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                    Christmas in March—The Clockwork Gift

On Christmas, one of the gifts I received from Bunny was a small flat box,
about 7″ by 7″ and an inch thick—perhaps a CD (Compact Disc), but it was no
CD. No, there was a small grey pouch with a clock winding key, and two
pictures of a grandfather clock [1] (technically, a “grandmother clock” as
it's not quite 6′ (2m) in height; both are a type of “longcase clock”).

“It's currently being restored,” said Bunny. “So sorry it's not here in
person.”

“Wow!” I said. “It looks just like the one I had as a kid!” Yes, it's true. I
was the only kid I knew in high school with a longcase clock in their room.
It belonged to my maternal grandparents. When my grandfather died and my
grandmother moved in, the clock came with her. My Mom wasn't all that keen on
clock, what with all the constant ticking. I, on the other hand, loved it. I
did not mind the ticking at all (and that probably explains why I don't mind
using the IBM Model M keyboard [2]).

After my Mom died, my uncle (Mom's brother) came down to help move his mother
to live with him, and he ended up taking the clock as well. Sigh.

Bunny knows I have a thing for grandfather clocks, as I tend to fawn over
them when we're antique window shopping. So it's wonderful that she decided
to get me one for Christmas, even though it wasn't here on Christmas.

Josef & Joseph [3] certainly took their time with the restoration, but they
wanted to make sure not only it worked, but it worked flawlessly! It finally
arrived at Chez Boca today.

[A grandmother clock from Colonial Mfc. Co.] I'll take this tick tock over
TikTok any day. [4]
[5]

Oh, there were plenty of logistics in getting it home. And way more in
getting it set up, spending way over an hour getting various shims under the
feet of the clock to get it level. It turns out that even out by 1° from true
will eventually bring the pendulum to a stop, and the chimes [6] won't always
strike true.

So now it's quietly ticking away (and it's not nearly as loud as one would
expect), keeping time quite nicely. It's a nice feeling to know I'll have a
time-keeping piece that will survive the next Carrington Event [7].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandfather_clock
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_M_keyboard
[3] https://www.josefjoseph.com/
[4] gopher://gopher.conman.org/IPhlog:2021/03/09/thumb-longcase.jpg
[5] gopher://gopher.conman.org/IPhlog:2021/03/09/longcase.jpg
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westminster_Quarters
[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrington_Event

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