Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Clocks

As much as we love traveling nothing quite compares to be able to come home to our own house and comfortable beds. Especially when the past week was spent living almost Amish.

We had been watching the weather maps closely and chose a week to go visit LV's parents during a time it looked as if the nights would be pleasantly cool. That part we got right. The nights were nice and cool and there was no uncomfortable tossing and turning because of the heat. But what we had failed to take into consideration were all the clocks they have in their house.

My mother-in-law loves music, but since there are no musical instruments, and no other form of listening to music her way of getting a little bit is having clocks that chime. I have no idea how many clocks she has, but each one is set so that as one is done chiming another one will begin. A clever idea during the day, but horrible during the night.

A big clock in the living room starts things off. It is the one clock in the house with the correct time. All it does is stike the time in deep majestic bongs that reveberate through out the house. And never failed to wake me up. Wadding up blankkets against the bottom of our bedroom door didn't do much to muffle the sound.

Half a minute later her most cherished clock would begin.
 Next would be a whole host of others playing everything from Home on the Range to one that made John Deere tractor sounds. Just when I think they're all done and it's finally safe to unstop my ears another one chimes Silent Night. If I wasn't so tired and annoyed I would have found it amusing.
 
It's nice being home where I don't have to stumble around in the dark, and the house is free of clocks that chime at night.

8 comments:

  1. How funny...I love clocks and music, too, so I think the one in the movie clip is very cool. I sure wouldn't like hearing it in the middle of the night though. I have THREE clocks that do different bird songs on the hour. They all go off within a minute of each other, very briefly, and they are silent at night so they're not a bother. Yeah, home is the best place on earth.

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  2. I think you weren't there long enough to get used to the clocks. We can get used to sleeping through many things. In my twenties I moved to a cheap apartment with a railroad right behind it. The first several nights I was awakened each time a train came through, after that I slept right through and never heard them again. Rhythmical, predictable noise is what our brain gets used to and our subconscious mind tells us to stay asleep. I love chiming clocks too! My grandpa had many and I loved staying at my grandparent's home and hearing them. Certain chimes still remind me of him and his clocks. But east or west, home is best.

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  3. We have one chime clock that plays every 15 minutes. I don't even hear it anymore, but guests always comment about it. I try to remember to stop that clock when we have overnight guests.

    I've seen a similar clock to your video in a restaurant in Leavenworth, WA. It's beautiful.

    I'm glad you had cool weather and time for a nice visit with LV's parents.

    Blessings,
    Betsy

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  4. Wow- I think I would have to groan and laugh at the same time, too! That clock is really neat! I've never seen anything like it before. If it runs off of batteries, it must need new ones at least every other week with all that action on the hour every hour!

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  5. That's a pretty neat clock. When we visit my parents they have a clock in the living room that goes off every hour and I can hear it in the guest room. Lucikly, it doesn't bother me till early in the morning when it's time to get up. I have a hard time sleeping somewhere else besides my own bed so I can't imagine trying to sleep with all those clocks going off.

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  6. i'm sorry, but I had to laugh. My parents have the bird clock, and when we go to visit, it does wake me. My husband has the John Deere tractor clock, but I have it set so it doesn't go off at night.

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  7. We used to have a clock that had a LOUD tick, and a double chime. That is, it would go ding-dong for one, and ding-dong, ding-dong for two. My sister simply called it "that God-Awful clock". It hung, unwound, in our home for many years, and I have no idea what ever began of it. (And don't really want to know!)

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  8. I saw a clock similar to the one in your video at the furniture store last week. It had quite a hefty price tag on it and I didn't really care for the colored L.E.D. lights. It's interesting that they can have clocks such as this.

    We have a bird clock that seems to get quieter from 9pm to 7am although I'm not sure how as I've never seen any settings on it but I'm up early and never hear it play at 6am but always hear it at 7am.

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