Time on the Ceiling
My friend Nancy in Florida sent me an atomic projection clock that arrived with yesterday's mail. They were on sale at Walgreens and since I'd admired hers last month, she decided to buy me one. I was so excited to try it, I opened the package right away.
This one came with a remote wireless temperature sensor that I can put outside - I'll figure that out when I find some AAA batteries. I set the clock up last night before I went to bed (I had to read some instructions to get it right) so I could wake up to the time projected on my ceiling. I planned to run this morning at 7:00 am and so thought this new clock would facilitate my waking up on time. I should add that I don't like alarm clocks - it work's for me to just "know" I have to be awake at a certain time and then I use the visual time as a reference for whether or not I have to awaken fully or not.
Once I was comfortably in bed with the lights out (you can't see the time with the lights on), I gazed up at the ceiling to check the time. It read, "uud 18:01". Huh? Oh jeez, I'd set it up so the time was projected upside down. While this was annoying, I was too far into sleepland to fix it.
This turned out to be a huge mistake:
"uub 08:1": Still awake and half-dreaming. I feel like I'm late for some event, but I'm not really sure what.
"uub 5h:t": Still awake - I think I should get up and fix the clock. I can't stop thinking about what time it is. If I keep going like this, I won't be able to get up to run.
"uub 15:h": Still awake. I'm not going to run - haven't slept all night. Can't figure out what time it is.
"uub bh:5": Just dozed off, but now the phone is ringing. It's my mother and I've forgotten I promised to dress her for her day at the Center. "I'm sorry, I overslept." (What time is it anyway, I wonder?) "It's almost 6:00," her caregiver tells me a few seconds later over the line.
Okay - gotta get up. Dress for the run. Get my mother dressed. Get coffee. Fix the clock.
So I made it to everything on time.... thanks to my new atomic clock.
