What do you find particularly intriguing about the way in which the story "There Will Come Soft Rains" by Ray Bradbury starts?

The opening paragraph of "There Will Come Soft Rains" is intriguing firstly because of the singing clock, and secondly because of the mysterious emptiness of the house. This story was first published in 1950, when the idea of a singing alarm clock would have been more unusual, and so more intriguing than it would perhaps be today. The alarm clock is also personified. It is described as singing the time "as if it were afraid" that nobody would hear it. Personifying the clock in this way is intriguing because it makes it seem as if it is sentient, just like an ordinary, human character. The fact that the alarm clock has seemingly been set to go off also makes the emptiness of the house more conspicuous. It seems that there should be somebody in the house to hear the alarm clock and to wake up.
In the second paragraph of the story, the personification of inanimate, electrical items is continued when the stove gives "a hissing sigh." This further suggests that the house has some sort of artificial intelligence. This impression is compounded shortly after by the one-line paragraph, "Somewhere in the walls, relays clicked, memory tapes glided under electric lights." The house seems to be alive in its own way, and the more the house is personified, the more conspicuous and intriguing the absence of any human presence becomes.