@#$%&*???!!!

[ksmith]

For the first time in several years, I have let my fingernails grow. They are at this point about a quarter-inch long. This includes the thumbnails, which in the past I have used to turn screws.

Of course, I am now attempting to insert batteries into a desk clock which can only be opened by someone with thumbs like flat-top pistons. It's one of those "press down these two buttons on opposite sides of the base and twist the whole thing ccw" arrangements. I don't see how I'm going to accomplish this without cutting my nails.

I think I know why this clock was on sale.

FWIW, Levengers has a sale on atomic alarm/desk clocks. Including the one I'm currently trying to open. Don't buy that one unless you possess thumbs as described above.

Comments

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

If the hair on my head grew like my nails, I'd be one happy person. You'd think the two would be related--dead protein is dead protein--but I have dark lint atop my head and slivers of sheet metal growing out my fingertips.

Man, that seems complicated to open a damn clock. That's ridiculous. Why would they make them like that.

The designers won out over the engineers in this case, I'm guessing. Aesthetically, it's a pleasing device--symmetrical base, streamlined design. But in order to make it work, things needed to be offset in certain ways. Tweaks of an eighth of an inch in another direction might have made a difference.

I should also add that raised 3-point graphite-colored lettering on a roughened graphite-colored surface does not contrast enough for the middle-aged eye. Even under a bright lamp. Even when tilted at an angle.