Waking up isn’t easy. In the past, people used wind-up alarm clocks until electric clock radios came along. These days, people use their cell phones for everything, including as an alarm clock. But I’m an old-fashioned soul when it comes to coming out of a deep sleep. I like hearing the soothing voice of Steve Inskeep on National Public Radio first thing in the morning.
Years ago, my mom gave us a clock-radio alarm clock as a Christmas gift, and the dual-alarm setting has come in handy. But over time, the volume knob developed a short and recently would only play at an ear-splitting level or at a whisper.
Being a sound sleeper, I chose the loud level.
Finally my husband said waking up to that decibel of doom and gloom that only NPR can deliver was enough.
So I headed to Target and scanned the shelves for a digital clock radio. I was delighted to see that one of the few clocks offered had a dual-alarm function and an easy-to-read digital display. I came home, plugged in the new clock and attempted to set the time.
I pressed the buttons. The time never budged from blinking 12:00. I tried pressing different buttons. Still the 12:00 blinked on and off. I got the directions out, read them and tried again. Still no change from the 12:00.
Defective, I thought, so I returned it to the store and got a different brand. I brought it home, plugged it in and tried to change the time.
Nothing.
Every time I pressed the hour button, the radio station changed. After hearing the same rap song a dozen times, I figured maybe the radio needed the batteries installed to effectively change the time.
I hunted around and scrounged up two AA batteries. I put them in and tried to change the time again.
The numbers 12:00 kept blinking.
Frustrated, I went for the big guns – my engineer husband. I told him I couldn’t figure out how to change the time on the clock radio and asked if he’d set the time.
Twenty minutes later, he told me he couldn’t get the time to change either. I headed back to Target and returned the clock radio. I’d exhausted all the models of clock radios they had so I drove over to Best Buy. I found a clock radio but, this time, I stopped at the Geek Squad desk and asked the associate to humor me.
“This is the third clock radio I’ve bought in three weeks,” I told him and then related the story of my bad luck. He plugged in the radio and set the time, showing me the two steps he used to get rid of the blinking 12:00.
“Easy,” he told me. “You’ll have no problem.”
So I rushed home and plugged in the clock radio before I’d forget how to reset the time. The clock blinked 12:00, and I pressed the buttons, just like the Geek Squad guy did.
Nothing.
Twenty minutes later, I gave up and reached a logical conclusion.
I’m going to join the 21st century and use my cell phone as an alarm clock. I know it works, I know it keeps up with daylight savings time and I can choose from 20 different alarm sounds. As I unplugged the old alarm clock, I couldn’t bring myself to toss it in the trash after 20 years of faithful service.
So I gave her a place of honor on the night stand where she’ll still display the time while her modern counterpart sounds the alarm.
This column was originally published in The Fort Bend Herald.