MOBILE, Ala. (WPMI) -- At the seasoned age of 65, one would expect life to lose a little speed. Not Kerry Wuzzey. For a man who calls himself semi-retired, he's like most of us and can't wait to get home. "My job is high stress, I needed to be able to slow down." But unlike most of us, slowing down means moving to a particular beat.
Inside his midtown home, there's a steady soundtrack in every room. "Keeping up this place takes quite a bit of time and a lot of work." In every corner is the collection you can't help but notice. To say Wuzzey loves clocks would be a vast understatement. He owns 78 clocks in all.
The collection includes a set of 8 in the bathroom alone, he said with laughter.
He bought his first one in 1982 and with the rest, purchased a few jokes from his friends. "[They say] I'm nuts; they're fascinated by it but they couldn't put up with it. It's too noisy.
Believe it or not, with the constant heartbeat of dozens of clocks, he finds it hard to sleep while his visitors find it hard to hold a conversation. "It started with that clock over there," he said before being interrupted by 3 separate chimes, "started building on that." One of his favorites is a clock that's been in the family for years. In fact, more than two times the years he's been alive. "One hundred thirty-five years and it's still there."
With so many clocks to count, Daylight Saving Time is a beast. It takes two days to finish. "It takes a long time to set them all because I forget where they are and I discover them as I go. The event that happens twice a year means two times to recognize the significance of every second. "It's either you best friend or your worst enemy," Wuzzey said, "Your best friend in that it allows you the time to spend with someone and it can be taken away like that."
He's a guy who values and respects the time he has and enjoys it all the while. "This one's a riot when it goes off," he said of his loudest clock. "If I was OCD about clocks, then yes it would be an obsession, but now it's just fun."
Somehow he just can't get enough. "I'm short one; I need one."
He seems to always be looking for the next chance to buy a little time.
