It's about time

Many people who come to our house comment on the number of clocks we have around. I don't think there's a room in the house that doesn't have a clock and some have several. I realized that often I have five clocks on me: a wristwatch, cell phone, PDA, camera, and iPod. I know that's overkill but can I help it if all my toys come with clocks?

Now appropriate to the subject, we got two more clocks for the house this Christmas. Philip, Jenny, Lee, and Staci got me a clock, the likes of which (I've always wanted to use that phrase) I have never seen.


It's a pin clock. The display uses hundreds of little pins that move in and out to show the time of day. Those pins are painted black on the sides so that the time is a little more evident when looked at from a slight angle.

We have placed that new clock in our dining room alongside the Alien clock which rarely got much attention and was also moved into the dining room.



And while not a clock, it is still related to the passage of time. I'm speaking of a calendar. Steven and Lisa gave me the above pictured perpetual clock which works by moving the movable top piece along the base until the days of the week match the month you're in. You have to use your knuckles to determine how many days there are in the current month.

Thanks, kids, for come great presents.

The other clock we got for Christmas was something that Mom and I got for each other. It is an indoor/outdoor clock that we've hung on the patio side of the house between the two windows. Not only does it have the time (corrected four times a day by a signal from the NIST national clock synchronizing station WWVB near Fort Collins, Colorado) but it also has the humidity and air pressure gauges.