When Al’s Mom passed away we inherited a nice wall clock from her.  It “bongs” and has weights and the pendulum tick-tocks and you wind it up with a pretty key.  A few years back it stopped working and I finally got around to fixing it, hauling it up to Napa to a good clock fixer.  He said the problem is the cables that hold the weights and turn the cogs are kind of old fashioned (i.e. they don’t use them much anymore) and the wires can get crossed when you are winding which brings time to a halt.  $200 later I took it home and carefully put it back on the wall.

I forgot to mention to everyone that you have to wind it very slowly and gently, rather than as if you are reeling in a very large fish.  Not that I’m blaming anyone but myself of course.  It stopped again.  I took it off the wall and tried to see in there where it might have gotten caught up and if I could fix it.  I called the guy and he gave me the name of a buddy who could stop in and fix it for me. For one reason or another it never happened.

Time continued to pass without the clock marking it off, and then we moved.  I packaged the heck out of it and figured once I got it on the wall in our final living space I would find another person to fix it for me, maybe even replace the weird wires completely.

Last night I unpacked it, and as I unwrapped all the bubble wrap and the paper and took off the tape that kept the wires from bouncing around too much, I wondered if maybe all that moving around might have jarred it back to its senses.  My cuckoo clock is kind of that way, if it gets off the cog the remedy is to turn it upside down.  I had actually even tried that with the wall clock, which was not an easy task as it weighs probably 25 pounds and is unwieldy.

I put it on the wall and was happy that my first choice was perfect. Did I mention I asked the previous owner to leave all the picture nails in the wall – I liked her decorating and since I’m lacking in that skill I knew it would help me put stuff up.  Case in point with the clock.

I went through the routine, hung the weights, manually  took the big hand around 12 hours so the chimes would get in sync, leveled the clock so that it was a steady tick/tock as opposed to tiiick/toctiiick/toc.

14 hours later it is still going.  I really can’t believe it and am a bit afraid to wind it when it needs it.  Until then I guess there is an antithesis to Murphy’s Law. Sometimes, when you’ve been following Murphy’s Law dutifully, finding that the handy over-the-door ironing board does not fit over the door, having to return the 25 ft garden hose because there is not a spigot within 25 ft of what you need to water, realizing that you already have two donation boxes full of stuff that you should have left back in the Bay Area…sometimes, Murphy’s Law is broken and if something can go right it will.

Now.  The dog is pacing and won’t stop looking at me.  It is twenty minutes past his feeding time.  I don’t need a clock at all, really.