The Wonder of Christmas

[Charlene]

I wonder . . .

Why the strings of lights that worked when we put them away last year always have some lights burned out and/or half the string doesn't work when we take them out of storage??

And why the newer miniature lights do this, when the 45-year-old string of bubble lights still works and will probably continue to work as long as I have some extra bulbs (since they are the kind where the whole string goes out when one bulb burns out). We used to have 2 strings, but one did die about 5 years ago.

And HOW did we ever accumulate 10 big plastic storage boxes full of Christmas decorations??????

[djm]

Tom Edison invented
A lightbulb that would last.
Today he'd feel dejected
'Cuz they burn out twice as fast.

djm

[missy]

I wonder . . .

Why the strings of lights that worked when we put them away last year always have some lights burned out and/or half the string doesn't work when we take them out of storage??

This is so you need to go out and buy another strand of lights. I mean, common, at only a couple of bucks a set, are you gonna sit there and try out every single bulb to figure out with one is goofy?? (don't ask Tom this question!!!)

And why the newer miniature lights do this, when the 45-year-old string of bubble lights still works and will probably continue to work as long as I have some extra bulbs (since they are the kind where the whole string goes out when one bulb burns out). We used to have 2 strings, but one did die about 5 years ago.

one word of caution about those bubble lights - ones this old may very well have methylene chloride in them, so be very careful if you break one of them open!!!

And HOW did we ever accumulate 10 big plastic storage boxes full of Christmas decorations??????

Ah - Tom has been "adding" to the outside display every year. He's gone looney this year!!! I have NO idea where we're going to put all this AFTER Christmas is over.

[SteveShaw]

I wonder . . .

Why the strings of lights that worked when we put them away last year always have some lights burned out and/or half the string doesn't work when we take them out of storage??

It's the same the world over. My theory is that a little goblin breaks into our house around July and loosens a few bulbs in every set of lights and swaps a couple of good bulbs for bad.

Steve

[jbarter]

It's the same the world over.

You nearly had me bursting into song there.

[djm]

Its the goblins what gets th' blame......

djm

[flanum]

This is so you need to go out and buy another strand of lights. I mean, common, at only a couple of bucks a set, are you gonna sit there and try out every single bulb to figure out with one is goofy?? (don't ask Tom this question!!!)

Easiest way of figuring out which bulbs are gone on the old style(series) sets:

1.Start halfway up the string and remove a bulb.
2.Using a phase tester(voltage tester), try out that bulb socket.
3.If the phase tester lights, replace bulb snd move halfway between that socket and the end and repeat step 2.
4. when you eventually come to a socket that doesnt light the phase tester, then move back to each socket and test each one back to the previous socket that did work!
5. when you find the last socket in the line that allows the phase tester to work, then replace the bulb next to that one! and it should be okay.

I think i made that sound more complicated than it actually is!

[Charlene]

This is so you need to go out and buy another strand of lights. I mean, common, at only a couple of bucks a set, are you gonna sit there and try out every single bulb to figure out with one is goofy?? (don't ask Tom this question!!!)

Easiest way of figuring out which bulbs are gone on the old style(series) sets:

1.Start halfway up the string and remove a bulb.
2.Using a phase tester(voltage tester), try out that bulb socket.
3.If the phase tester lights, replace bulb snd move halfway between that socket and the end and repeat step 2.
4. when you eventually come to a socket that doesnt light the phase tester, then move back to each socket and test each one back to the previous socket that did work!
5. when you find the last socket in the line that allows the phase tester to work, then replace the bulb next to that one! and it should be okay.

I think i made that sound more complicated than it actually is!

This is, of course, assuming that you just happen to have a phase tester lying around the house!

But I have been known to start switching out bulbs rather than run to the store for a new string.

I just took a whole big baggie full of old lights that I took out of nonworking strings and gave them to Goodwill. Also some of those plastic tabs that slide under the roof shingles to hold the lights up, since we finally found an alternative that works and haven't used the tabs for years.

That only leaves 9.99 boxes full now!

[flanum]

I mean one of these.
They can be purchased in any hardware store very cheaply.

[Redwolf]

I still have a hard time picturing Christmas in Spokane without the animated windows at the Crescent and the giant Madonna and Child on the Bon Marche (I guess that dates me!). Do they still at least have the lighting contest on the South Hill, and publish the route in the paper?

When I was a kid, we used to take an evening and do the drive around the lighted houses on the hill...then we'd go downtown, ogle the Crescent windows and pop up to the big toy department to visit Santa!

I hate shopping malls.

Redwolf

[emmline]

I hate shopping malls.

Oh, me too.

[jsluder]

I hate shopping malls.

Oh, me too.

There's a quote in the TV series Firefly about a special level of hell which is reserved for child molesters and people who talk in the theater. I think that "special level of hell" is a shopping mall.

[Charlene]

Redwolf - I don't know if there's still an actual contest, but there is usually a list in the paper of good houses to go look at.

It'll be interesting to see if Macy's puts up the same decorations that The Bon always used to. I tend not to go downtown if I don't have to, since parking is a royal pain. And since I live about 6 blocks from NorthTown Mall, I can just leave the car at home and walk over there, and shop at most of the same stores that are downtown anyway. Still, I should go downtown at least once this season just to look.

Coeur d'Alene really goes all out. They have decorations all around the big resort on the boardwalk out in the lake, and the cruise boats that normally take people out on the lake in the summer run at night so people can see the lights.

[djm]

Hmm, I'm not sure seeing Madonna at the Bon Marche is worth a trip to Spokane ....

djm

[emmline]

I think that "special level of hell" is a shopping mall.

And there would be rabid salespeople at every kiosk, forcing smelly lotion onto your hands, or clamping massage/torture devices onto your head.