My alarm clock tricked me

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I’m still old fashioned. I don’t use my smart phone as an alarm clock. I have a clock radio. Try finding one at your favorite department store. You’re going to be looking for some time. They’re not available. When my old one died, I found myself at my favorite thrift store and was happy to find one on the shelf. It was different from my previous clock radio.

To ensure that I didn’t accidentally change the time when I set the alarm, I covered the “time” button with a disc and held it in place with masking tape. It worked really well but looked tacky. The clock was black and the tape was blue. I removed the blue masking tape and replaced it with black electrical tape. It looked better.

Electrical tape is great for wrapping wires. But over time, it tends to stretch and lose its stickiness. This happened to my alarm clock. I had to keep placing it over the disc that blocked me from pressing the “time” button. It was working fine until…

…There was one night when the tape was barely sticking. I had an important morning meeting at 7:00 AM. I set the alarm for 5:00 AM and went to sleep.

The alarm went off at 5:00 AM and I jumped out of bed, showered, got dressed and got in my car. I always turn to the news, weather and traffic radio station, waiting for my favorite drive time host. Instead, I heard voices I hadn’t heard in years. They were talking about UFO’s. I was concerned. Did the radio station fire him? Was the format being changed? Why were we listening to a discussion about aliens coming to earth and invading our planet?

I was three blocks from home when I looked at the clock on the dashboard of my car. It was 4:46 AM. I knew what happened.

The electrical tape lost its stickiness and came loose, moving the disc from the button that said, “time.”  Without realizing it, I had moved the time ahead one hour. My clock was working fine. It believed it was 5:00 AM when it was actually 4:00 AM when it woke me up. I was showered, dressed, and driving to work. If I went home, I would never go back to sleep. Instead, I just headed to work.

I laughed about it all the way to the office. The clock did what it was supposed to do. It operated with the information it had at the moment. It was being responsible. But it was wrong.

There is a scripture verse that says, “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.”

One of my many character flaws is that I get locked into a way of thinking. No one, and I mean no one can persuade me to consider a different path. Most recently, I needed a battery for my mower. I thought the old one was a certain amperage. At the store, I reviewed many batteries but rejected all of them thinking they weren’t strong enough to start the mower. It wasn’t until I looked at my battery and its amperage that I realized the many batteries on the shelf that I dismissed were the same amperage.

What is it you are holding onto? What is the idea that you think is right and no one can persuade you to look at it from a different perspective?

To fix the alarm clock, I removed the black electrical tape and replaced it with black duct tape. That’s not coming off anytime soon.

I’ll be back in two weeks. Until then, live well my friend.