Monday, December 03, 2007

Internal clocks

My elementary aged son has been working on a space station. More specifically, his gifted class has been constructing them. Not real ones—in case you’re wondering just how gifted this class is. Today the projects were due and the class took a field trip to talk to people in the industry and show them their space stations.

My first clue that my son is perhaps a bit too much like me: He put my cell phone in his room because one of the kids in his group wanted to call him at 4:30 a.m. to make sure he woke up and made it to the school in time to catch the bus that was leaving at 5:15.

My thought upon hearing this: Hmmm. Is this a new service that peer groups offer? Did he not mention to his schoolmates that he has an alarm clock?

When my husband asked my son if he needed to bring anything for the project, Son answered that no, his group made sure he brought all of his stuff early so he wouldn’t forget it.

My thought: Ohh, it all suddenly makes sense. Apparently he has inherited my concept of time instead of my husband’s.

This is a picture of what my husband, Techno-Bob’s* internal clock looks like. He can even look at the sun and tell you what time it is.

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This is more what my internal clock looks like:

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I can’t look at the sun at sunset and tell you what direction west is. (Or does the sun set in the east—I never can keep that straight.)

Come to think of it, Son does have a lot of my creativity and he has definitely inherited my husband's math sense. With those two things working together--wow--he's going to go far in life. Well, just as long as someone makes sure to call and wake him up before all those important presentations.


*Not his real name

PS. You can find either of these fine clocks on windandweather.com

16 comments:

Tamra Norton said...

LOVE the "whatever" clock! I *knew* we were kindred spirits Janette! :)

Anonymous said...

Lol. Wow, that sounds so farmiliar.

Karlene said...

Oh my gosh! I want that clock!! Do you know where I could get one that looks exactly like the one you pictured? I've found several square ones, and a few round ones but I don't like the jumbled numbers as well on those as on this one. Please let me know if you have a contact.

Thanks a bunch.

Annette Lyon said...

If only we all had friends like his willing to be our alarm clocks and keep us on task . . .

Joelle said...

That's very funny.

tenacious d said...

Whenever I load my dishwasher, I remember when "Techno-Bob" asked me kindly to stop loading yours, since he had a particular system. My system resembles the "whatever" clock.

If Son inherited a full measure of both Johnson and Rallison intelligence, he's going to be a force to be reckoned with indeed. Maybe the lack of an internal clock will keep him humble.

Anonymous said...

I have an alarm clock, and several family members to wke me up, but I would rather choose to ignore them and miss the feild trip, who wants to talk to people in industry, I would so rather talk to an author.

I doubt I would be in that gifted class anyway.

Janette Rallison said...

You can find the clock on windandweather.com It's 34.95 and yeah, I'm thinking of getting it myself . . .

Jen said...

That is so great that his friend was giving him a wake up call! HA! I had a friend in college who was from Malasia. Apparently they are VERY laid back about time there. I would run into her and talk for about 20 minutes, then say "By the way, where are you headed?" She'd say, "To class". I'd say "When does it start?" She'd say, "Uh, well what time is it?"(she didn't own a watch). After I told her, she'd say, "Yea, it started about 1/2 hr ago", totally non phased.

Julie Wright said...

Hey . .. am I related to you guys, because that sounds awfully familiar!

Unknown said...

You're a tonic, Janette. Thanks for the laugh. Yeah, that clock looks like it could do with some Time Management from my post today :-)

Barrie said...

I want someone to give me a wakeup call and buy me that first clock with all the info! Wow!

Rebecca Talley said...

I'm always late, much to the chagrin of my husband. Actually, I blame it all on my kids ;).

Janette Rallison said...

See, I always knew it wasn't just me . . . it's our creative, untamed nature

小雅 said...

Hey, looks like i'm the first one to borrowed revenge of the cheerleaders in the one of the libraries in 2007. i said i might be only but this book is totally great i love it

Unknown said...

Love the "whatever" clock, it made me giggle.

And your son's peer group, all I can say is "wow!"