General :: Create A Signal Handler Thread To Handle SIGALRM Signals?

I'm trying to create a signal handler thread to handle SIGALRM signals. The main thread calls the following function before creating any other threads

Code:

pthread_t Timer::Init(long _clock_interval_musec)
{
// Set interval.
clock_interval = _clock_interval_musec;
// This is called while in a single threaded environment.

[code]....

clock_interval is 50.

Is the timer not firing? Did I not set my interval correctly? Did I not proper block the signals ensuring the that the default handler would not take care of them?