2020 Christmas Lights – Round Two

A number of factors are slowing things down more noticeably this year when it comes to putting up the Christmas lights.

First, I find that I’m feeling old. Maybe it’s just the effects of almost nine months of COVID lockdown that’s limited my physical movements, and the Thanksgiving week diet that’s put a half dozen pounds back on, but it might also be related to the percentage of grey vs black hair on my head.

Secondly, it’s just me. Way back when of course it was always a family affair with all three kids helping, and even in the past few years the Youngest Daughter usually came by for a day and helped since she still lives in LA. Naturally, again due to COVID, she’s not stopping by this year.

Third, it’s infrastructure! We’re renting instead of owning, and over the course of almost thirty years we had a lot of little hooks and nails and power cords and a routine that made even a much bigger display go up quickly. I can’t do that in a rented house, so I’ve created temporary attachment points for lights using nylon twist ties. That worked well for two years, but I’m finding that many of those nylon ties are breaking when I try to use them this year, so I have to take the time to put up new ones.

Finally, my decorations are getting older and more fragile even faster than my body is. I won’t put up strings of lights that have sections burnt out, and I’m finding a fair amount of the ones I put up last year that are failing this year. I don’t really want to go off to the hardware store to get new ones (COVID!!) so sorting through the bins of old lights and cobbling together new sets that all work is time consuming.

Oh, well. I guess it keeps me off the streets at night.

I did manage to get all of the timers set, went through the big bulbs along the roof line and replaced a few that had burnt out, and got several strings of lights out into the bushes and plants along the front of the house. I didn’t get to the big, bright strings that normally go over the garage (the big dark area on the left in the picture), mainly because I can’t find them yet. Maybe this next weekend.

In the meantime, it’s getting there, not terrible, just not finished yet. But I did get the full moon rising over the house last night, so that was pretty sweet.