The Grandfather Clock

The Grandfather Clock.

I had a specialist come to finally set up the grandfather clock that has not been set up to work for 10 years. It was packed up for moving 10 years ago, not unpacked when it arrived at that house, moved again to this house 4 years later, still packed up, and now has been at this house for 6 years. But now, finally, it's all balanced, set up and it works perfectly. And the chimes are not too loud or obnoxious, but rather nice actually.

My parents had a grandfather clock in the house when I was growing up. I think a grandfather clock adds a touch of elegance to a home. Much like a piece of jewelry for a house.

However, I've been noticing that in the quiet house in the mornings, as I'm reading or writing things, I hear the chimes, then after what only seems like 2 or 3 minutes, the chimes are running again. I look up and it's not wrong. 15 minutes HAVE actually passed. I shake my head and go back to reading my science article on astrophysics. Then 2 minutes later, they are ringing AGAIN. Another 15 minutes have passed. 2 minutes later, ANOTHER 15 minutes have scooted by without me noticing. Then it happened AGAIN! It's been an hour and I haven't done anything useful or productive yet. HOW CAN THAT MUCH TIME HAVE PASSED BY SO QUICKLY??

The chimes have made me acutely aware of time passing. I feel like I should be doing something more productive. More active, where's my to do list... ooops - there it goes again....

It ended up making me feel very anxious. And with each ringing of the chimes, it ramped up my anxiety higher and higher, like I'm being nagged by a seven foot high clock. I felt more and more uncomfortable. As if someone were watching me waste valuable time. And judging me. Always judging me. What's that you're reading there? Astrophysics? Is that so important? Is that going to pay any bills?

So, to subdue my anxiety, I looked over the giant clock and found the switch that turned the chimes off. The time still displays perfectly, but the nagging has stopped.

Now I'm back to my normal mode of getting to dinner time and wondering how the heck the day somehow got away from me again.......