Margaret, I said to myself, you are not nearly busy enough. Working full time at a bakery, going to graduate school full time for a Master’s, spending hours a day on Facebook and Instagram, celebrastalking the British Royal Family… you need something to eat up that free time that you normally waste sleeping.

Okay that wasn’t exactly how it started.

One night a few months ago the forecast said storms, so I tested the closest flashlight and it was (predictably) dead. The next, and next, were as well. So I wander downstairs to the drawer with the back-up flashlights and the batteries and next thing you know it’s six hours later and I had taken apart and put back together all the flashlights and I had found all my non-working clocks and replaced the batteries, where batteries were available.

Fast forward a few days later. I’m sitting in my room taking apart a Quartz clock, trying to figure out how the gears fit back together.

A week after that; Clock parts cover the dining room table as I take apart and put back together Quartz clocks with and without pendulums, but my eye is on a much bigger prize.

The mechanical clock.

Okay, yes, Quartz clocks (AA battery, runs perfectly, probably from Target) are a brilliant invention. They work amazingly well, are amazingly cheap, and unfortunately are amazingly boring. I tried to have fun with them, I really did. I decided to cut a hidden insert into a book, murder-mystery-hidden-gun style, and put a clock in it.

And the rest is history. I put a clock into A Clockwork Orange. I hope Anthony Burgess is amused. And no I did not put a clock inside an orange for laughs because seriously, oranges have citric acid and Quartz clocks run off of batteries and honestly why would I even want to do that? That sounds messy and not functional.

So here it is: my blog about what I have been doing lately with my clocks. Maybe a few guidelines here or there about how to appraise and/or fix antique clocks (because that has been my focus). You want some Seth Thomas? I’ve got some Seth Thomas. Ansonia? Check and check. Unidentified? Oodles. Generic Art Deco Mantle clock mass produced under Chairman Mao? Yes actually I have one of those but I can’t get the escapement to work quite right…

Anyway! I have been keeping track of the time, money, and personal voodoo I put into each clock and my documents had a rather whimsical thought process kind of thing going, so I figured I would document it for any clock enthusiasts (or people who like laughing at my expense because there will be plenty of opportunity for that). This is my blog about clock repair and I hope you enjoy it.