Friday Five 4/12

1. Have you seen a solar eclipse? Total, Partial, Annular? When and where?
Yes.  I mean, this past Monday's partial.  I saw it from my back porch.

2. Have you seen a lunar eclipse? Full? Partial? When and where?
I'm sure I have, but I don't know any specific dates offhand.

3. Have you seen a comet? Which one? When and where?
Yes, Hale-Bopp in '97.  Seen from home.

4. Have you seen a nova or supernova? When and where?
I don't think so.

5. Have you seen a meteor shower? Which one, when and where?
Leonids, whenever they happen.

Spartus

I've had the same alarm clock for more than half of my life - closer to three quarters of it, in fact.  As I recall, it was given to me by my grandmother when I was... I don't know, 11?  12?  13?  At any rate, it's carried me through high school, college, grad school, every job I've ever had.  From my bedroom at home, through various apartments, now to my own house.

It's nothing fancy.  Just a little Spartus digital from the early '90s or so.  Nothing fancy; just a clock with an alarm, no radio or anything like that.  But it's served me well all this time, and never failed, unless I forgot to turn the alarm on, or the power went out.

Well, this morning I managed to knock my clock off the little shelf I set up for it above my night stand.  The front fascia came off and the board the buttons on top connect to dislodged.  The clock part itself still works fine, but the alarm on/off switch doesn't, and I'm not sure about the snooze and time/alarm set buttons.  I attempted to fix it but wasn't able to quite get it working right.

It probably could be fixed fully, and I might just try to do that sometime as a quickie small-electronics-repair practice project, so I'll keep it around.  I don't think I could bring myself to toss it out anyway.  So if I ever fix it, it can maybe find a new home in my home office, or I could take it to work for my desk there.  

For now, though, I ordered a new clock, which should come Monday (I'll just have to rely on my phone until then, and of course the striped gremlin that usually wakes me up before the alarm anyway nowadays).  The new one should, frankly, be a lot better, as it has a phone charging pad and a bluetooth speaker built in, so I can consolidate space on my little shelf by not having to keep my existing charging pad and speaker on it (the speaker can go to the living room).  

But pour one out for my little Spartus, and its nearly thirty years of impeccable service.  It might seem like a silly thing to put this much though into, and it probably is, but it's been a constant for so long, I think I will miss it.