Pink Slip for the Clock Radio

Some more downsizing occurred last night on my nightstand.  I had the let the clock radio go, its position eliminated as most of its job functions had been rendered unnecessary for the continued operations of Nightstand, Inc.

For some time now, the clock radio took up a large amount of real estate for very little purpose - waking me up in the mornings.

In many cases, I have woken up on my own lately before the alarm went off, or I've laid awake in bed at night.  Each time, the clock radio would be all too eager to let me know what time it was, even if that proved to be bad news.   And it did it so brightly that I had to turn the clock slightly away from me.

But each morning, it would chime to let me know it was time to get up.  And I'd either get up or turn off the alarm and turn on the other alarm and try to go back to sleep for another 40 minutes.  Often, I'd be unsuccessful and just lay there awake annoyed, and then when the other alarm went off, would get up, regretting having wasted that time instead of exercising.

But it recently became apparent that the clock radio was no longer necessary.  For one, I don't listen to the radio anymore.  Can't stand it.  Would rather listen to nothing than the radio.  (Though that's silly as I have plenty of ways to listen to music I want to listen to.)

Secondly, I have two other devices on my nightstand that tell time and are capable of playing alarms, the iPhone (not pictured as it was busy taking the photo)  and iPad.

And then Lori's also got a clock radio on her nightstand (and an iPhone, for that matter).  And the stereo across the room will also tell time if I press the "Display" button on the remote or if it has an iPod or iPhone docked on it.

The alarm clock did get one last hurrah in -- at 6 am this morning, it chimed one last time.  I had forgotten that it was designed to still go off at the correct time, even if it was unplugged.  And stashed away somewhere in the room and I had to stumble around trying to find the source of the odd (not normal) beeping once I remembered what it was.

Give it a few more years and there probably won't even be any magazines or books on my nightstand as they'll all be on a digital device as well.