Tick Tock - About a Clock

Actually this is about two clocks. I doubt I'm the only person that has two alarm clocks. However,I don't have two for the reason you think I would, which would be to help me get out of bed in the morning.

I have two because 1) they were both free (gifts I selected from work awards) and 2) the first one wasn't my favorite so I tried the second one.

The first one is an iPod docking station, which is great for charging as well as listening to your iPod. The second one selected sometime later (probably a year or two) is one that projects the time on the ceiling (or wall) in red light. It's really cool to wake up in the middle of the night and without moving a muscle I can see how many more hours I can sleep.

However, one of the issues I have with both clocks is that the light on them, even dimmed is too bright on my night stand. So the cool projector clock has a night eye mask covering the face of it and the iPod clock is the one I use for my alarm, but I don't go to sleep listening to music, because when the timer is up and the music stops the light turns on. What's up with that?

I don't mind a night light, but a bright light on my nightstand that I can see through my eyelids is a little much. My car dash has a wonderful dimmer switch so that I can light up the dash as if I was flying a 747 or dim it while I listen to smooth jazz on the radio on my way home. So why can't my radio alarm clocks be that way?

And how is it that if I listen to music the night before, that the next morning when the radio comes on to wake me, the volume is four times what it was the night before? I can't figure that one out.

The most confusing thing now is that the clock I use for the alarm gains about 10 minutes every six weeks. So I end up getting up earlier than necessary. And it's a pain to set the time but eventually I have to do it.

The projector clock has some sort of high tech gizmo so that it always has the correct time, except for when it changes itself to a different time zone which has happened more than once. Makes it hard to figure out what time to set the alarm that is 10 minutes fast with the clock that is one hour ahead.

Well enough about that, I'm off to bed, just hope I don't oversleep in the morning!

A Clown, a Funeral and Balloon Animals

Hard to believe I can actually use those three nouns in the same title. But believe it or not, I attended a funeral yesterday in Kennewick and a clown (not in full make-up, but wearing red sneakers) did make balloon animals right before the funeral started. I can now cross that off my list of things to see in my lifetime!

My sister's father-in-law passed away peacefully in his sleep at home, weeks before his 92nd birthday. He was a Shriner's clown for many, many years. And so at his funeral they wanted it to be special and fun. One of the clowns that he had mentored over the years did a couple of balloon animals before the funeral started and told how Lloyd would make the balloon animals while talking to the children. It was very cute.

My husband and I have had the pleasure of knowing Lloyd for the last 3 years as he lived with my sister and her husband. He would join us for our family reunions in the summertime and I think he especially liked me, cause I would always make sure he had dessert and any other sweet treats we had made during the day.

He was a character to be around and loved to tell stories. Well you can imagine being 91 years old you would have a lot of stories to tell. His wife had passed away about 8 years ago and they had been married for over 60 years.

(Photo of Lloyd Berg taken in June 2008 by Becky Shull)

Post # 100

Just thought that was cool to find out this is my 100th post.

Anyway just wanted to check in with the New Year.

On Friday we picked up our grand-daughter Gisele for an overnighter. After burgers for dinner, we came home and played Life. Been a long time since I played that game.

Then Saturday morning it was waffles and scrambled eggs for breakfast. We haven't had a real Saturday morning breakfast for a long time, so it was a lot of fun. That would be waffles with blueberries or mini choco chips plus sliced bananas, strawberries and cool whip on top.

At the breakfast table I reminded Wally that every single thing he said would be repeated when Gisele got home. So later while we were driving in the car she mentioned the number of times he swore that day!

There was a Full House marathon on TV in the morning. Gotta love the hair back then and John Stamos when he was young, crazy!

We went bowling, Wayne came with and Wally watched. I didn't do all that great, bowled a 114 and an 82. Wayne beat me both games, but it was a lot of fun.

Mexican food for lunch, came home. Then ran some errands around SouthCenter, the traffic was a mess around there on a Saturday afternoon. Then we met up with Melissa and Tim to drop Gisele off. While standing in the parking lot Gisele runs down a quick list of everything we did and every thing she ate, it was funny!

Then home for dinner.

Today after church I baked some cracked wheat bread, it turned out really good. You can read an earlier post which references the bread books I've been enjoying.

Today after church I went in the backyard with the dog and peeked at the garden that has mostly been emptied out and has some pots of dirt dumped into it, and I picked two carrots, what a nice surprise!

I decided at the last minute this evening to get my home office cleaned up. I did pretty good in a few short hours. There are three stacks of magazines and papers on the kitchen table for sorting later. Not too mention a box and stack of fabric that got moved into the garage so we could use the futon for company.

I need to organize my sewing projects so I can get some more sewing done.

Happy New Year to you all!

Here's wishing this brings us all good health, love and happiness in the New Year.