Grandfathers and clocks have a lot in common

Rick Morain

Remember the “Grandfather’s Clock” song? How the clock kept accurate time for the old man’s entire life? “Ninety years without slumbering, tick, tock, tick, tock?”

We have a pendulum clock on the wall in our downstairs hall that rings the Westminster Chime every hour (except from midnight to 6 a.m.). It’s the same chime as the Mahanay Tower’s and Big Ben’s, but it tells just the hours, not the quarter hours.

A few weeks ago its battery failed, and I dug out the instruction booklet that came with the clock. (I wish all pieces of electronic equipment came with a printed manual as well as a website.) Following the instructions, I managed to change the battery and return the clock to working condition. That gave me a significant sense of accomplishment, since my engineering skills are still in their formative stage.

There’s a glitch, though. While the pendulum swings in perfect rhythm, and the clock keeps perfect time, the hourly chime now rings three more times than the hour it’s signaling. When it’s 6 o’clock, the chime rings 9 times. When it’s 8 o’clock, it rings 11. That’s a typical result of my equipment maintenance efforts.

I told Steve at the local jewelry store where we bought the clock what the problem is, and he thinks he can fix it. So this week I’ll take it to him. Best to get help from someone who knows.

The reason for this discussion is that this grandfather also had his timer repaired last week. I had been in atrial fibrillation for many months, and the irregular heartbeat was causing me chronic fatigue.

So I underwent a heart ablation at a Des Moines hospital, to restore my heart to steady sinus rhythm. The procedure was a total success, and I’m feeling stronger and more vigorous than I have for a long time.

In an ablation, one or more wire catheters are fed to the heart from entry points, usually in the groin (as mine were). The catheters snake through veins to the heart, where they “read” the exact location of the problem cells causing fibrillation, then zap those cells so that the heart’s proper electronic circuit is restored.

Since I’m back in rhythm, Kathy suggests I should now be able to dance. Dog won’t hunt.

Modern medicine always amazes me, especially now at an age when I’ve become more intimately acquainted with it. I know that numbers of people rely on treatments they’ve picked up from friends, from the internet, or from “experts” in media outlets. Or they simply choose to ignore symptoms that they hope will somehow disappear.

I’m not in that number. I know it’s a free country. But I’ll always opt for treatment recommendations from professionals with formal medical education and proven experience in the science of healing. The steady increase in the longevity of the human race over the past several decades didn’t happen because of rumors and untested theories.

Clock repair or heart repair - give me the expertise of professionals every time.