A Hair Past a Freckle

Does anybody really know what time it is? -- I'm sure when Chicago wrote that song, they were being all philosophical about The Meaning of Life and stuff, but some of us can interpret it a bit more literally.

You can probably guess what I'm talking about. The day before yesterday I was all in "I'm King of the World!" mode, and puffed up about my mad mechanical skillz. I had performed an intricate watch battery replacement, using miniature tools and what I had thought was superlative hand-eye coordination. I was even considering how to phrase a résumé paragraph describing this grand accomplishment, and had sent announcement letters to friends and family trumpeting my technological triumph.

But when I looked at my watch at the end of swim practice yesterday, there was nothing in the display except for some water and a few tiny bubbles. Alas, not only was the $3.00 I paid for the repair job completely wasted, but in all likelihood, my watch is toast, too.

I took it apart yesterday and let all the water out. It appeared that I had allowed a small kink in the O-ring to ruin an otherwise perfect repair job. There was brown gooey stuff all over the battery, but the rest of the circuitry appeared to be fine. It just didn't work.

The rest of the day, I noticed how many times I glanced at my wrist...now completely bare. The flesh of my watch-wearing area even looks unhealthy, since its pasty whiteness doesn't match the rest of my nicely bronzed summer skin. And even worse, I have no idea what time it is...and might risk staying at work past quitting time, which is entirely unacceptable.

Some of my wealthy friends actually own more than one watch, and would have a backup for a situation like this. (Some own multiple pairs of shoes, too. I have trouble even envisioning a life of such extreme decadence, but I say more power to 'em, and wish them the best.) But I'll have to take care of the problem over the weekend. In the meantime, don't expect me to be punctual for any appointments or anything, OK? Thanks.

I'll let you what happens. Until then, have a great day!