December, the season of lights.

Most of the family knows that I am not really a big Christmas fan. Sort of a humbug. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas, I just don't like to decorate. Well several years ago we purchased a fake tree while visiting in Gaylord in July. That's right, a Christmas tree in July. Well it was on sale and it did fit into our smaller space in the townhouse. I like it because it is not a traditional looking fir tree. Anyway, Last week end while Tim and Rachel were in town for Thanksgiving, Rachel helped Sue to decorate the house, including putting up the tree. That meant an initial investment from me of attic digging but then I was free to relax and just watch.
One of the things owning this townhouse has produced is outside lights during the holidays. There are limits as to when they can be put up, how long they can stay up and so it makes the whole complex seem to burst into well lit brightness almost overnight. While the girls were gone (where else) shopping I decided to surprise them by putting up the lights outside. Tim assisted and I plugged in the lights to make sure they still worked, having strung enough lights on trees to learn this lesson. Once I convinced myself they were still illuminating, I climbed the ladder to begin. I do have it down to a science and with Tim’s help it went along ticketty-boo. I start at the end farthest away from the plug in and began to string. I noticed that there appeared to be less lights then normal but since I take them down, wrap them up and store them together each year how could that be. As we neared the plug end I was convinced that a whole string was missing. Now I use three strings, plugged end to end and I need three because two will not reach from the plug all the way to the end of the eve. You may have guessed by this time that I was short, yes and sometimes size or as in this case, length does matter. So I had to return to the far end take down the lights completely and start at the plug end, running them as far as I could. You may ask why I didn’t start at the plug end all the time. Well knowing that two were not enough and three was way too long I had to manage the leftovers. To do this I would start at the eve end, run past the plug and then double back to it. This left the extra lights in the back of the house where it did not matter. I mean I could not just glob fifty lights into a ball and hang them at the front, could I?
So mission accomplished and lights plugged into the automatic plug, attached to the built in electric eye and I waited for Sue to notice the first time we pulled up in the dark. That’s right this whole “hanging of the lights outside” was a surprise for her. Imagine her surprise when we pulled up to the house at five pm after work and all the lights greeted her. I was already for the gratitude (kisses and hugs) that would come from my thoughtful gesture. Well we pulled up and low and behold was she (and I) surprised. Not only were the lights on but part of them were off too! That is right, despite my checking before hand, only half of each string is lit. ARRRRGH!!! Shasbot!
Now It is raining and snowing and I can only check them in the dark because the stupid electric eye controls the plug. So each day I make an excuse to not fix them and here we are a full week later still only partially in the light. But I am used to being in the dark anyway. At least I feel at home in the dark. So much for my reward.