Hmm, I hear a buzzing in the chimes. That means two of them are touching each other when they shouldn’t. I shouldn’t have put the top on so soon.

This is the offending part. The pendulum bent, and the suspension doohickey broke.

My own personal grandfather designed and built this grandfather clock.

God, I’ve missed hearing the chimes. 😭

YOU’RE outta time, buster!

Goddammit.

they always look slightly pissed off

This reminded me of a few years ago for Christmas when my parents paid for two of my six new ceiling fans, and it was such a good gift!

I think you should be honest. Something like, “That is so kind of you! Of course I don’t expect gifts, but if you’d really like to help, I need a bunch of random stuff like ceiling fans and floor tiles, so a gift certificate to Lowes would be extremely appreciated.“