ON/OFF

Marty sat at the island in the kitchen tonight while I baked cookies, determined to start his watch.  He had won a "Fossil" watch at a golf tournament the other weekend and he has been trying to figure out how to "wind" it since then. It's some fancy watch that is supposed to use kinetic energy to start ticking and promises to keep on ticking as long as you wear it. The internet instructions told him to swing the watch in a clockwise motion and it would start. So every night, for the last 2 weeks, he has spent a few impatient minutes, swinging his arm in clockwise circles, hoping this fancy watch would magically start.  To his dismay and my amusement, it never did.  Today, we were at a department store, Marty asked the lady in the clock repair department, if she knew how to start the watch. She repeated what he had learned on the internet, infact, she went so far as to take the watch and physically show him how to girate his wrist in the perfect motion to make it start. We walked away from the counter believing that all we had to do was circle this watch until we made it home and by that time, for sure, it would be telling the correct time.  Marty drove with one hand on the wheel and one hand swining the watch. When his frustration level began to impact his ability to safely navigate the roads, I took over, swinging the watch to my own rhythm.  15 minutes later, NOTHING!!!   As we pulled into the driveway, Marty declared that tonight, he was going to sit and figure this thing out, even if it took 4 hours.  He sat down at the island in the kitchen and I looked at the clock, 6pm.  I grinned and hoped to God, he would figure it out before 10pm!  I pulled out my mixer, the butter, eggs, flour, sugar, and chocolate chips and began to bake.  I had baked 3 dozen cookies, by 6:45pm, the time Marty finaly found the magic swinging rhythm to start his watch!  He beamed, like he had just launched a rocket and I watched all kinds of tension drain from his shoulders. He pushed his chair back, snagged a cookie and paraded around the house announcing for Scout and I to hear, the time, right down to the nano second, in both 12 and 24 hour time!   After about 5 minutes of gloating, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the brand new Ironman Watch he had just bought at the department store.  They didn't happen to have any Ironman Watches compatible with ipods, in any other color than pink, or he would have been trying to decipher that at my cookie baking island too.  Luckily this water resistant, lap counting, golf score keeping, digital machine came with paper instructions in 4 different languages.  The foreign language side smeared the spilt butter as he flattened the page in the middle of my valuable counter space.  This watch appeared to be much easier to set to the correct time, but as I tossed the last bag of cookies into the freezer, Marty was just beginning to read about all of the special functions this watch was capable of.   Ridiculous! I shook my head and checked my battery recharger.  The double AAs were done charging, ready for me to slide into the back of my Garmin.  My own GPS watch. The one I use for running.  I got it as a gift from my sisters back in '06.  This is another gadget capable of sooo much.  It has been my favorite training tool, however, I only use two buttons on the watch, the on/off button and the start/stop button.   I can keep track of my pace, my distance and my time with those 2 buttons and I can't imagine what else, I, an amateur runner would ever need.  I love the simplicity of it, on, start.......stop, off!  So easy to get sooo much info!!  My biggest frustration is keeping the batteries charged, the thing sucks battery juice like it's steroids!  To each his own, I guess.  All I care, is that Marty now has a watch to wear while Kiteboarding and he can never "loose track of time" again, forgetting to call so I know he has not drown!!!