Incoherent Scribblings

Time Stands Still

When we first moved to Germany, one of my first purchases was two battery-powered wooden wall clocks at IKEA. I labeled one clock “Munich,” and the other “Small Town, Iowa.” I set them to their appropriate times (Small Town, Iowa being seven hours behind Munich) and hung them on the kitchen wall.

One reason that I did this was because I had seen it in the movies and thought it looked cool. More importantly though, I also thought that the clocks would be a useful way to check and make sure I wasn’t waking anyone up in the middle of the night when I had the urge to phone home.

And so my clocks hung on the wall, merrily ticking away, faithfully tracking the time difference between Munich and Small Town, Iowa.

Fast forward to the first time that I attempted to spontaneously pick up the phone for a chat with Mom: A glance at the clock made it crystal clear that a seven-hour time difference is really most inconvenient. For example, morning in Munich is the middle of the night in my home town and the work day is in full swing in Iowa anytime before midnight in Germany. Typically once evening reaches Iowa, I am in a deep sleep because it is the middle of the night here and though I could receive calls from America during the afternoon in Germany, it is morning there and everyone is undoubtedly getting ready for work.

Therefore even though the clock in the kitchen helpfully pointed out the time in my home town, its function was quickly demoted to merely decorative. For you see, spur-of-the-moment phone calls were a thing of the past: My friends and family back home set up weekend phone appointments with me via email in order to work around the time difference and to confirm that they would indeed be home when I called.

However, today I really needed to talk with my mom concerning my flight home: Before I make the final commitment and actually pay for my plane tickets I want to make sure that someone can come pick me up at the airport. So at about 8:30 pm this evening, I decided it was time to take a chance and make an impromptu phone call. Mom used to only work half-days in the fall and winter, so I thought I might be in luck and get her on the phone. I knew it should be about 1:30 pm there, but I went into the kitchen to verify what time it was in Iowa anyway.

I thought it should be 1:30, but the “Small Town, Iowa” clock read 12:30. Because of this discrepancy, I counted back the hours on my fingers and realized it should indeed be 1:30 in Iowa. My “Small Town, Iowa” kitchen clock was apparently an hour off. Since I haven’t paid much attention to that clock for quite a while, I though maybe I had forgotten to reset it when Daylight Savings Time ended a month ago, so I twirled the minute hand around and brought the clock to its proper time. However, over two hours have passed and the clock still reads the same time as it did when I reset it.

I assume that the battery is dead, but when I lived in Small Town, Iowa, I always joked that time stood still there. Now, thanks to my clock, I guess it really does!