Batteries Included…

  When I got up this morning, something strange had happened to the clock in the living room. A battery/electric job with a bright LED display, necessary for people with failing eyesight and an abhorrence of any that tick.
The display was still lit, well, sort of. All you could see was an eerie green glow, no numbers and I wondered what could be wrong. These days things go wrong in all manner of ways, so it was not immediately apparent as to the problem here.
The power was still on, so I really didn’t understand the problem. Well, in my defence, I had just got up. These things tend to happen a lot lately, so I was not unduly worried. Probably just have to get a new one.


Sometime later, I started to wonder about the batteries. Why on earth did it have them anyway? Then I remembered, in the event of a power cut the clock would still be able to function. Maybe we had one in the middle of the night?
Then I remembered what could happen to old batteries. The clock was quite old, so it was possible they had corroded. Still didn’t understand why this should have removed the display, as it was plugged into the mains.
Curiosity got the better of me, and I picked up the clock. On the bottom was a sticker, which read ‘When displays fails, change the batteries.’ So I did, and normal service resumed.


Still none the wiser, but then there is a growing list of things I no longer understand these days.
As Anita said, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could insert new batteries somewhere on our persons?”
Well, she didn’t quite put it like that, but you get the meaning!