Well, Its About Time!!!

  I suppose I am close to being a hoarder but some things are just hard for me to toss in the trash.  Lately, (at the urging of many kind folks) I have been sorting and discarding a lot of stuff that crammed every nook and cranny of the Little Bayou House.  It was nigh on exploding!  My brother once told me "You house may float away during a hurricane but it will never blow away.  It is too heavy!"  Although that is an interesting thought, he is probably right.  Or..was right at that time.  Now, things are thinning but, like I said, it is hard for me to toss certain items.  Clocks.  I am not sure why I like clocks so much but I do.  Not modern clocks but the old spring wound type or the weighted type.  These newfangled things are not for me.

  My obsession with clocks is sort of ironic as I am not a time oriented person.  In fact, most of the timepieces in the house are not even set accurately.  Time, in a sense, is meaningless when you spend your days strictly on the Bayou and are not bound to other folks' schedules.  So, it is not the time-keeping that attracts me.  It is the ticking and chiming of old time clocks.  I find it soothing.  That said, since I am redoing the living room, my clocks will have a place of importance.  I figure if I am going to part with a lot of my treasures, a few can stay and be focal points.  A wall of clocks is in the works.  While this is agreeably not for everyone, it suits me perfectly even though some of those clocks have not worked in years.

  One such clock is a mantel clock that came from my grandparents' house.  This fine piece in its beautiful wooden case used to keep perfect time then, through some mishap, it refused to tick even one click.  It sat on the shelf in silence.  While I missed the sounds of the clock, I knew clock repair was an expensive undertaking and I had better ways to spend the money.  Raising kids is not cheap!  Along the way, the clock was forgotten but with the inception of the wall of clocks, I, once again, thought of clock repair.  With the kids all successfully on their own, I delved into finding a reputable service.  None local were recommended.  So, I took a look at the timepiece and thought "I might as well try!"  Pop did not raise us to be afraid of trying new things.  Intimidation by a task is unheard of in our family. 

  I took the clock down from the mantel and opened the back.  Yep, there sure were a lot of gears in there...along with a bazillion other pieces.  Hmmm?  Flashlight in hand, I examined the inner workings of the clock.  I had no clue where to begin...except one piece looked a bit bent.  The pendulum swing bar was askew.  Well, there is a good place to start!  A few tools, a bright light and steady hand was all that was needed to mend that and the chime mechanism.  Then on to those gears!  

  For the past five hours, the old clock has been steadily ticking and the chime sounds amazing as it echoes on the hour and half hour!  The pendulum is swinging a bit fast but that will be adjusted tomorrow.  In the meantime, my confidence has been boosted enough to search for clock parts to start repairing two more non-working timepieces.  One will have to be gutted and rebuilt from the get go as it went through Hurricane Katrina and the inner workings are utterly destroyed.  The other needs small pine cone weights.  Hopefully, I will have the patience and knowledge to handle this meticulous work but, with one ticking happily after years of silence, I am encouraged!