How do twelve people sleeping under the same roof for the holiday weekend wake up? Well, at Mother’s summer house we all were roused from slumber by the beautiful chimes of her grandfather clock at 7:15 this morning.

Mother and my wife were already in the kitchen frying up 6 pounds of bacon, scrambling 3 dozen eggs, and setting up a huge self serve waffle bar. At 7:30 it is already 76 degrees, so we menfolks are heading out to the deck for a seat to sip coffee and let the kids get their plates fixed up.

My brother actually asked why the grandfather clock only woke him up at 7:00 and not through the night. Mother has placed the grandfather clock in her foyer, on the narrow wall fronting the hallway to the first floor guest bedroom and her master bedroom. Those two rooms hear it the loudest.