Strange Things Are Happening

That's the title to a tune that was a standard with the 1950s comedian Red Buttons. It also describes the way things have been going for me the past few days.

Earlier this week, I blogged about what had happened during my latest trip to the NAS Oceana barber shop. I also have been scratching my head since Wednesday, when I went out to West Neck Marina to install a quick-fill kit on my boat's new starting battery.

That day, like many others we've had this winter, was cold enough to have me wearing a sweat shirt and two jackets without any fear of breaking a sweat. I specifically remember looking at the thermometer in my storage building and noticing that it read only 40 degrees. And my teeth nearly got to chattering after standing outside my storage building for about an hour or so talking to a friend who happened by that day.

I also remember glancing down at my Timex watch--yep, one of those timepieces billed "to take a lickin' and to keep on tickin'," according to an old TV commercial. As I glanced at the watch, I quickly realized it had stopped running. My first and only thought was that the battery had died. I then pulled out my cellphone, checked the time there, and went on about my business, figuring I'd take the watch in and have a new battery installed in the next day or two.

Later that same evening, however, I happened to glance at my watch again and noticed that it now was running. I reset the time but figured the watch likely would stop again after only a few minutes. I've had the same experience dozens of times before when a battery is starting to go bad. To my surprise, though, the watch ran throughout the night Wednesday and still is maintaining perfect time this evening--more than 72 hours later.

For just a few moments, I would have sworn that I could hear the theme music from TV's old Rod Serling series, "The Twilight Zone," playing in my head. But then I snapped back to reality and decided to check another angle.

I went online to see if there are any recorded instances where cold temperatures have affected timepieces. I indeed found some evidence of extremely cold temperatures causing watches to stop working, but I'm talking about temperatures much colder than anything we've been having around here this winter. In some cases, the cold simply had zapped batteries sufficiently to stop the watches. In other cases, the extreme temperatures had an adverse effect on the oil in watches, and they stopped running.

Based on those Internet findings, and considering the fact my Timex still is once more keeping perfect time, I really don't have a clue what's going on. I only hope that any strange happenings this fishing season translate into some big fish coming over the gunwale for a change--and, no, I'm not talking about those "toothy critters," either.