Blinking Spotlight icon?

Hello. Recently upgraded to 10.4.8. Spotlight has been, well, spotty, but yesterday its icon started blinking continuously, and it cannot be used (clicking it does zero). Also, our trusty date & time in the menu bar has disappeared. When we go into sys prefs to turn it on, and we can click "show in menu bar" but it never does. Related? Possibly. Any ideas?

Thanks!