Special places...special things

Saturday, March 1, 2014

I’d spent all evening Friday doing something I haven’t done in maybe the 17 years I’ve lived in my current house…clean my office from top to bottom.  It’s much more than an office though, it’s kind of a man cave and sanctuary all rolled into one.  From the walls hang newspaper pages, framed, of some historic sports moments.  Then there are the pictures of family, present and past, wonderful friends and sports legends.  On my desk and on the shelves and bookcases sit pieces of personal importance from parents, grandparents, a special brother and wonderful things from artistic children who wanted to honor their dad with their talents.  It’s a pretty special place, but likely only to me.

One piece, sitting on a counter behind me as I type these blogs, is not working.  It’s an old electric Sessions clock with a beautiful Westminster chime that was owned by my grandparents and is easily the most significant sound I remember from my past.  It stopped chiming over 20 years ago and I inherited it when my grandmother died, but have been told that it can’t be repaired.  Then I got wind of the Suburban Clock Shop in Berea, being told by another clock repair shop that if it could possibly be fixed, they were the ones.

With the office dusting complete and working around that old clock, I decided that it was time to take a road trip to Berea.  I brought the clock in the shop, handed it to the man behind the counter and without saying a word about the issue, watched him open the back and make his pronouncement.  “Can’t be fixed,” he said.

“Why not?” I said with disappointment evident in my voice.

“They just don’t make the parts anymore.  We could replace all the elements with a battery-operated Westminster chime system,” he offered.

I declined that out of hand.  I had a Westminster Chime clock that closely resembled my grandparents’ given to me by Holly many years ago.  It was close, but the chimes were just not the same and my ear knew it.  “Could I buy another clock from the same year and take the chimes out of it to put in mine?” I asked.

They said I might find something on e-bay like that, but I’d be lucky if the chimes were working for very long after I got it.  A temporary setback.

I drove out to Patterson’s and picked up a couple of their amazing pies for the family dinner we were planning for that evening.  I stopped in the Metropark on the way home and did about a forty minute hike with Dakota.  I’d wanted to do a little off-trail stuff to check for antlers and to see the condition of the trails for some running and a Survival Workout.  It didn’t look particularly good for either.

I returned home and climbed on the bike for a 45 minute ride before I needed to begin dinner preparations.  With Savannah in town and it being a special evening, Holly prepared dumplings and with the pie and ice cream to follow, I easily ate twice as many calories as I’d burned. 

Bike duration:  45 minutes.  Hike duration: 35 minutes.

Training Heart Rate:  120 bpm on the bike and 80 on the hike.

Calories burned during workout:  625 on the bike and 175 on the hike.