Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Wild Big Time





Caught the alligator and the turtle together.
The alligator prefers laying in a semi circle. 
Gossip in the campground is that someone claims they saw the alligator eat the turtle. I hope they were wrong. But the alligator has to eat something, so maybe it was the poor little turtle. 


 Harley is so c-c-c-cold he has refused to let me take his jacket off for 2 days now. 


 But I got his picture anyhow!
What a goofy pet. 



This clock looks BIG, but it's only 2.75 inches (7cm) in diameter. It's waterproof, runs on a AAA battery and thankfully now lives in my broom closet. So far it keeps great time and I am thrilled!

I mean bathroom. 

My motorhome came with a broom closet, where I keep the broom and they stuck a toilet and a teensy sink in there for convenience.

When I bought my wheel estate in 2009 it came with a big 10 inch broken wall clock. It told the time correctly twice a day. The battery was permanently fused inside the backing. There was no way to get it to work. I tossed it out and filled that bit of wall with three brass containers I found at Goodwill. They hold tons of junk, so they are far more useful.

The first new gift I bought my wheel estate was a night light that included a tiny 2 inch clock. I loved that nightlight. It came on automatically at night and it told time 24 hours a day. I stuck it in my broom closet in the electric socket.

For 7 years I had the time 24/7 in my bathroom. The clock ran on a battery but the nightlight ran on electricity. So the clock was always right, even when I unplugged from electricity to drive down the highways and byways getting lost on my way to my next destination. Because the clock was part of the nightlight, it never fell down, the electric plug kept it firmly in place.

About 3 months ago, the little night light clock was smoking one night when I got up. It frightened me! 

Fires are scary indeed. In 1976 I came home to find my remote country home engulfed in flames. Nothing was spared. Not even my beloved pets. The furnace repairman had made a fatal mistake that set my home on fire in my absence. I was wearing a pink sweater on that fateful night. That sweater traveled with me for the next 30 odd years until it finally fell apart. 

Now I travel with 3 fire extinguishers. Just in case. 

I yanked the smoking nightlight out of the socket and it never did catch fire, but it stopped smoking. The clock kept running (sitting on the counter unplugged) for a few more days then it passed away. Nothing could coax it back to life, not even a new battery. Even so, it was hard for me not to be distrustful of it. Why was it smoking that night I woke up?



You can see the little smoke stain at the bottom of the night light clock. I took this picture before I tossed it in the garbage in October. Bye bye clock! Bye bye night light! Bye bye fire hazard!

For three months, my life has been completely out of sorts. For the past 7 years I have relied on the bathroom clock for the time. I know that sounds crazy. But I visit my broom closet often at all hours of the day and night. That little clock always told me the time. 

Brushing my hair, or brushing my teeth, getting ready to walk the dog, I relied on that little clock to keep me current. For some strange reason, I can't wear a watch. A watch won't keep the correct time if I wear it. If I leave the watch in a drawer, the time is dead on correct. If I wear the watch, the time goes goofy. 

Years back, in the Caribbean, my friend Phil gave me his beautiful gold watch. He had bought a new one and gave me his old one. It was gorgeous. It kept great time. Except when I wore it. I kept it on my sailboat and used it to tell the time. A few years later, Phil got sick and was rushed to a hospital. He died at 10 after 4. The same day his watch died at 10 after 4 too. I never could get the watch to work again after that. When I was in the hospital in 2009, in the Caribbean, before moving to the USA,  my home in the Caribbean was robbed. The watch was stolen. I haven't owned a watch since then. 

My teeny tiny bathroom nightlight clock was simple to reset when that gawdawful time change rolls around twice a year. It provided me the perfect ambient night light so that I could visit the broom closet in the wee hours without having to turn on the harsh overhead light. 

I would always glance at the little clock. If the time was before 4am, I went back to bed. It was past 4am, I typically got up to wait for the sunrise. For some strange reason, I like to be up before the sunrise. 

Maybe because for most of my life, I relied on the Caribbean sun rise to wake me up. I typically went to work at sunrise so it worked out beautifully. 

I searched high and low for another night light clock and it seems they just don't make those anymore. So sad. 

I stuck a nightlight in the bathroom that has an on/off switch that I found at Dollar Tree  for $1. But I still couldn't find a tiny clock suitable for wall hanging anywhere. 

I tried to live without the bathroom clock, but I just seemed so confused. 

Life is goof. 

Finally I caved in and bought this tiny clock from Amazon. You would be surprised how hard it is to find a tiny clock suitable for wall mounting. Big clocks are everywhere, but finding a tiny one for a tiny home, not so easy. No room on my counter to have a regular clock sit there and besides, it's a motorhome. I have to drive to the grocery store and places. I have already accidentally lost things that fell into my broom closet garbage can and hid in the bottom of the can to be tossed out with the garbage. Ooops! So I try to keep the small counter clear at all times. Just in case. 

Ironically this new clock came with a suction cup and it's waterproof for a shower or bathroom. Pretty nifty. So I guess if my clock falls into the toilet, I can still tell time. Luckily I keep the toilet lid closed when not in use so hopefully this won't happen. 

My walls are too porous to stick it on the wall, so it's stuck on the mirror above the sink for now with the suction cup. I think I might punch a little hole in the suction cup and just mount it on the wall so it's less likely to fall anywhere into the sink or toilet or garbage.

It seems like my life is restored to its former disorder. I know the time now. 







No comments:

Post a Comment


Life is goof!