About a year ago my dad sent me this neat little clock. An old Waltham 8 day aircraft clock that tells military time. This very model (and perhaps this very clock, no way to tell) was used in the cockpits of fighter planes during WWII. Dad said it worked fine when he sent it, but it wasn't packed with any kind of padding at all and was broken when I received it. (Didn't have the heart to tell him he packed it bad and it got busted in shipping though)

I wound it up but it wouldn't work. If I gave it a shake I could hear a loose part rattle around inside. No matter how I fiddled with it I couldn't get it to go. Broken. Bummer. It's a neat looking little timepiece though so I always kept it on my desk right here next to my computer.

Today I was chatting online with a friend when I noticed a little motion to the side of my moniter. To my utter astonishment the clock had spontaneously started running, the second hand ticking along like… clockwork. This thing has sat in my immediate field of view here for over a year, dead as a doornail, two feet in front of me for hours every day. I don't think I even bumped the desk let alone laid a finger on it enough to jar anything inside. I suppose it just decided it was time to start running again. I picked it up after a couple hours and set it to the right time. That was about 10 hours ago and she's still just cruising along like she never missed a beat. Random.