Ticking Like Clockwork

   My new "Learn something new" hobby of antique clock repair is boring to most people.  To be honest, never in my born days, did I think I would take up clock repair but after falling ill, I needed something to occupy the time.  The days dragged into weeks and the weeks dragged into months of recuperation.  My kids kept telling me to "learn something new" as therapy to regain mental dexterity and to "get a new hobby" to help with the physical dexterity.  I merely combined the two.  

  This week saw me tinkering with three different clocks.  All three presented their own set of problems which helped me tremendously.  The first two were simply repaired and are working perfectly.  The third needed more than repairing.  It needed replacing.  The clock is a huge, iron mantle clock.  I sort of inadvertently "inherited" it even though it was in a big mess.  The clock belonged to an elderly cousin who lost her house to Hurricane Katrina.  The tidal surge simply flattened her house and everything in it was completely waterlogged by the briny sea.  After the storm, we tried to help as much as we could even though we had been dealt a mighty blow by the storm.  Mark made trip after trip to the house to retrieve anything that he felt she might be able to use or that could possibly be restored.  Since she had no home, she asked if I could store the stuff for her. The clock was one of the items she kept.  Well, saltwater and iron do not play together nicely and the clock became rusted.  It had not worked for some 50 years anyway but now it was beyond hope.  Later, she told me "If you want that old clock, keep it."  I did.  I am not sure why but I did.

  This week, I took out the clockworks and Mark ordered a replacement of the exact same thing even down to the date (Waterbury 1881).  The works were installed and the clock has been working like a charm since then!  I wish I had been able to repair it when my sweet cousin was still alive but I have a feeling she is pleased as punch that it is finally ticking and chiming.

  Now...now, I am attempting to clean and remove the broken mainsprings of the original clock mechanism.  This one will be a teaching model as I can learn to replace mainsprings and also get a good look at how the things work without fretting about "breaking" something.  This new hobby seems to have taken over my spare time and also made my house a lot noisier!  With fourteen clocks chiming on the hour and half hour and nineteen clocks ticking loudly, it would drive most folks batty.  Not me!  It is relaxing just knowing they are all working correctly!