We did not have to promise to buy a Swiss Cuckoo Clock when Rick and I were nationalized, but Rick really wanted one. Aha, it will make a great birthday gift.
It is easy to find clocks in Geneva and I bought one, thinking, "Whew - birthday taken care of."
Two choices.
- Act like a bitch and reject every clock he would look at.
- Give him the clock, early. It would still be a surprise.
I chose two and he loved it.
However, we discover the clock has idiosyncrasies.
We can shut it off, but it shuts itself off at night, which is good. Hearing cuckoos every hour followed by a song that varies is wonderful during the day, not so much at three in the morning.
I'm writing this at 7 p.m., 19h as the Europeans call it. I swear the cuckoo pops out and most hours are signaled double. Rick swears it's an echo. If it acted as a 24 hour clock, the cuckoo would have just rung 19 times, but it sang for 14. However, today at 2 p.m.(14h) it only cuckooed twice.
The bird decides to go to bed and stop cuckooing 8 (20h), 9 (21h), 10(22h). Maybe it is tireder some days than others. Most morning it wakes at 8 a.m. making it a lovely alarm, but this morning it decided to wake at 7. We have a dog who sleeps in and he did not seem happy to be disturbed for his first walk, especially because it was raining.
One day last week, the clock slept in until 9 but decided to ring 18 times or as Rick says, nine times and nine echos.
Rick often has phone or zoom interviews. The clock is above his desk giving the interviewee a Cuckoo serenade.
All this is not a complaint. I love the little figures coming out the door and dancing. I appreciate the man who spends his life sawing the wood, although the amount in the basket remains the same. The dog never bites anyone. The songs are cheery.
I suppose we could take the clock back to where we bought it to have it reset, but I kinda like it isn't conventional but just a bit crazy.
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