The theme for week 4 of the MCP Project 52 is Soothing Repetition. This is the photo that I'm submitting.
We bought this cuckoo clock in Germany when we were on our honeymoon (just over 21 years ago), and over the years we have gotten used to the sounds it makes - the soothing tick-tick-tick, the cuckoo that pops out and sings every half hour, and the dancers that spin around their circle to the tunes of Edelweiss and The Happy Wanderer.
A few years ago, our clock stopped working. If you've ever owned a cuckoo clock for any length of time, you know how hard it is to find someone who is willing to repair them. The little shop where we had taken it once before had gone out of business. After several months of searching, I found a shop that advertised cuckoo clock repair, so I took it in and dropped it off. I tried to be patient, because I know that clock repairs never happen quickly. Three months went by before I called to check on our clock. The owner promised that he would start working on it the following week. Again, I waited. A month later, I called again. He told me that it might require some extensive repairs and it could be very expensive. Something in his voice told me that he really didn't want to work on our clock. Then he offered to sell me a new clock. I picked up our clock that afternoon and we hung it back on the wall in our living room. It is still nice to look at, even when it's not working.
Several months later, fate smiled on us. While shopping at the Texas Renaissance Festival, my husband met a young man who works at a clock shop. A clock shop that wasn't too far from our home. A clock shop that repairs cuckoo clocks! We wasted no time in adding our clock to the (very long) repair queue at their shop. It took a few months for our little cuckoo to get to the front of the queue, but when it did, it was updated with all new workings. The repair was expensive - more than the original cost of the clock, including what we paid to ship it to the States - but it was worth it.
The now working clock has returned to its rightful place in our home, and we have since turned off the cuckoo and the music. Not because the noise bothers us after all those months of quiet, but because it attracts the attention of our new kittens. This is not a good thing. We can easily imagine the potential disaster of a kitten trying to "capture the cuckoo". So, for now, we will be content with the soothing tick-tick-tick of our little Black Forest cuckoo clock.
In case you're wondering, the name of the clock shop is Moore Time, located in Old Town Spring, Texas, and no, I did not receive any payment for this mention.
