The clock struck thirteen

9-18-05 11:13 am

The clock chimed! I have this sort of little mini-grandfather clock looking thing. It’s about two feet tall and has a pendulum and false hangy-thingies (I am really going to have to look up what those are called). love it because I love the sound of a clock chiming on the hour. And it has always kept such good time. The glass panel broke in shipping it to Nome. It also stopping working. The battery may be weak, however, the pendulum is still swinging under battery power. The clock never seemed to go around the horn, as if it was so weak the minutehand could not work itself from 7 to 12, but it could go from 12 to 6 just fine. I have been waiting to get a new battery—takes a D.

And then I am doing dishes just now, as the time on the clock, pendulum still swinging, has remained constant at about 8:46, and the clock chimes. It’s a wonderful melodic tune that is just pleasing to hear. It does not chime the particular number of the hour, just a nice tune.

And it chimed again, all on its own. I will have to keep looking at it today. This is weird.

On another topic, our TV now has proper color. I will explain.

I shipped it to Nome in a big box all on its own that cost about $100 just to ship it parcel post. When we got it a few days after we arrived, there was a slight crack on the front plastic paneling. It is a 20 inch Magnavox with DVD and VHS player. When we turned it on, there was a green tint to it. The outside of the TV screen had this green aura that seeped into the rest of the picture. We pretty much sighed and said, “Oh, well.” TVs cost a bundle here. And truthfully, we could put up with it for a while. I remember growing up and adjusting rabbit ears, making sure the connections in the back of the TV were just right. My dad at one point had two remotes for his dish, one to change the channel and one to change the A-B transponder button. You literally had to sit there with two remote controls as if you were a gunslinger with two six-shooters. Channel, transponder, channel transponder. It was the only way to cycle through channels.

Nome Public Schools, at leat the junior high/high school had our open house Thursday night. It was just an hour, from 6:30 to 7:30. While we were all sitting in the RC listening to the speakers, the power went off briefly. It only stayed off for a couple of minutes. The power also went off in the apartments.

When I got home, I wanted to relax a little by playing a video game. It is always a great time to just not think for a second. I wanted to play Mario Kart on the Gamecube. Great little racing game. When I turned it on, I noticed that the Mario Kart screen was colored correctly. It took a second to realize how brilliant the colors actually were. The whole TV got better, the blue DVD screen was now blue and not that sickly green. Our cable picture was normal.

Weird. The power outage somehow made our TV get back its proper color.