Mental Meanderings

My Clocks All Tell The Wrong Time

How many clocks do you have in your home? If you're like me you'll have at least a few.

Most people have a side table alarm clock in the master bedroom. Families might even have clocks in the kid's rooms too. You can usually find one on at least the microwave in the kitchen if not also on the wall. These days in super techy houses you might even find one on the oven or refrigerator too.

Each computer has a clock on it and some people will have another on their desk or wall in their office or wherever they keep their computer. There should be at least one somewhere on your Entertainment System (TV, DVD, VCR, Top Box, Stereo, Video Game Console etc.) You also have one on your cell phone and many people have watches.

Ok, how many clocks is that you have?

I have 9. Not as many as some but more than others. The thing is, they all tell the wrong time. Right this minute I have no idea what the exact time is. None of my clocks are telling the same time and while one of them might have got lucky and be on the right minute it's certainly not to the second accurate when it comes to telling me the time. AND I'd have no idea WHICH of these 9 clocks is the lucky one.

I've often wondered if we perhaps could lose or gain time because of this phenomenon. It reminds me of the way the earth's and the moon's cycles just don't quite match our calendar year. Every four years we have to leap a day to catch up.

Do you have to leap a day when it comes to clocks? Do they run just that little fast constantly making us just that little more ahead of the actual time? It's not noticeable, especially with the changing weather but what if we are very, minutely, (oh the irony of that word) losing time?

Or gaining time. Could I be a minute in the future because my clock is wrong? We certainly make that joke when it comes to time zones don't we?

Yanky: "Yay! It's lunch time."
Me: "No, it's Thursday."
Yanky: "WOW! Really? What's tomorrow like?"
Me: "Well you know, the world didn't end."
Yanky: "I can sleep easy tonight then I guess."
Me: "Yeah I guess, although there's always the axe murderer under your bed to worry about."

Ok... Well thinking about time makes my head hurt. When we talk about time we're really discussing something that doesn't actually exist. It's a construct. It's a manifestation of physical boundaries created to give humans the opportunity to feel like what they do from moment to moment means something.

Of course, most of the time (ICK!) we're wasting time. Doing nothing significant. Like this blog I guess. Still, since I don't actually know what the time IS I guess I can relax because somewhere in the world it's still the present and so I guess I didn't really just waste that minute. Or did I waste two when I thought I only wasted one?

AHHHHHH!!!! *wiggles into a straight-jacket and takes herself to a mental institute*