THE IN-CASE CLOCK

Before we retired, my husband and I had two alarm clocks set each work day; the electric, very-annoying one was on his side of the bed and the wind-up "Baby Ben" was on my side of the bed (we called it THE IN-CASE CLOCK; this was IN CASE there was a power outage, we had an alarm). This past Saturday I had the alarm set to wake up at 6:00 AM, because I needed to be up in time to bake two breakfast casseroles and get ready for the annual May Breakfast; I was scheduled to be there at 7:45 AM to help set up at the Commission On Aging Center.

I woke up with the sunshine coming through the window. The electricity was off! I shrieked and asked Gerald what time it was and he had trouble finding his watch. It was 7:10 AM! Fortunately, I was able to have a hot shower.

I was the proverbial "chicken with my head cut off", looking for everything and running around like a crazed-woman and cursing myself for not having organized everything the night before. [Of course, the night before, I knew that I would be arising at 6:00 AM and would have plenty of time to find everything while the casseroles were baking!] I needed to have petitions, signs, voter registration forms, pens, tub of t-shirts, checkbook, and the casseroles, along with my Coca Cola for the day ready to put in the car. I said, "I can't find all the door prizes I committed to donate!" Gerald said, "Take something else out of the hope chest!" I said, "Well, the casseroles will have to be baked at the Center!"

As I was loading stuff into my car, Gerald's brother Beryl and our next door neighbor stopped to ask what had happened. As I was loading the last items in the car, another neighbor stopped to tell us that a car had hit a pole and the electricity would be off at least two hours.

WHEW! I made it to the Center and put the casseroles in the oven and everything was OK, but when I got home, I got out the old IN-CASE CLOCK!