People talk about having an internal clock that they can call upon to wake them up without an alarm. I don't know if I have one of those, but I do seem to have an internal timer.
I have this odd capacity for knowing when a certain amount of time has passed, which comes in handy when cooking. I will put something in the oven, set the timer for x-number of minutes, and then go do something else. After a while, I'll think it's about time for the thing to be done, and when I go look, almost every time the timer will show there is less than a minute to go, sometimes only a few seconds.
That came in handy yesterday. I put a pan of brownies in the oven and set the timer for 25 minutes so I could check them, knowing I'd probably leave them five minutes longer. Then I came into my office and got all absorbed in writing my blog posting. After a time, I suddenly thought that the brownies should be done, and wondered if the timer had gone off but I hadn't heard it. I hurried to the kitchen to check.
Sure enough, I had pulled another one of my tricks -- I set the timer but didn't start it. The brownies looked just fine, and the toothpick I stuck in the middle came out clean. Later taste-testing proved they were perfectly baked.
It's uncanny, this internal timer of mine. But it saved the day, and the brownies. (And yes, they were from scratch.)
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