A Different Solution

“Isn’t it about time for you to get ready for your appointment?” Sandy asked. I was lounging before the computer in my pajamas doing some serious work by taking on three robotic electronic figures in a game of hearts.

“Heck, that’s not for a couple of hours,” I said.

“Did you forget we were supposed to change to daylight time today?”

“I didn’t forget anything, It’s only a little after eleven, and I’m not supposed to be there until one thirty.”

An application of wifely wisdom quickly convinced me the appointment was only about 20 minutes away, not several hours. I had once again failed in my feeble attempts to adjust the mysterious workings of my digital watch, and my guesstimate of the “new” time was based on Mountain, not Eastern, time.

Several months ago, after reading about the Campbell Solution to Coping with Digital Watches (see “Seeking a Timely Solution” posted Nov. 20), Sandy handed me a comic gift. It was a duplicate of the cheap Walmart watch that had become my everyday timepiece. The dupe was set to daylight time so I could merely change watches when time changes were called for each spring and fall.

The Campbell Solution was put into effect to take care of things in Utah. After about an hour of intense study of directions and trial-and-error resettings, I succeeded in adjusting one of the watches to Eastern Time when we moved to Michigan. I forgot about the other watch, which now is several hours off the mark.

Rather than go through another digital resetting ordeal, or getting some 10-year-old kid to do the task for me, I adopted the Klade Solution to Digital Difficulties. I threw both digital watches into a dresser drawer and started wearing my 50-year-old, stem-wound Bulova. It doesn’t do anything but tell time, but I can set it right in an instant if it goes astray.