Castro Valley Clockwatching

Your Boulevardier notes with amusement three problems with public timepieces around town.

1. As of last Saturday, the new electronic signboard outside of Trojan Stadium was finally working -- sort of. Its display rotated between images of a waving U.S. flag, a patriotic message, a lighthouse, and a date/time clock that was exactly ten hours behind -- an interval that cannot be chalked up to the end of Daylight Savings.

2. The clocktower in Castro Village, as of an hour ago, was an hour fast -- a clear sign of the time change.

3. At the Jess C. Spencer mortuary on Redwood Road, the lighted clock seems to have been turned off altogether. Many of its bulbs were burned out as of late last week, and Your Boulevardier speculates that perhaps the owners are hoping to kill two birds (time- and bulb-changing) with one stone. The absence is surely felt by the commuters who circle the BART parking lot across the street starting at around 9:55 a.m., waiting for the carpool spaces near the entrance to become fair -- and legal -- game at ten.