some history together . . .

The other morning while Nolan and I were milking, we somehow got on the conversation about my alarm clock.  He said that it sounded like an "old man" while it buzzed to wake me up.  He said it was a "tired, grumpy sounding noise" like it had spent years telling me to get up and start my day.  It is like the droning voice of my mother saying "boys, get up" for the time that I went to school. :)

And he is right.  It is an old man, like me.  It has been waking me up now for more than 28 years!

I got the alarm when I was back in high school.  I am using my graduation date as the time frame to calculate how long I have had it, but I am sure that I got it before then.  It was probably a Christmas gift even way before then.  And it is hard to believe that it is STILL beckoning me to get up and do what I must do for the day.  More recently, it wakes me up two times now.  Once at 3:00am to put more wood in the cook stove, and then again at 6:00am for milking before I go off to work.

That clock and I have some history together.  It has seen me for years.  It watched me disregard it's message so many time.  In fact, I remember in my unscheduled college days, after staying up most of the night, there were plenty of times I would hit the snooze button every nine minutes till most of the day was past.  WHAT ON EARTH was I thinking?

It has seen me go through the "new" plan for waking up again so many times as well.  Setting my alarm to "wake up early" to spend time reading, praying, or to exercise.  All to no avail.  :(

On more than several occasions I have thought about updating my wake-up call trading it in for a newer model, an alarm clock that looks like it was made in the last ten years!  A cool, functional accessory that sits regally on my night stand that wakes me up to a new day with a new song. 

I think I am going to stick with my trusted companion.  I think we might be able to tough it out for several more years together.  In fact, I have grown quite accustomed to it's grumpy, old voice.