Bird Clock - About five years ago I was visiting my grandparents around the holidays. My grandfather showed me one of his favorite gifts. My aunt had gotten him a bird clock. Each hour on the hour it would sound off with a different bird call or sound. It may have done it every half hour, but I can’t really remember right now. He thought it was one of the coolest things he had ever seen, and because he loves birds so much, it was pretty much the prefect gift.
The next time I went to see him, about a month later, I noticed that he had taken down a clock that he had had up on the wall for decades and had replaced it with the new bird clock. He showed me that he had hung it up, and he said that he loved the sounds. My grandmother, on the other hand, looked at me and rolled her eyes. Apparently the bird clock was beginning to annoy her to no end. I asked her later why she didn’t take it down. She said he loved it so much that she couldn’t bear to do that to him even though it was driving her nuts.
On my next visit I noticed the bird clock was missing from the wall. I looked up at the wall and I raised my eyebrow at my grandmother. She started to laugh, and said that she didn’t have anything to do with it. The bird clock was missing, but she said she hadn’t touched it. I asked her if it had fallen and broken, and she said it had not.
My question was soon answered when my grandfather came into the house. I asked him what had happened to the bird clock, and he shrugged. He walked into their storage room and came out with the clock. He turned it upside down and showed me that the batteries were missing. This only confused me. Finally my grandfather admitted that in a rare show of temper he had removed the batteries and hurled them across the room. Apparently even though he loved the bird clock at first, it finally struck a nerve. It was a great idea and a great gift, but it’s not something he wanted to hear all day everyday. Perhaps not the best gift for retirees. He didn’t throw away the clock, but it has never reclaimed its spot of honor on the dining room wall.
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