O T Chrismas Lights

[DonkeyHody]

I know you can sympathize . . .

When I was a kid, we had two strings of lights on the Christmas tree. One string had the big, bright bulbs that were so hot they'd raise a blister if you touched them. I don't know how we managed to use them all those years without burning the house down. The other string had those little miniature screw-in bulbs wired in series. If one went out, they all went out. But it was fairly easy to go from bulb to bulb until you found the bad one. There were only 25 bulbs on the string. We used those two strings of lights for at least 15 years until times got better.

Yesterday, we got the lights down out of the attic. You know the kind I'm talking about; the ones with all the little dangly ends that hang down like ice-sickles from the roof, and wrap themselves all around each other when you try to untangle them. Now, I've been down this trail before, so of course we stretched the lights out in the yard to be sure they work before putting them on the house.

Now somebody in the Christmas light manufacturing industry must have stayed up nights to get the design of these things just right. They never fail to work right out of the box. They almost always make it through the rough handling required to untangle them and get them up the ladder and attached to the roof. Most of them live through the month or so that they remail lit through the Christmas season. Yet they up and die when packed away for a year. That had to take some doing, but they got it right.

I know they were all working when I put them away last year. Who would pack away dead Christmas lights? Yet fully 3/4 of the strings are either completely dead, or have long dark stretches. Each pack of lights comes with a few spare bulbs. But that's just to make you think they care. First, you can't get the old bulb out, and then you can't get the new bulb in. Besides, who wants to change out 300 bulbs, with no guarantee of success, when a new string of lights costs six dollars?

Surely you've been there . . . I immediately got disgusted and headed out to the Borg. Eighty bucks buys fourteen strings of lights at three hundred lights to the string ; that's four thousand two hundred little glimmers of Christmas cheer - only mine is all gone now.

Until Next Year . . .

Merry Christmas

DonkeyHody "The cheapest things in life are free."

[Han]

"DonkeyHody" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Sounds like corrosion in the electric contacts. Try storing in a cool dry place, preferably in a sealed bag with some desiccant (silicagel). Or be content to help out the economy.

[Markem]

Having done some seasonal decorating at Chicago area malls, and that entails working in September making sure the light strings work, figure 12,000 versus 15. Putting away such things in an orderly fashion helps.

Mark em (sixoneeight) = 618

[Pete C.]

Using the "commercial grade" lights vs. the $1.99 / string lights makes a big difference in seasonal survival as well.

Pete C.

[Gerald Ross]

And how is RosyNante doing?

[Puckdropper]

"DonkeyHody" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I left the Christmas lights on the Gazebo up over the summer. They were covered with the screen/roof and thus were protected. I haven't plugged them in yet to see if they still work, but I think they do.

We actually left the white ice scickle (sp?) lights up on the porch. My mother likes the ice scycle (sp?) lights better than the 60-watt bulb, and since I tapped in to the bulb for power (using the appropriate adapters) they turn off and on with the switch.

Puckdropper

[bent]

you r making me sick

[DonkeyHody]

I beg your pardon?? What part of my tale causes you to be ill? Is it my shameful participation in the commercialization of Christmas? Or the fond rememberance of a time when we made more with less? Or perhaps it's because I have my lights up already and you are still dreading putting up yours?

DonkeyHody "You don't really know a man until you have divided an inheritance with him." - Mark Twain