observations.

Today I got the opportunity to get this beautiful clock that was in my great grandfather’s house when the last occupant of the house, my great uncle, passed away recently. The face of this clock is 18” in diameter. The widest part of the clock is 24". It’s body is 6” deep. It’s big. I love it.

I know very little about clocks except the obvious like this one is pretty. I had to remove the hands to open it up and as I held the hands in my hand I realized the last person likely to have held these was my great grandfather Roy Joseph Charters, who passed away in 1975. I remember his funeral but that is about all I remember of him besides he always wore a hat. Not a baseball cap but one of those hats with a brim on it that all men wore out in public in his day. His very well could be the first funeral I attended or at least I know it is the first funeral I can recall attending as I was only four years old.

So then I opened the working area of the clock and realized that the mechanism is not the original as evidenced by the pieces not all fitting into the spots they would normally go and in order for the pendulum to have room to swing, part of the wood from the inside had to be removed. The marks from the tools used to do this job are still there. Likely the job was done by my great grandfather who was a clock repairman. If you know ANYTHING about clocks, first you will notice that the mechanism is not the original. Then, email me so I can ask you tons of questions like how do I wind this clock? There are no places to wind it. It’s almost like my great grandfather was in the middle of creating or restoring or repairing this clock and just quit for one reason or another.

The inside smells like an old piano. You know what I mean? You don’t? Next time you see an old piano, do yourself a favor and get near where the inside is, right above the keys and take a big, slow breath in through your nose. Close your eyes and think about the last time you smelled that. Think about people building these beautiful things and people who played them through the years. This clock did this to me. Made me think about old things and where they’ve been and what has happened to them and how they’ve lasted this long. Oh, a good Martin guitar also smells this way. Speaking of a Martin guitar, Neil Young wrote his new album using an old guitar that belonged to Hank Williams Sr. How do you just “have” a guitar like that? Like, “Oh, that one used to belong to Johnny Cash” or “That’s the one Jimi gave me”. What the heck? Anyway, Prairie Wind is a great album and there is also a movie about Neil Young out now called “Heart of Gold”.

I love old stuff. Jill and I love old books for instance. Again, smell an old book sometime. It’s less difficult and likely less embarrassing than the piano thing. (oh, I forgot to mention, if and only if there is nothing on top of the piano, open the top and smell it there, and while you’re in there, look around at the writing or the stamps in the metal or paper tags still there. Have “a moment” with the piano) Go into a used book store and voila, there are your old books. Smell them? Someone way smarter and more ambitious than I sat down and wrote tons of words and sold them and had them printed so people could read them and put them on a shelf in order to soak up the odors of their house so we could get a whiff of them now, all old.

My point in carrying about this is that these days, we probably take enough time to smell the roses but, how much time does it take? Sniffing them on the way by? Is that enough? I don’t think so. Stop, close your eyes and breathe deeply in through your nose with your nose in such a position to optimize the smell of the object. Oh, did I mention it’s not only roses?

Now I’m not one of those people like uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite (did you notice he sniffed a lot of stuff in that movie? Or was it Napoleon?) but the whole point of the saying is to take a moment for that moment’s sake and realize in order to remember where you are. Smell your significant other's hair. Babies. Not the poopy diapered crabby ones but the freshly bathed, nodding off to sleep in your arms ones. Smell your socks after a long day at work…gotcha on that one huh? But seriously take a minute and stop and think what’s going on and how good it is. If it sucks right now, do something about it. Take steps to change so it doesn’t, or change your perspective to see what your role in it is and what you can do for yourself and other people. Like me for instance. I’m gonna get off this whole sappy deep thing I’ve been on and start revealing some good humor to you all. See? It’s not that hard. Thanks for checking in.

Oh and also don't overlook my links over there to the right and up toward the top. If you're reading this then you probably want to stop soon so those links are a good way to get this terrible writing off your mind and sidetrack you so you'll forget you ever read it. You're welcome.