The recreation room – or rec room, as it is more commonly referred to – in a home is traditionally the place in which family and friends gather to relax, have conversation, watch television, and play games. It may be the room in the home in which the family chooses to place a pool table or ping pong table, or the room in the home in which the family chooses to create a home theatre where visitors can watch the latest movie release on a large screen and with professional type home theatre audio. No matter how a rec room is utilized, however, it should ultimately be a place that encompasses all the things that mean the most to the home’s family; those things that will allow them to relax and be comfortable.

Decorating a rec room, therefore, often becomes about pulling in those design elements that most reflect the collective personality of the family in question. This can be extended to all things in the room including the paint that goes on the wall, the furniture that is selected, and the artwork that is displayed. One of the things that many people choose to use in their rec room – as part wall art, part design accessories – is the clock. After all, clocks can now be purchased in a variety of designs and styles – all of which can easily integrate into the rec room design theme.

Consider a fun and funky wall clock on the wall of a rec room that tells the time but is fun to look at and is more casual in design; an interesting mantel clock or atomic clock that sits on a shelf or table; or perhaps even a grandmother clock that takes up a corner and plays a fun melody at the turning of the hour.

OK, so I think I am an expert on clocks and time. I advise people in Companies on how to adapt their time systems to changes in Daylight Savings Time, and it has even become slightly complicated, perhaps even requiring a so-called expert, or so I might have called myself before today. A good chunk of the last week was devoted to the History of Daylight Savings Time, helping our corporate and individual customers know what to expect and why, and how it might even affect their own networks and employee time tracking system. Even owners of grandfather clocks wanted advice. We shared that these most recent changes came about as a result of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 signed by President George W Bush. We pointed to some of the unanticipated problems that occurred last week and that might be expected to happen this weekend. And how it could extend to every timekeeping gagdet of the numerous variety that exist in today’s world.

We even addressed energy savings, worker productivity, and even had the opportunity to put in a common public safety plug recommending battery changes to smoke detectors with each of the 2 changes in daylight savings time each year. Motherhood and apple pie.

We knew and spoke of software companies that were busily at work sending out last minute patches.

Well, talk about the emperor having no clothes, or in this case no clock or no telephone either. My telephone-pda-internet connection all-in-one-device, my umbilical chord to the working world at large, would not even turn on today. And guess what, the patch that was sent and had been applied didn’t help one iota! No time, no email, no internet connection, no nothing!

So much for good planning. My carrier-supplier shall remain nameless. Perhaps I’ll have better luck next time! If this does happen again, 1-800-4CLOCKS may feel compelled to name names. But I think because of the extra hour of sleep I got, I am feeling a little more relaxed and in a better frame of mind.

A customer recently clocks shopping at the 1-800-4CLOCKS.com Grand Central Terminal Store was viewing the highest-end keywound chime mechanical mantel clocks, in this case by Howard Miller Clocks.  He commented that he had spent so much money recently on an amazing antique grandfather clock (one of the best makers of grandfather clocks, with a highly complicated movement, and in a great carved case in excellent condition) that he now thinks of his grandfather clock as his second car.  We laughed (perhaps clocks humor, I guess) harder than we had in a long time, and thought this comment or joke was well worth sharing.

This grandfather clock purchase did not deter this shopper from plunking down a tidy sum on a high-end Howard Miller Wall Clock.  Perhaps he will think of this new time machine as a motorcycle.

Howard Miller Stevenson Wall Clock - Model 620-262