep time.
Of course, this is the exact moment when I locate the directions for the stereo. Thanks anyway, old chap, but that ship has sailed, and the hourly chime confirms it. I finally manage to fix something in the house!!!!! Just don't say it too loudly or the digital clocks will hear you, and I'll be right back here where I started.
