Sounding the Alarm

During the week, my alarm-clock of long standing finally curled up its (metaphorical) toes and died. I can’t complain, it’d lasted a good ten years. Anyway, one of the main reasons I bought that clock was that I knew the alarm was one I could tolerate.

I’m a ratty twat in the mornings – and that’s one of the politest descriptions I’ve heard – and one thing that drives me crackers is an irritating alarm. Which list includes pretty much all of them. So when I heard the alarm on the one I bought (a friend had one, which is how I found out what it sounded like) I knew it was one I could live with. It’s an Oregon Scientific clock, and the alarm started off with a single “beep. [pause] beep. [pause] beep.” tone, which was enough to wake me up just fine. (As well as being ratty, I sleep remarkably shallowly for the most part) Eventually it did rise to four beeps in a row, and that could be quite loud, but it never got much past the second beep with me.

So now I’ve got to buy a new clock. And I was thinking – why is it that there’s no website that displays alarm clocks and the like that also allows you to hear the alarms? On a website, I’d think that would be fantastic – just a simple sample of the alarm sound, so you know what the god-dam thing will be doing when it wakes you up.

After all, I can’t be the only person who doesn’t want some blaring, buzzing piece of crap that vibrates itself off the desk, or that makes me want to connect a baseball bat with it. (See, told you I was a ratty twat)

As it is, I’ve ordered a new one from the same place, and now I just hope the alarm won’t have changed – or at least won’t be too horrific. Still, it’s only cost me a tenner, so I won’t be financially sad if it does need to meet that baseball bat…