Another Christmas Eve Arrival

In addition to Sheila's doorstep colony of frogs arriving late, we had a new mantle clock arrive on Christmas Eve.  So, this was sort of a late Christmas gift to both of us from ourselves.  

Most people simply use their cable set top box to display the time near the television.  Unfortunately, when Comcast installed their high end, high speed Xfinity set top box at our house, the first thing the technician pointed out was that this box has no display on it at all so there is no clock.  Actually, it is not even a "box"...   it is a big, monstrous tower that just barely fits in our shelves next to the fireplace and under the television.  I figured, "No problem...  our router can display the time" and that is what we used for a short while.  

Our high speed router has a big colorful display on it which makes using the router abundantly easy.  It didn't take long before we noticed that the router was beginning to work intermittently.  I pinpointed the problem to the router overheating.  Having the big display turned on all the time was causing the router to overheat.  So, we were back to no clock being displayed near the television.

One day, I realized that I always charge my cell phone on the shelves next to the television...  and my phone has a clock app...  why not just use my phone as a digital clock on this shelf?  Before long, I was leaving my cell phone plugged in with the clock app running all the time.  I never use my cell phone and only carry it around when I'm out and about by myself so I have access to 9-1-1.  I no longer leave the house due to the pandemic so the phone was remaining plugged in and displaying the time.  Once again, we had an overheating problem.  Although this clock and overheating problem is nothing new to us, this time the display on my phone was pulsing and flickering due to overheating.  This solution would not work.  (I think I fixed the cell phone but I now no longer trust it.)

So, I got online and started looking for clocks.  Admittedly, I'm pretty picky so this was no quick and easy task.  I wanted something simple but I didn't want anything that would remind me of a 1970s digital alarm clock.  That ruled out a lot of options.

Next, I started checking mantle clocks but I really dislike most mantle clocks.  Most look tacky and they make noise while some even chime with weird looking parts under a glass dome.  I didn't want any of that nonsense.  I spent a few nights scrolling through clock after clock after clock until I eventually found a Bulova mantle clock that was simple and it matched our craftsman style.  Another plus was it is silent!  I ordered it and it arrived on Christmas Eve.  

Now we have a nice looking clock on the shelves next to our television.  Incidentally, the photo above the clock is a photo I shot of Adam while he was sailing at the lake house.

This was a nice little Christmas Eve Christmas present!