the kids today don't wear a wristwatch. i'm not one of the kids today.
i have this watch that i'm really attached to. it goes backwards, i.e. counterclockwise, and i've had it forever. which means that i can't tell time on a normal clock anymore. well, that's not completely true. it's more like i can't easily tell time on a normal clock. but when i do encounter one of those round things with the hands that go clockwise, i'm so used to my counterclockwise watch that i have to stare at the clockwise clock and mentally flip the image. in other words, i imagine what the clock would look like if i were looking at it in a mirror. once i create the mental image of what that would look like--like how the time would look on my counterclockwise watch--i understand the time.
it's not as hard as it sounds, but it does take a few seconds more than the average person-who-is-used-to-clockwise-clocks would take. a few years ago, i decided this was a problem. i wanted to train myself to be "bilingual" in telling time. by that i mean i wanted to be able to instantly recognize the time on both a regular clockwise clock and on my beloved counterclockwise watch. so i got myself a clockwise clock and decided to wear the clockwise and counterclockwise watch on alternate days until i got used to both. but instead of shaping my brain into clockwise/counterclockwise bilingualism, instead it left me totally confused. whereas before i could at least instantly recognize the time on my counterclockwise watch and have to think when i looked at clockwise clocks, in the era of alternating watches i had to think hard no matter which watch was on my wrist. rather than making me bilingual, i felt like it was destroying my ability to tell time on either kind of clock. eventually, i called the experiment off and went back to being a purely counterclockwise watch-wearing person.
meanwhile because this backwards watch of mine is so beloved, i have dumped an unreasonable amount of money and effort into keeping it going. i'm not just talking about battery changes or watchband replacements. i've had plenty of them and they're not that expensive. i've also had the glass watch face changed a few times and twice i've had the internal mechanism completely rebuilt. and one of those rebuilding times i had to have it redone because when i got the watch back i discovered that it was going backwards from its normal backwards, that is, frontwards. so i had to get the watchmaker dude understand (despite his limited english) exactly what the problem was and to get him to do it again right, which to him was probably wrong.
anyway, the reason i'm bringing this up now is because there's a new problem with my beloved watch. see, while the guts of the thing have been replaced a few times, as has the glass watch face cover and the watchbands, the metal back bit (the part that lies against my wrist) is still the original metal. the edges of that thing have started to corrode which has made them sharp and jagged. for a little while it was actually making small cuts on my wrist. i ignored it and my wrist, noting that i wasn't paying attention, changed tactics and started making these itchy calluses instead. those things are actually less comfortable than the cuts. and so, for the first time, i'm trying to figure out what to do about it.
i could dump more money into replacing the back of the thing so it doesn't annoy my wrist. the problem with that is that, as the kids today have entered the post-watch era, the corner watch repair shop is becoming a rarer and rarer thing. it actually was pretty hard to find someone who was willing to replace the guts of my watch when i last did it a few years back. it's probably even harder to find someone who can do this now.
or alternatively, i could try to ebay myself a replacement. i would need to ebay because the beloved watch is no longer made and hasn't been made for years. and because it's beloved, if i were to replace it, the replacement would have to be just like the original. except that, even assuming i could find the perfect replacement, any such replacement would be as old as the original. it might even have the same problem, or would be likely to develop it in relatively short order. and what are the odds that someone else has refurbished the thing as much as i have? the original watch was not very expensive. i think the odds of that are pretty low.
or i could switch to a regular clockwise running watch. except that i don't actually like watches that much, unless they are the beloved watch.
or i could become one of the kids today and become a watchless person.
or i can ignore the problem with the beloved watch and wait to see if the calluses eventually get less uncomfortable.
