Growing up, my favorite super hero was Superman. I longed to be able to fly, bend steel with my bare hands, and stop bad guys in their tracks.

            Sadly, I never acquired any of Superman’s powers, but I recently discovered I have one. I can stop any quartz watch dead in its tracks simply by wearing it. This is not a joke! I’m old school. I like wearing watches. They just don’t like me.

            For a long time when watch after watch stopped working, I simply assumed it was because I acquired most of them at yard sales. The batteries must have run out, I thought, or they were simply old and tired—not worth fixing.

            And then, I acquired the watch of my dreams, which I discovered on the Internet.  With a band made of abalone stones, I looked forward to wearing this gorgeous piece of jewelry for years to come.

            Within hours, however, it had stopped running. My dear husband took it to the battery store, and they installed a new battery. I eagerly put it back on, admiring its lovely stones. But soon, it had abruptly quit running again.

            This time, my husband took it to the jewelry store. “No, no,” exclaimed the jewelry store owner.  “You need a professional jewelry repairman to fix your watch.”

            A week later, my husband picked it back up. It was running great… until I started to wear it. Back to the jewelry store it went. “Hmmm,” said the gentleman. “Some people seem to have a strange effect on quartz watches. We’ll keep it in the store for several days and see how it does keeping time.”

            Several days later, my husband reappeared to retrieve my watch. “It’s her,” the jewelry store owner exclaimed. “We’ve checked it every day, and it’s running perfectly.” He then glued a corn pad to the back of the watch, so my skin wouldn’t directly touch it. “This should do the trick,” he announced.

            Oh, how I wanted to believe him. I excitedly put the watch on this morning, once again admiring its beauty.

            Twenty-seven minutes later, it had stopped. Again.

            “How many watches is this?” my husband asked.

            “I’ve lost count.”

            I’m not giving up, however. I’m going to continue wearing my favorite watch and pretend it works. I figure it will be good training. I’ll be forced to worry less about what time it is and learn to be more “in the moment” of whatever I’m doing.

            Besides, I’ve always wanted to have a super power. I just wasn’t counting on this one.