Time, and/or Chaz

[desperance]

My watch died this morning.

I'm fairly sure it's just the battery that's dead, actually, and it will rise again - probably on the third day, which is my average for remembering to take something into town and then remembering to do it while I'm there (there's a cheque I've been carrying around for a week, because I keep forgetting the go-to-the-bank part).

What's funny is how far I've slipped, how quickly. Take the time off my wrist, and I instantly revert to a different bodyclock. Apparently. I didn't eat lunch till three o'clock, and I've barely started cooking dinner, which is going to need a long slow couple of hours' simmering before I can think about eating. And at the moment, I'm entirely comfortable with this.

Maybe I should turn the alarm off, and see what time I wake up naturally tomorrow?

Meanwhile, back to work. I rarely work this late either, but I've barely started my evening session. Luckily, I have lots of wine...

Comments

[ogre-san.livejournal.com]

I had to give up wearing watches. Mine always died stone dead in a fairly short time. No idea why.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

See, I've only (comparatively) recently started wearing watches. All my adult life, I'd refused to; and I was startlingly punctual, and hated anyone who wasn't. What was their excuse, damn it? They even had watches!

Thing was, I could sustain that as long as there were public clocks I could depend on; but one by one, the clocks in this city have died or gone away. And then some credit card I'd signed up for sent me a free watch - the bastards! - and I thought I might try wearing it. And I've been wearing watches ever since, and y'know what? I have become slightly less punctual than I was. If you don't know what the time is within ten minutes or so, you hustle to be sure you make appointments on time, or at least I do. If you know to the minute, it's much easier to think "oh, hey, I can be five minutes late..." Bah! I hate that in myself, as much as I hate it in other people.

And also, apparently, I then start running my life to suit the watch. Take the watch away, and my body takes over, and everything slips a couple of hours. If this rate of slippage is constant, by the end of the week I'll be nocturnal again, which I haven't been for twenty years...

[(Anonymous)]

I haven't worn a watch in almost 3 years. The battery gave out and before I could get a new one my mother pasted away (I'm almost certain the two weren't connected!). I haven't missed it but I'm sure the real reason is far more psychological. . .

[handworn.livejournal.com]

You ought to be atavistic, and carry a winding watch. A pocketwatch, if possible, for proper punctilio.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Hee. I used to. Back when I was a v annoying child/teen, I had a pocket watch. And, yes. You may be right. Perhaps I need to get annoying again...

*thinks: it could be an apt bribe reward for writing a steampunk - or indeed a clockpunk - story*

*thinks some more*

[handworn.livejournal.com]

I imagine you constantly checking it-- a hunter-cased example, of course, so you need to flip it open, and muttering in the presence of the desperately mundane, "I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date."

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Yup. That was pretty much exactly my own thought. My father actually had a silver-cased hunter - or a half-hunter, I bet they call 'em, when there's a tiny window in the case so's you can actually see where the hands are pointing - but I've no idea what happened to that. I should've thought to ask, when he died; but of course I didn't. Damn...

[handworn.livejournal.com]

Yep, that's called a half-hunter-cased watch.